SAN FRANCISCO - Even before his first day on the job at Google, Ujjwal Singh was trying to figure out how to combine his passion for the spoken word with the company's technological prowess to help Egyptians bypass government efforts to muzzle the massive protests there.
Singh, 38, helped start an online service that lets fans share voice messages with the likes of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.
Google bought the startup Jan. 25, and a team leader trying to figure a way around Egypt's recent Internet blackout asked Singh for help before he reported to work.
A weekend of brainstorming and programming later, Speak2Tweet was born — a service that lets people call a phone number and leave a message, then posts a link to the message to Twitter.
It allowed Egyptians to communicate even as the regime of President Hosni Mubarak cut Internet and cellphone services for days, trying to squelch protests in the streets of Cairo demanding an end to his three decades of authoritarian rule.
By the time Singh started his job Monday, his service already was part of the uprising.
"He designed, built and launched his first product before he started at Google, which is now our all-time record," said Steve Crossan, a Google product manager.
Almost 2,900 spoken tweets had been posted as of Friday afternoon on the Twitter account@speak2tweet.
The alternative method of tweeting has turned into a forum for longer-form expression because the voice recordings aren't confined to Twitter's 140-character limit.
The service has been used to express outrage, indignation, fear, exhilaration and pleas for help in the fight to oust Mubarak.
"This corrupt regime must be eliminated," said one of the translated tweets on AliveInEgypt. Another said: "For all our Arab brothers, for all the men in Tahrir Square. Please help us, stand with us, if you abandon us we will die."
Read More
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/feb/05/PT2NEWSO5-google-gives-uprising-a-voice/
Singh, 38, helped start an online service that lets fans share voice messages with the likes of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.
Google bought the startup Jan. 25, and a team leader trying to figure a way around Egypt's recent Internet blackout asked Singh for help before he reported to work.
A weekend of brainstorming and programming later, Speak2Tweet was born — a service that lets people call a phone number and leave a message, then posts a link to the message to Twitter.
It allowed Egyptians to communicate even as the regime of President Hosni Mubarak cut Internet and cellphone services for days, trying to squelch protests in the streets of Cairo demanding an end to his three decades of authoritarian rule.
By the time Singh started his job Monday, his service already was part of the uprising.
"He designed, built and launched his first product before he started at Google, which is now our all-time record," said Steve Crossan, a Google product manager.
Almost 2,900 spoken tweets had been posted as of Friday afternoon on the Twitter account@speak2tweet.
The alternative method of tweeting has turned into a forum for longer-form expression because the voice recordings aren't confined to Twitter's 140-character limit.
The service has been used to express outrage, indignation, fear, exhilaration and pleas for help in the fight to oust Mubarak.
"This corrupt regime must be eliminated," said one of the translated tweets on AliveInEgypt. Another said: "For all our Arab brothers, for all the men in Tahrir Square. Please help us, stand with us, if you abandon us we will die."
Read More
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/feb/05/PT2NEWSO5-google-gives-uprising-a-voice/
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