Name: April 6 Youth Movement
Known Members and Leaders: Ahmed Salah, co-founder; Ahmed Maher, co-founder
Role in Revolution: Organizers — arguably the most organized youth movement in Egypt at the moment

This grass-roots opposition movement began as a Facebook group that accumulated more than 90,000 members and played the role of catalyst in Egypt over the past three years. Originally conceived in 2008, the movement broke away from the Kefaya (“Enough”) opposition group and organized a national strike on April 6 in support of industrial workers who had already launched a work stoppage in the town of Mahalia al-Kubra. Subsequently, the group developed a modus operandi based on Iran’s Green Movement and developed a manual on protest methods that culled lessons from their Persian compatriots.

The movement called for the Day of Anger protests on Jan. 25 that launched the Egyptian uprising three weeks ago. The BBC called the group the main organizing force behind the original protests. Since then, the April 6 Youth Movement continued to rail against the Mubarak regime, calling on all Egyptians to “take to the streets and keep going until the demands of the Egyptian people have been met.”

Name: Wael Gonhim
Age: 30
Profession: Google marketing executive
Group Affiliation: April 6 Youth Movement
Role in Revolution: Organizer, blogger, symbol and spokesman

Wael Gonhim emerged as the face of the Egyptian uprising this week. The 30-year-old Google executive was one of the creators of “We Are All Khaled Said,” a Facebook group named for a 28-year-old Egyptian man beaten to death by police in June 2010. The page became a galvanizing force in the beginning stages of the uprising.

Police detained Ghonim on Jan. 28, and he spent 12 days in custody. After his release, thunderous applause erupted in Tahrir Square. Ghonim’s ascent to the forefront of the democratic movement can only be described as swift and decisive. The April 6 Youth Movement nominated him to be its spokesperson last Friday. Hundreds upon hundreds of tweets hail him as an Egyptian hero. CBS News even juxtaposed his presence as the face of liberation against Omar Suleiman, the country’s deeply unpopular vice president.

Name: Khaled Said
Age: 28
Profession: Businessman
Group Affiliation: None
Role in Revolution: Martyr

In June 2010, Khaled Said allegedly filmed an illicit interaction between two policemen dividing up the spoils from a drug bust. Soon thereafter, plainclothes policemen intercepted and brutally beat him to death.

While the government claimed that Said swallowed and choked on a packet of drugs, gruesome images surfaced that quickly dispelled that notion. Said became a symbol for the corruption and oppression of the Mubarak government, helping to fuel unrest that eventually led to the massive uprising.

The Facebook group shown above became a focal point for Egyptian rage over the Said murder. Created by Ghonim and others shortly after Said’s death, the page published the graphic photos of the slain businessman juxtaposed against earlier images showing a vigorous young man. The group has garnered nearly 500,000 Facebook friends and “helped to connect human rights organizers with average Egyptians and to raise awareness about police abuse and torture,” according to the New York Times. Additionally, several publications have reported that it was this Facebook page that initially suggested protesting on Jan. 25, a national holiday honoring the police in Egypt.

Name: Asmaa Mahfouz
Age: 26
Profession: Spokeswoman and youth outreach organizer
Group Affiliation: April 6 Youth Movement
Role in Revolution: Instigator

Asmaa Mahfouz was never supposed to be an anti-government protester — her family urged that women were not meant for a life of active dissent. Nonetheless, Mahfouz was one of the founding members of the April 6 Youth Movement, crafting the group’s message and reaching out to young people.

After a number of Egyptians set themselves on fire as a show of defiance against the Mubarak regime, Mahfouz and several other April 6 members marched on Tahrir Square, though security forces immediately clamped down. In response, Mahfouz took to the Internet, filming a video where she called on Egyptians to protest on Jan. 25. According to the New York Times, “It was a woman who dared put a face to the message, unfazed by the possibility of arrest for her defiance.” The video went viral.

