I take back what I said about Twitter

In "Depth web versus shallow web", I argued that the social-blurbing system called Twitter was devoid of any real substance, shallow, and ultimately pointless beyond logging every random thought one may have. I take that all back. Thanks to Twitter, an American journalism student was able to free himself from an Egyptian jail.

James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone.

Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested April 10.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. "Arrested."

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt -- the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier -- were alerted that he was being held.

Within twenty-four hours he was released, upon which he again Twittered a one-word message: "Freed."

My bad, Twitter. Sometimes a blurb is all that's needed. Keep up the good work.

Source (Thanks Tracie)