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On March 18, 2011, I was alone in my apartment, hearing reports of the Libyan revolution in full force. I could’ve been watching CNN or any of the other news networks. But their reports felt distant.

Instead, I watched and listened to the crackled livestream reports of a man younger than I, Mohammed “Mo” Nabbous. He wasn’t trained as a journalist. His Libya Alhurra TV never went past the online bandwidth (although he was interviewed by major networks). Yet, he died a journalist.

He I was listening to his reports, on March 19 in Libya. Mr. Nabbous was , while recording his final report on his phone. The recording is abruptly ended around the same time of the attack.

Although I was alone in my apartment on my computer, the memory of that night is seared into my brain. I still remember his worried face. His Tweetdeck cheerfully chirped audio notifications of tweets to him, a chilling audio contrast to the violence outside his apartment.

In Hawaii, it’s been some time since we’ve had an event nearing the magnitude of the Arab Spring. But as a journalist who is constantly on social media, I know of many people who could take a similar role to Mr. Nabbous. These people aren’t journalists by trade, or maybe they are and have stepped out of their professional roles, yet they continue to provide solid, fact-based information across the blogosphere and beyond.

Their reach is not well documented. Heck, the same can be argued of Civil Beat for that matter. But in times of breaking news, whether it’s something as routine as an election night, or something potentially chaotic like a tsunami (#hitsunami is the hashtag), you can count on these social media superheroes for information. Mr. Nabbous didn’t have a built-in audience. Nobody audited him. Yet he did what he did, and he was rewarded with an attentive, captivated audience that followed him to his final breath.

• , : If you live in Hawaii and you’re on Twitter, odds are you follow Ozawa, also known as the man who got with the program early enough to secure his Twitter handle, @hawaii. From the first day I moved to Hawaii in 2006, I immediately latched onto a Ryan Ozawa production, , to reach out to people. I didn’t even know Ozawa started the site until years after I had met him.

Together with Lum (also known as @Bytemarks), they host on Hawaii Public Radio. Lum is a prime example of someone using his tech chops to inform the community, and in the most recent session, he marshaled open data legislation that became law, requiring the state executive branch departments to make electronic data sets available to the public. Together, these men don’t just talk of the civic square, they live in it.

• : “If you are blogging for a buck, it’s probably the wrong motivation to begin with.” Tucker posted this on Facebook just on Friday, and it speaks volumes to his dedication to informing the public, particularly the community he serves, the Big Island of Hawaii. Formerly known as FBI or From Big Island, posts everything from missing person reports to community events and press releases that otherwise may get ignored. Civil Beat has cited his blog as a source of information during events like the 2011 tsunami. When it comes to what’s going on in the Big Island, I always check up on what @damontucker is doing.

• : Although she’s now writing more about spirituality and health as managing editor for, what else, , is a trained hardcore journalist and a reliable source of information on Maui. As a former reporter for The Maui News, she was the most prominent news voice on social media for that county. She’s also a very talented writer to boot. Although she’s out of the daily grind, her sense of duty got her on Twitter during the October tsunami event. I was no longer with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, yet I did the same. It doesn’t matter who we are at the time. We feel a responsibility to the community, and that’s why Maui is lucky to have Ilima there.

• : Walden’s site, , may be crude. It may “only” be an aggregator. And sure, it often has a slant. But then again, so does , arguably the most powerful news site on the Internet, with 11.8 billion page views in the past year. Walden occasionally contributes reporting, context or commentary to certain stories, much in the same way Matt Drudge does on some days. It’s rare to find independent, conservative voices in Blue Hawaii, and I don’t encourage anyone to live in an echo chamber full of people who validate your beliefs. For a true democracy, other views must be considered. If you ignore , you do so at your own peril.

• : The Honolulu Weekly is dead. Long live Mindy Pennybacker, the Weekly’s last and ever-determined editor. The Weekly may be resurrected in some form in the future, but for now, Pennybacker created the to continue the Weekly’s brand of journalism, or as she calls it, “an insider’s guide to Hawaii art and politics.” HI Spy continues to evolve, and while it has a respectable presence on Facebook, there doesn’t seem to be anything on Twitter (please correct me if I’m wrong). The project is still in its infancy, but I look forward to it hitting its stride.

There are several others I haven’t mentioned, and it’s important to note that the entire online community in Hawaii contributes to the dissemination of information during times of crisis, and even during Flossie-like times of flaccidness.

I’m always astounded at the collaboration I see in the community, from news organizations to social media marketing pros to public relations executives to food bloggers. Everyone has a unique voice that makes Hawaii’s narrative so special, and it’s why I believe Hawaii is the best place to build on Civil Beat’s mission of a civic square.