Although the connection was shaky, you could still hear thepassion and building joy in the man's voice as he said in Arabic: "Icall to all those young people, to each and everyone who took partin making this great revolution come true, it has given so much toEgypt."
Ramadan Al-Diyar went on to speak for three minutes from SaudiaArabia, praising the military and the martyrs of the revolution. "Ican't wait to kiss its earth. When I return to Egypt, I will kneeldown and kiss the earth beneath my feet. Long live Egypt. Long liveEgypt!"
Al-Diyar was not interviewed by a journalist; he recorded hisremarks on his own, using an old technology: the common answeringmachine.
His message was then uploaded onto the Internet and distributedglobally via Speak2Tweet, a forum created amid the revolution by anEgyptian Google employee in partnership with Twitter. Speak2Tweetallowed anyone anywhere to dial a phone number and leave a messagethe whole world could hear.
During events that captivated the world, the use of voice added amovingly direct way to hear the souls crying out for freedom inTahrir Square, to paraphrase President Obama and Martin Luther KingJr.
Voice-uploading technology has been around for some years, butit's been slow to catch on in social media and on news sites, asidefrom podcasts. Recently, however, its reach has been expanding. Withan eye toward the future, Google just purchased SpeakNow, whichenabled the use of voices from Egyptians who called Speak2Tweet. Thecompany AudioBoo is partnering with several media companies toupload readers' voices to news sites; and SoundCloud, which offerssimilar technology, just hit 3 million registered users on its Website.
During the same week that voices were emanating from the Arabworld, the PostSecret blog run by Frank Warren out of Germantownbegan hosting voice-mail messages of a different kind. Uploaded byrelatives and friends using SoundCloud, the voice-mail messagesrecorded by people who have died are finding a new life in a projecttitled "LivingVoices."
One woman uploaded a message left by her grandmother singing hera birthday song. Six days later another reader responded: "I havetears streaming down my cheeks, the happy kind and a few of the sadkind."
Warren is a big fan of merging the timelessly human with moderntechnology. His site started in 2005 when he asked people to mailtheir secrets to him, written anonymously on postcards. For sixyears, he's curated millions of these messages - from the silly tothe devastating. LivingVoices sprung up from one of the secrets:"When people I love leave voice mails on my phone, I always savethem in case they die tomorrow and I have no other way of hearingtheir voice ever again."
Judi Dickerson is not one to underestimate the power of the humanvoice. As a dialect coach for movies such as "Gladiator" and "TheRoyal Tenenbaums," she's spent her life listening to words worktheir magic in the mouths of great actors. To her, the human voicehas been been sadly lost in the typed computer transaction.
"We're all living life, which is profound and dangerous and funnyand sad. Just writing, or just tweeting, is a step removed from theimmediacy of . . . interfacing with people," Dickerson says.
An optimist, Warren sees the inclusion of voice as a sign thatthe Internet is becoming more human - capable of fostering not justconnection, but empathy and kindness between strangers.
"There's this new kind of community coming together. And we'rejust taking baby steps with it," he says.
bellm@washpost.com
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