When you think of the recent unrest in the Middle East, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube immediately come to mind.
Yet in an era where the revolution no longer need be televised — now it’s tweeted — wouldn’t a collaborative online video editing platform that allows producers, correspondents and reporters to create news reports in real time be a welcome addition to the insurgents’ arsenal?
Well, such a tool does exist. It’s called Stroome. And in a time when the journalist’s traditional role — to build and curate an informed public — is rapidly eroding as citizens now are able to inform themselves and one another, is it possible that video will soon replace text as the central means of communication? Could it be that the next revolution will be Stroomed?
An Email Exchange
It turns out, the idea just might not be as far-fetched as you’d think:
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:23:15 -0600
Subject: Integrating Stroome for cross-cultural dialogueHello Stroome team,
Would like to thank you first for a great application and social network your team has created.
I work for a non-profit organization with a mission to enable young people from the West and predominantly Muslim societies to have cross-cultural dialogues using new media technologies.
[H]ow can [we] include Stroome within our online community?
And so began the email that Stroome co-founder Nonny de la Pena and I received the morning of January 20, 2011.
The sender’s name was WilYaWil, and his request was simple: Would we work with his organization to facilitate dialogue between students with diverse backgrounds from around the world?
Considering collaboration is at the center of the Stroome experience, the connection was a no-brainer. Skype addresses were exchanged; a call was set for the following Wednesday.
Revolution Intervenes
But just minutes before the call was to take place, we received a second email from WilYaWil. Our conversation, it seemed, would need to be postponed:
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:45:01 -0600
Subject: Re: Integrating Stroome for cross-cultural dialogue
Tom, sorry for the late reply. I hope we can postpone our meeting today. I’m in Egypt and we are living in exciting times with the start of freedom protests yesterday in Cairo and other cities around Egypt. I will be taking part today. I apologize for the short notice. I will get in touch with you and Nonny again on Friday to reschedule.
Frankly, I thought little of it. There was little in the tone of WilYaWil’s email to foreshadow the extraordinary events that were about to unfold.
As it turns out, I had very much misread the situation.
The following morning, I — along with the world — woke up to an Egypt in crisis. This was more than simply an “exciting time.” This was a revolution. Or at least it certainly had the makings of one.
By day’s end, a third email arrived, and we learned — again, just as the world was learning — that the Egyptian government had blocked Twitter and Facebook.
Nonny quickly sprang into action. A group titled “Egypt Protests” was created on Stroome. Open access was granted so that anyone could upload and edit their first-person video accounts of the protests. And the participants on the email thread were notified immediately.
Internet Shutdown
Unfortunately, our impromptu workaround was thwarted when the Egyptian government shut down Internet access to the entire country. And while President Mubarak’s decision to plunge some 80 million Egyptians into the 21st-century of equivalent of “radio silence” would last nearly five days, it would be over a week before we heard from WilYaWil.
Then on Wednesday, February 9 — almost three weeks to the day from our first correspondence — WilYaWil resurfaced. Again, his tone was upbeat:
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 13:21:00 -0600
Subject: Re: Integrating Stroome for cross-cultural dialogue
Hi Thomas and Nonny,
We are living in an exciting time here in Egypt. I’ve started using Stroome already, I’ve uploaded the videos I shot on Friday 28th January, I hope others find it useful and can remix it.
I would like us to meet soon so that we can discuss how [we] could work together. We can meet tomorrow or Friday anytime between 8pm – 10pm CLT / 10am – 12 noon LA time.
And while we had no way of knowing at the time, history was once again about to find a way of encroaching on our plans.
Thirty minutes before we were scheduled to connect with WilYaWil on Friday morning, CNN reported that Hosni Mubarak was going to make it formal: After more than 30 years in power, the Egyptian president was stepping down. Considering the momentous nature of the announcement, naturally I assumed the call would be pushed back once again.
Suddenly, the familiar “bing, bing, bing” signaling an incoming Skype call could be heard as a cartoon avatar of a young man wearing a pair of horned-rimmed glasses and neatly cropped brown hair appeared on my screen.
“This is a remarkable tool,” WilYaWil said of Stroome, his voice brimming with enthusiasm. “The ability to collaborate and work together with video. No one is doing it. It’s revolutionary. It’s going to change things.”
He was so passionate, so imbued with a renewed sense of purpose, so in the moment and excited about those “exciting times” in which he was living that I honestly think WilYaWil failed to grasp the irony of the words he’d just uttered.
I, on the other hand, caught every drop of it.
To see some of WilYaWil’s Egyptian video uploads, register at Stroome.com and type “Egypt” into the search bar.
If you would like to follow WilYaWil’s Twitter feed click here.
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