Quora Question: Why the Egyptian Revolution is Like Wikipedia

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Answer from Wael Ghonim, Egyptian Activist:

Between the period of January 14th and February 11th, 2011 we witnessed one of the most decentralized collaborative campaigns among Egyptians that reminded me of how Wikipedia emerged to our world to replace Britannica.

People from different backgrounds, ideologies, demographics and geographies were all collaborating to promote the protests hoping it would force Mubarak to step down just like what Tunisian dictator Ben Ali did a few days before that.

The decentralized nature of the protest, and the shared commitment among everyone who took part of the movement, reminded me of how Wikipedia operates.

I would recommend reading this HBR piece written by my friend Jeremy Heimens: "New power vs. old power".

At one point you said, "Our revolution is like Wikipedia." What did you mean by that? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

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