From the blog Journalism for Peace: “The intellectual elite is totally out of touch with what really happens on the streets.” “Only a small segment of people are on Twitter and Facebook. How can we reach out to those who are not?” These are the concerns raised at the funky Tahrir Lounge just few minutes away from Tahrir Square, one of the Arab Spring hot spots in Cairo. I'm at Tweet Nadwa, a gathering that combines both real and virtual worlds. Nadwa means ”forum” in Arabic. The comments are limited to 140 characters online or 140 seconds offline. Live tweets during the meeting are projected on a huge canvas. Location tags on the tweets reveal that the global Egyptian diaspora are also participating in the event. The gathering could rival a Silicon Valley tech event for the amount of tweets, iPhones and gadgets of all sorts. Members of the core group that helped spark the Jan 25 uprising gather in the inner yard of the meeting space. The scene is vibrant: Youth in their twenties and early thirties don t-shirts and jeans; some women wear colorful veils, others do not. Among the participants are an influential group of Egyptian bloggers — many who write under pseudonyms and are largely known only by their Twitter handles. Collectively, they have been raising public awareness about torture and other democratic issues for more than 10 years and have played a critical role in the uprising against the Mubarak regime. The Tweet Nadwas have already gained a reputation as a “new socio-political movement” by IDC, an influential international development consulting firm in Giza. Activists discuss a variety of issues, including the role of the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative Islamist group in Egypt. Today, the topic is citizen journalism. The overcrowded room listens to experienced bloggers share tips for producing good coverage. “Citizen journalism has the most impact when the stories get picked up by the mainstream media. Citizen journalism reaches only a tiny segment of the society,” says Gigi Ibrahim, better known in these circles as @Gsquare86 and for her blog,The Angry Egyptian. People wave their hands in the air in reponse to Ibrahim's advice. This is how they show support to a Tweet Nadwa speaker instead of clapping their hands. Ibrahim continues her thoughts in a tweet about the mainstream media, referred to as #msm. Other Tweet Nadwa participants share their experiences about being harassed by the police and military while practicing citizen journalism. Some of them have been questioned; others arrested. During the upcoming election, the activists plan to use citizen journalism to report about election fraud and violence. “That is why it is important that more people learn to use their mobile phones in citizen journalism now, before the elections,” one of the speaker says. At the end of the event a young man walks around the room with a huge ink stamp and imprints a pro-democracy message on the arms of people reaching out from the crowd. “No military trials for civilians,” the text reads. The activists plan to stamp the message on Egyptian paper currency. A new phase in the campaign to change the society is about to begin. BM
