People are already referring to Bin Laden’s death as a “Where were you?” moment in history. I think this moment will become a “Where were you online?” moment. I was not watching tv–I was on Twitter. I heard the news first from Twitter, then Facebook, then wh.gov.
My favorite part about being on Twitter while the news broke was the ability to interact. Quickly, I found several articles and people tweeting about the news. Before long, I found @reallyvirtual, aka Sohaib Athar, who lives in Abbottabad. He famously wrote, “Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.” We serendipitously have a transcription of this historical event thanks to Athar.
Since Twitter’s archives go back only a week, I quickly copied @reallyvirtual’s twitterstream. Here is 12 pages of @reallyvirtual’s twitterstream, as a pdf. The transcript is in reverse chronological order, and dates from May 1st to May 2nd, 2011 (during the attack). Download and use this transcript freely.