I was a panelist for Newsweek/Daily Beast’s recentDigital Power Index. Though the Revolutionaries group was more representative of nationality, ethnicity, and gender than the rest of the list, I’d like to share my original list of 10 nominees, and also take an opportunity to highlight some of the world’s best digital activists.
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10)Ramy Raoof
Though former Google Executive Wael Ghonim got most of the digital activism attention in the wake of the Arab Spring, Ramy Raoof is still going strong.Ramy began his digital journey as a bloggerand during the Egyptian Revolution also livestreamed video on Bambuser, postedphotos on Flickr, and livetweeted (@RamyRaoof).He was a one-man broadcast channel for the revolution.
A respected activist online and offline, Ramy manages to bridge the gap between official institutions and street action. He is published widely in English and Arabic and works with large swathes of groups in Egypt and throughout the region.
His is currently at work developing mobile networks to protect demonstrators after they are detained and conducting digital security trainings across Egypt, ensuring there will be lots of digital activists to follow in his footsteps.