Muhammad Nabbous

Over the past few days I have been observing a webcam channel sponsored by the Libya17Feb folks and in particular the citizen journalism of a young married Libyan man named Muhammad Nabbous. "Mo" as he is nicknamed, has been an inspiration to many Libyans across North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

I do not know much about Muhammad Nabbous, or rather I only know him by watching his webcam broadcast over the last few days. He was an intelligent, very tech savvy young man who spoke English very well which made him very popular as he attempted to raise awareness in North America regarding the violence taking place in Libya, and specifically from Benghazi.

Muhammad's activities were particularly interesting to me. While at home in front of his webcam, we would take phone number requests from the thousands of people monitoring his web channel and reach out to loved ones on behalf of those overseas. All phone calls to Libya continue to be blocked by the government, but telecommunications works inside Libya, so to many hundreds Muhammad would function as a lifeline to connect families and provide status updates to those concerned outside Libya.

Muhammad would also conduct other activities as a citizen journalist, for example, last night while I was monitoring his channel there were around 20-30 explosions inside Benghazi. The young man connected one cell phone to his webcam, grabbed another cell phone and his camera, and drove around to various checkpoints to investigate the explosions while live streaming audio descriptions to those watching. He would hold the camera with one hand, drive with the other, hold the cell phone in his lap and describe all activities.

During these times media would often tune in and report through Twitter what was being said and done during this young mans live investigations. Once he would return home after his investigations, he would upload the video to the same channel and people could watch these investigations that would add video to the audio for more context to explain events unfolding in Benghazi. It really has been incredible to observe this citizen journalist in action inside a war zone, in particular a city under siege like Benghazi.

This morning Muhammad Nabbous was shot and killed during one of these investigations. The channel is always being viewed by thousands of people, and it is remarkable the outcry of inspiration and mourning taking place in chat this morning after his wife confirmed the young mans death.

I can't help but observe how important Muhammad Nabbous is as an example of the intersection between technology and war. As people become more aware and more capable utilizing these technologies, the ability of people to connect out of war zones on a personal level to a large audience poses challenges to decision makers as sympathetic movements can force the hands of political leaders and influence decision making. There were many news organizations that reported the activities of Muhammad Nabbous with as much if not more credibility as Libyan State TV (for good reason).

As I watched Muhammad Nabbous and began to observe major news organizations linking to his webcam feed, my impression was he on the verge of becoming an enormously popular individual world wide for his efforts in Libya, indeed last night he conducted several phone interviews with the western media and I suspected we would see these stories about this young man on cable news networks over the coming days.

It was not to be. God bless Muhammad Nabbous and comfort his wife. I never met the young man, but I found him both inspiring and admirable for the courage he repeatedly demonstrated to do all he could for his country and his people as they struggle to break from the grips of dictatorship.

Generations and Communications

When I finished reading this testimonial by Rory Metcalf, my thoughts began to drift. For example, what would a Martin Murphy Twitter feed look like? Can anyone imagine someone like Dakota Wood or Seth Cropsey pounding out notes 140 characters at a time? What would they be saying right now about the EFV or LCS? Whatever it is they said, there would be an audience.

If we actually believe what we say about the younger generations and how the next generation interacts with information and each other, engaging with a tool like Twitter could legitimately be part of their job.

It is an odd truth that at least half of my interaction with Navy/Marine/Coast Guard PAOs, defense reporters, and insider sources are now driven primarily by Twitter or Facebook in January 2011. I could not say that at this time last year.

I learn about virtually every news topic from Twitter now, and often in cases like J-20 - long before the news is reporting the issue or from a direct source at the scene of an event (worldwide!). Even more interesting, when I see something odd pop up on Twitter, if I contact the Navy PAO folks - often they have already seen it too. In other words, the Navy, in part, is using Twitter as an information sentry like most of the rest of us.

Social tools can be useful and powerful, but are not always so. Often it is messenger - and message. If you are familiar with Malcolm Gladwell's critique of social activism online back in October 2010 New Yorker (I am a huge Malcolm Gladwell fan, and recommend all of his books), you may want to check out Clay Shirky's response in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.

It is behind the firewall, but PDF reprints cost $1 and I thought the piece was worth the price.

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Food for thought:

True story. One of my closest friends, a lady who went to law school with my wife and the very first person I met when I moved to New York, makes me pajama pants for Christmas every year. They are fantastic, seriously. This particular pair uses a print of Star Wars, and they are seriously bright and radiant pants that might even glow in the dark. A few weeks ago I sat down on my couch to relax with a glass of wine next to my oldest daughter who was on her laptop. Through the power of Skype and her webcam, next thing I know I had 3 teenagers laughing and commenting about my pants.

Lets just say Daddy was not happy.

My oldest daughter is 15, almost 16, and every month I've been taking the time to review the statistics of her cell phone for total minutes and total text messages. I often compare these statistics with the parents of my daughters friends - it's become something of a game for all of us parents actually.

I have the 6 month average of 9 of my daughters closest friends (7 girls and 2 boys), plus my daughter, so we are talking about 10 intelligent, above average education sophomores in high school.

Who thinks they can guess the 6 month average of both total minutes and total text messages for these 10 young people? I'll give the answer later today and we can see who is closest. Unless you have a teenager who is active and social, I doubt you can guess these numbers, but I believe the numbers tell an interesting story about the next generation.