• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 1, 2011

Engineers from Twitter, along with Google and its newly acquired social company SayNow, built a workaround for folks in Egypt trying to get information out of the country. Launching the service on Monday, the speak-to-tweet service lets people post Twitter messages via a landline phone service by making an international call. Messages are tweeted using #egypt by leaving a voicemail on a Google-supplied international phone number.

The Internet blackout in Egypt began five days ago, but during the weekend engineers from the three companies came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service -- the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection, Ujjwal Singh, SayNow cofounder, and AbdelKarim Mardini, Middle East and North Africa prduct manager, wrote in a blog post. The Twitter handle @speak2tweet provides updates.

Aside from landline phone service, a few Egyptians are still able to access the Internet through a dial-up or satellite connection. Some who live on the Egyptian border can tap into the networks of neighboring countries.

Egyptian Born BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakol knows the story well. He's been in contact with at least one relative who still lives in Egypt, refusing to leave until the regime topples. He compares the 30-year-old extreme oppressive and corrupt government that relies on a police force with tactics used by the Shah of Iran. "You want popular uprising before it becomes an extremist uprising," he says. "We're lucky to have a popular uprising, so let's just hope it ends up with a government that benefits the people."

The uprising began in Tunisia with a slap by a policeman to a fruit vendor who burned himself alive in protest. The people in Egypt saw the events of a fallen Tunisia and followed the lead. Social media allowed the news to spread faster than by word of mouth until the government began shutting down the pipes into the country. Tawakol got tons of great Facebook updates in the beginning, but as soon as they shut it down, social media and search went dark.

Those who are interested can go to twitter.com and follow the @speak2tweet handle to hear the messages.

"Shutting down the ... service will not stop us."

"You are making us so proud."