Tunisia's Revolution, as Told Via Twitter

Historians looking to chronicle Tunisia's revolt should subscribe to Slim Amamou's Twitter feed. He went from dissident blogger, to imprisoned dissident blogger, to freed dissident blogger, to government minister in the space of a few weeks, chronicling every step of the way with tweets. It's no secret that social media has played a big role in Tunisia's uprising, and the New York Times makes the case that nobody embodies the phenomenon more than Amamou.

Some samples from his feed. (It's here, but in French):

• Jan. 6: "The police are looking for me."
• Jan. 13: After his account had gone silent: "I am free."
• Four days later: “I became minister of youth and sports.” And: "I will try to convince the other members of the cabinet to become Twitter members.”
• Amamou has used his feed of late to fend off critics who essentially accused him of selling out: “I am in the government to have first hand info. Very important in our current info war. I am not here to build a career :).”
• On his refusal to wear a tie: “I like the minister of Justice. I am going to wear a tie just to please him."

(More Tunisia stories.)