Instant blogging brings information wave!
One big consequence of tsunami on ICT sector can be witnessed by the sheer increase in number of blogs on Internet. Following tsunami, blogs have become an important means of communication. Blogs from around the world are offering instant witness reports from the region affected by the tsunami that the traditional media cannot match, as well as links to relief groups for readers seeking to provide immediate help. The phenomenon has now reached global proportions with the explosion blogs and sites dedicated to the South-West Asian disaster. Such spontaneous generation of enormous content on Internet and the way people are recording electronic diaries to tell their story has not happened ever before.

A blog by definition means frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process. Blogs are alternatively called web logs or weblogs.

A list of 106 links in more than a dozen nations is available at Wikipedia, the free encylopaedia site. On Google’s home page, there is a link that shows surfers exactly how they can contribute to tsunami relief funds. There are even blogs that allows people with access to Internet to post appeals for help, search for missing friends, donate money to an organisation. Not only information and heart wrenching stories, these blogs are also giving rise to many speculations.

One such example is ‘The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog’. It is wonderfully structured giving latest news, information about resources, aid, donations, and volunteer efforts at one place. This was set up collaboratively by a set of individuals coming together from different corners of earth. This blog though created under blogger.com has taken the form and nature of a website accessed by 200,000 plus people in 3 days. The urgency with which huge amount of information has been nicely pooled up at one place is striking.

Another blog, which needs a mention here is jlgolson.blogspot.com. It is a video blog. It is just one of dozens of locations on the Internet hosting amateur videos of the Indian Ocean disaster. Another video blog hosting tsunami videos is waveofdestruction. org. This has more than 25 amateur videos of the Tsunami impact. Both these blogs have received more than 600000 hits in 3-4 days.

These blogs not only show the information revolution that has ushered in World Wide Web (www) era. It brings to light that disasters and pressing situations like this can get a lot of people from all parts of globe come and work together through Internet for a single cause. People form groups and contribute in their own ingenious ways. People want to reach out to each other, share their stories, more particularly in emergency circumstances. It leads them to discover newer modes of connecting and communicating. ‘Blogs’ are just a beginning and still evolving. Disasters too can bring great innovations!

Source:
http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com
www.wavesofdestruction.org