Others emulated Mahfouz’ bold anti-government statement, posting their own images and videos, and momentum built until thousands of Egyptians burst forth into the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez on a national day of anger.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgjIgMdsEuk
Video Stream: http://www.youtube.com/user/iyadelbaghdadi

Name: Ramy Raoof
Age: 24
Profession: Online Media Officer for Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and Author for Global Voices Advocacy
Group Affiliation: None
Role in Revolution: Communication specialist

Ramy Raoof developed the extremely successful strategies for circumventing the government’s internet surveillance, essentially enabling human rights defenders and political activists to stay in contact. In addition to manipulating internet software, he developed guides for teaching others how to use online platforms and cellphones to covertly contact one another and exchange information. This was used to maximum effect during protests held immediately before the November parliamentary elections. When protesters were arrested, they used their digital means to contact legal representation that would meet the incarcerated protesters and force the police to dismiss unfounded charges.

Videos from Egypt Revolution: http://www.youtube.com/user/ramyraoof
Pictures from Egypt Revolution: http://bit.ly/CairoDemo

Correction: The original version of this article mistakenly stated that Ramy Raoof was once affiliated with the April 6 Youth Movement. The text of this caption now reflects an update with his corrected information.

Name: Bassem Samir
Age: 28
Profession: Director of the Egyptian Democratic Academy
Group Affiliation: April 6 Youth Movement
Role in Revolution: Organizer

Essentially the Youth Movement’s P.R. man, Bassem Samir turned activists into reporters by organizing a trip to the U.S. for a group of Egyptian activists, where they learned the ins and outs of video journalism. They then went back to Egypt and traveled to major cities secretly teaching more activists these techniques. Samir and his colleagues even trained activists to choose sites for their protests that would make good photo locations. They were also taught how to move their content after it had been shot: Photographers would hand off small memory flash cards at frequent intervals, switch cameras with activists posing as innocent bystanders, and send in camera teams in waves instead of all at once. These training programs led to the abundance of footage from Egypt that we’ve seen the past few weeks.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtKlhV-a5vU
Video stream: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEnglish

Name: Mohamed Bouazizi
Age: 26
Profession: Fruit vendor
Group Affiliation: None
Role in Revolution: Catalyzer

Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruit vender in Tunis, set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, after being forbidden to sell fruit because he lacked a permit. This initiated the protests in Tunisia, and a series of copycats in Egypt. Ahmed Hashem el-Sayed, Mohammed Farouq el-Sayed, Sayed Ali Sayed and Abdu Abdel-Moneim Hamadah each self-immolated within the same 48-hour period. All of them were struggling with unemployment or some form of government oppression, providing real-life examples of the protesters’ concerns.

Name: Coalition of Angry Youth Uprising (CAYU)
Known Members and Leaders: April 6 Youth Movement, the Young People for Justice and Freedom, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s youth wing.
Role in Revolution: Unifier

A coalition of Egypt’s main youth activist groups, the CAYU only recently emerged as negotiations began between protesters and Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman last week. A spokesman for the group held a press conference after the talks to announce that its interests had not been recognized during the talks, and that it would not negotiate with the government until its demands were met. The key demand was that Mubarak resign immediately.

What ties all these revolutionaries together? They are by and large young, educated and disaffected. (Which appears to be something of a theme in Arab politics.) They’ve each leveraged social media to galvanize support and organize demonstrations.

They are also decentralized, which brings with it both benefits and drawbacks. According to Foreign Policy:
“It’s true that some of the youth groups are in communication with the “Wise Men” — the self-appointed council of elders that has offered itself up as a go-between with the regime — but others complain that they have little visibility on those discussions and distrust an initiative that smacks of selling out those who gave their lives taking and defending the square.”

As such, the defining shared characteristic of these various young revolutionaries seems to be uncertainty. No one seems to know how the unrest in Egypt will play out — just that anything less than Mubarak’s abdication is unacceptable.