Worldview: A year later in Egypt, the revolution continues

Exactly one year ago, young Egyptians poured into Tahrir Square in a revolt whose outcome surprised them as much as the world.

It has become fashionable to say their rebellion failed, since its mostly secular organizers couldn't translate Internet skills into political power. When Egypt's first freely elected parliament in six decades held its opening session on Monday, Islamists had more than 70 percent of the seats, liberals less than 20 percent, and an alliance of young revolutionaries only 2.35 percent.

So it was the right moment to speak with Wael Ghonim, the young Egyptian Google executive who created and administered the Facebook page that sparked the Jan. 25 revolution. Ghonim, whom I interviewed by phone from Cairo, has just published a fascinating book called Revolution 2.0: the Power of the People is Greater than the People in Power, which lays out details of how the rebels organized - complete with many of their e-mail exchanges. There is an energy in the book and in Ghonim's words that makes one feel it is much too soon to assume the revolution is over, or to underestimate what the rebels achieved.

"I think the revolution is a process," says the intense, bearded 31-year-old with an MBA from the American University of Cairo. "Most of us were not politically mature, we didn't see the challenges. But if we look back a couple of years, and anyone had told me that [President Hosni] Mubarak would have stepped down, parliament would be dissolved, and 27 million would vote, I wouldn't have believed it.

"So many Egyptians have been freed from the psychological barrier of fear."

It is that new freedom - from fear - that Ghonim believes holds the key to Egypt's future. His presumption - as yet unproven - is that an aroused public will hold its Islamist government, and its military, to account.

Ghonim's book describes how he, and his Internet colleagues broke their own fear barriers. As an educated, tech-savvy Egyptian, he chafed at the lack of political alternatives to Mubarak. His first move was to anonymously create what later became the official Facebook page for Nobel laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, who galvanized young people by challenging the Mubarak regime in 2010.