Social media at its best

Here's a pretty good read about a guy who does the Occupy Oakland live video feed.

Few people would know the name Spencer Mills or be able to identify his face.

But tens of thousands of online viewers around the world would recognize his online alias, OakFoSho. Nearly 60,000 have tuned into his video stream of the violence that erupted after Wednesday's Occupy Oakland general strike. Many heard Mills narrating in the early hours of Thursday while tear gas filled the middle of the city's downtown district.

That the images appeared jerky and blurry dissuaded no one. They could see the flames, the police, the protesters and the boom of the tear gas canisters exploding, all live. The experience provided a new twist to the old Gil Scott-Heron political song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

Mills live-streamed with nothing more than a Motorola Droid X smartphone equipped with an 8-megapixel camera and Web access.

"It was intense. I was just standing there with a camera," Mills said.

"It was social media at its best," he said Thursday, sitting on the stairs of City Hall plaza shortly before midnight.
-Inside Bay Area