HIS NAME was Mohammed Nabbous, or "Mo" to his comrades and online supporters. He and fellow Libyans set up Libya Alhurra TV - Free Libya TV - in February. I watched his live feeds on a daily basis after finding a link on the Libyan Youth Movement Facebook page. He was a symbol to those of us outside the Libya of the Benghazi Revolution. He would hold cell phones up to take and answer queries in English and Arabic. His video regularly would show signs in English or French imploring the world to intervene. He would answer messaged questions looking directly into the camera. It was as if he were in the next room, but in this case the next room was on fire.
Mo and his crew were fearless, and ultimately he was killed in a firefight this past March. I missed the live feed. I logged on later that day to a silent Alhurra and a message board that told me Mo was dead. I would soon hear his tearful young wife - pregnant with their first, and only, child - tell the world to help Libya and remember Mo. His daughter will grow up in a Libya he helped create.
You can be friends with revolutionaries changing the face of the Islamic world. They are right there online. Various technologically savvy groups have used social networks to get their stories out, freed of censors or filters. It is the raw truth as they record it on Flip cameras and cell phones. And though much has been written about the role of both Facebook and Twitter in coordinating and inspiring the revolutionary youth from Morocco to Iran, little has been written concerning the windows social networks have thrown open to us all.
Two years ago I watched Neda Agha Soltan bleed to death on a Tehran street moments after she was shot. I have Tweeted with young protesters in Tahrir Square and asked Mo a question via the Alhurra message board. I have watched videos of countless millions marching in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. I have been moved by revolutionary songs sung by children and horrified as another mother loses another son to the violence perpetrated by beastly regimes.
Through countless online portals, the United States and the world have been able to follow events on the ground as they happened in a way that has no precedent in history. Twitter, Facebook, Twitpic, Youtube
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