Twitter’s role in the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is disputed. But nobody disputes that the micro-blogging platform helped tell the story of the revolution as it unfolded.
Now, OR Books plans to use tweets posted during the protests to create a 160-page history of the event. Tweets from Tahrir, which is set to hit bookshelves April 21, will compile tweets and photos linked to in tweets to walk through every day of the revolution in 140-character snippets.
“Raw emotion bursts from their messages, whether frantic alarm at attacks from pro-government thugs or delirious happiness at the fall of the dictator,” reads a description of the book. “To read these tweets is to embark a rollercoaster ride, from the surprise and excitement of the first demonstration, to the horror of the violence that claimed hundreds of lives, to the final ecstasy of victory.”
This is quite a departure from existing tweet anthologies, which tend to cover topics like Sh*t My Dad Says. AsThe New York Times points out, the editors might run into some interesting legal questions with the new approach, in particular the question of who owns the rights for others’ tweets. (OR Books is in the process of contacting authors to get their permission.)
Whether the format will indeed capture the raw emotion, frantic alarm, and timeline of the demonstrations is an another matter. An excerpt of the book is posted below; let us know what you think the comments.
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