CNN

As we watch, transfixed by the sights and sounds of jubilation in the streets of Egypt, the question on many people's minds is: How did this happen? But a far better way to ask that question is: Who organized this, and how?

Movements for social change don't just "happen." Too often, the media reports on them the way we talk about the weather or chemistry: Protest is said to "flare up," "gather steam" and "boil." Other times movements are said to take a country "by storm" or "peter out."