Citizen journalism is becoming synonymous with blogs by professional journalists, reformed hackers and political pundits. This is unfortunate because true citizen journalism is something else . . . something more valuable in tracking mood and opinion about issues.

Ordinary people are writing - often very well -  about their experiences of political issues in their country, confrontations with unique social challenges, concerns, disatisfactions and criticisms. Some that I track provide a unique counter-balance to mainstream media presentation of societies and cultures, and the political views of people in countries we don't consider friends.

Take a look at a blog by a young Egpytian titled "Rantings of a Sandmonkey" (Apologies to those who this title may offend . . . but it is his alias. And,a strong warning, it includes some explict language that may also offend.) His recent post uncovers local news about the Iranian police removing mannikins from stores because they are too sexually suggestive. An earlier post talks about a candlelight vigil he and other friends organized to express the following .. . "We are a group of Muslim kids who feel awful about what happened in Alexandria. We feel that we are all Egyptians here and that we shouldn't let religion divides us the way it does. So we figured we would start the vigil to express our sadness at what happened and our solidarity."

A different perspective on Egypt, and possibly closer to the "street" truth than network television reports?