FREEING SPEECH: While social-media–fueled protests were kneecapping autocratic regimes across the Middle East and North Africa this past spring, Alex Luhrman was right here in Santa Barbara keeping the lines of communication open. Along with an international team of vigilante techno-activists, he enabled dissenters to post Web content where dictators sought to black them out. When he isn’t toppling dictators, Alex runs his own IT consultancy, a business which often brings him by The Santa Barbara Independent offices, where he keeps our eight-year-old computers humming along as if they were only five years old. He is also one of the architects of occupysb.org, the virtual headquarters of the Occupy Santa Barbara protests.