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Malcolm Gladwell, on the New Yorker’s website, today:

In the French Revolution the crowd in the streets spoke to one another with that strange, today largely unknown instrument known as the human voice.

Just one question, Malcolm. How old are you?

I’m serious — my grandfather doesn’t sound this old, and he’s been dead for twelve years.

Tunisia ousted a dictator seventeen days ago, and its people are struggling toward democracy. The median age of the people of Tunisia is 29.

Egypt has seen millions of people take to the streets this morning, and appears to be on the verge of overthrowing its unelected President. The median age of the people of Egypt is 29.

Palestinian officials announced today that they will be holding their first municipal elections in five years “as soon as possible.” The median age of the people of the West Bank is 20, and the median age of the people of Gaza is 17.

The government of Yemen, facing widespread popular protests, has just announced the suspension of university tuition and the creation of a new jobs program for recent university graduates. The median age of the people of Yemen is 18.

The king of Jordan has just dissolved that nation’s government and appointed a new prime minister — supposedly tasked with implementing reforms. The median age of the people of Jordan is 21.

As pro-democracy youth protest movements sweep the Arab world, the government of Yemen announced this morning that university tuition fees would be suspended for the rest of the year and a new jobs program would be created for young university graduates.

The government is trying desperately to defuse popular opposition in the wake of massive democratic movements in countries from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond. Opponents of the current regime have called a day of action for this Thursday.

Patrick St. John of the For Student Power blog has a good post up on how the demography and contemporary culture of Egypt is shaping the role of Egyptian youth and students in the current popular uprising. Among other things, he notes that nearly two thirds of the Egyptian population is under 30, and that one in four young adults in Egypt is unemployed.

Egypt’s colleges and universities are large and growing, but as St. John notes, the student role in this revolt can be hard to disentangle — with the country’s population so young, and the student body relatively representative of the country as a whole, the “demographic overlap” between students and revolutionaries makes distinctions difficult to draw.

Meanwhile, the New York Times this morning has a fascinating look at the strategists behind Egypt’s uprising, noting that the heavy lifting has been done almost exclusively by young people, with the “old guard” of the country’s pro-democracy movements mostly falling into line behind them. Key quote:

Both newcomers and veterans of the opposition movement say it is the young Internet pioneers who remain at the vanguard behind the scenes.

“The young people are still leading this,” said Ibrahim Issa, a prominent opposition intellectual who attended some of the meetings. And the older figures, most notably Dr. ElBaradei, have so far readily accepted the younger generation’s lead, people involved said. “He has been very responsive,” Mr. Issa said. “He is very keen on being the symbol, and not being a leader.”

Interesting stuff.

In the last week or so, two different people have asked me for advice on how to be an effective blogger. It’s a question I’ve been asked before, but it’s only recently that I’ve settled on a short answer I like. Here’s that answer:

Make yourself useful.

Find a question that people are asking, and answer it. Address a widespread misconception, or a currently popular myth. Draw attention to something that needs more attention. Do a translation. Do an intervention. Do the math.

Make yourself genuninely useful, and by definition you’re doing something worth doing.

I haven’t made myself very useful on the blog this last week. Between writing syllabi and tending to a feverish four-year-old, I’ve kind of had my hands full. And the big story of the hour — the Egyptian revolt — isn’t one I’ve had much to add to.

When Tunisia exploded, I could make myself useful just by writing about it, because for a while lots of people literally had no idea that anything at all was happening. But this time around, it didn’t make much sense for me to write a post just saying “hey, guys, Egypt’s youth are making a revolution,” because anyone reading my blog would already know that. If I’d had more time I would have found an angle, but like I say I’ve been assembling primary source readings packets and mopping a tiny sweaty forehead instead.

One blogger who’s been making himself very useful indeed on the Egypt story is Nick Baumann of Mother Jones magazine. Earlier this week Baumann put together a thorough introduction to the current Egyptian crisis, and he’s been augmenting and expanding it ever since. It’s a really great resource, and it’s exactly the kind of stuff that needs doing at a time like this.

I don’t have time right now to explain exactly how and why Baumann’s work rocks so hard — the sick four-year-old wants ibuprofen, and her big sister needs design assistance on the line of Phineas and Ferb Pokemon cards she’s putting together — so it’s lucky that the folks at the Nieman Journalism Lab have explained it for me. Seriously. If you care about blogging for social change, if you care about using social media for social good, go read the Nieman piece. It’s a wonderfully concise and cogent summary of exactly what Baumann’s doing right … and why it matters.