Blogs Provide First-Hand Details from Tsunami Disaster Scene and Pinpoint Global Relief Efforts

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“People who know and respect the sea well now talk of it in shock, dismay and fear, wrote Fred Robart on Thiswayplease.
The death toll has risen above 60,000 and bloggers including World Changing are providing first-hand reports and helping to coordinate relief efforts
Eyewitness accounts are here, here, here,
Arthur C Clarke who lives in Sri Lanka, says he and his family are safe, but many others are not so fortunate “the day after Christmas turned out to be a living nightmare reminiscent of The Day After Tomorrow.”
“Curiously enough,” he writes, “in my first book on Sri Lanka, I had written about another tidal wave reaching the Galle harbour (see Chapter 8 in The Reefs of Taprobane, 1957). That happened in August 1883, following the eruption of Krakatoa in roughly the same part of the Indian Ocean.”
Howard Rheingold, the author of “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution,” about the use of interactive technologies like text-messaging to build ad hoc coalitions, said that using blogs to muster support for aid was a natural next step. “If you can smartmob a political demonstration, an election or urban performance art, you can smartmob disaster relief,” he told The New York Times

Comments

1. Piers Fawkes says:

   December 28, 2004 at 6:27 pm

   My early impression is that whilst I am amazed at how blogging is helping report and support this horrific event in real time I am equally dismayed by how governments are unable to utilize the web to provide information/guidance for subjects.
   To demonstrate: I wanted to know if an area in India was safe to travel and I checked the British Forein Office site and the British High Commission site in India for advice. There is two bits of information available:
   a) From a press release from Jack Straw sending well wishes : “British nationals are advised to look carefully at the Travel Advice before undertaking journeys to regions affected by the tragedy.”
   b) From the Travel Advice section: “Tidal waves have hit India following a major earthquake in the Indian Ocean. The FCO emergency telephone number is as follows: 0207 008 0000” That’s it.
   Huh? An (engaged) telephone number is all they can provide whilst all the folk in the story above have provided all this info…..
   Anyone else got an example of a government using the web well or poorly in this sad situation?

   Reply