The Mobile Revolution

By MIPS

March 11, 2011

I’m sure many of you in the tech world, like me, have been following the events in Northern Africa closely, with a mix of both fear and elation. In this era of near instant mobile communications, we have a front seat to history, watching in this case as revolutions unfold before our very eyes.

In an event that was both profound and unsettling for me, I happened to be watching the early morning news at the very moment that the wire services reported the story that Hosni Mubarek, Egypt’s long-time President, had been deposed. As a news junkie and early morning riser, I had been up before dawn and was catching up on the stock market opening, when the anchors leaned into their headsets, paused and said, “We have breaking news that Hosni Mubarek has just stepped down.” What followed were the scenes of absolute jubilation reported via cell phone video and Twitter feeds from Tahrir Square.