Watching the watchers

We arrived to Tahrir square close to noon when things were still rather quiet. It was much less crowded than previous days and we had no problems in crossing the square over to the KFC where we met up with some people from Mosireen. We followed them to an apartment overlooking the square, which they used as their “HQ”. It felt a lot like being in the middle of a war movie with people and supplies everywhere. Exhausted activists that had gotten no, or very little sleep over the past few days; men and women our age had been beaten repeatedly by MP’s and Muslim brotherhood members. The mood sorrowful due to the mornings’ killing of an activist whom some seemed to know. People were discussing and trying to find out the cause of death, some saying he got ran over by a MP vehicle, some saying he was shot. People were watching video recordings from the scene over and over again, trying to find details and clues.

We got started talking about Bambuser to some of the people, some existing users and some new. We had a crash course in how to best utilize the service and what to think about when out and about. We also had a more in-depth session going throughWirecast and Flash Media Encoder powered live streams via Bambuser using DV-cams etc. We also helped one of the Mosireen members with a proper setup, overlooking the square and one of the streets out of it, worked really well!

From the apartment we had an unparalleled view of the square. And while being calm just an hour or so before, the tension was increasing down there. We spotted many smaller and some really big fights and clashes between demonstrators. The atmosphere was really tense. This was the first time we felt anxious and a bit insecure.   

We are now going to meet with Ramy Raoof and then head back for a new workshop at 9PM. We’re a bit worried about going out after dark being so close to Tahrir Square but it feels important to meet Ramy and to do this second workshop.