Trisonics
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- Mar 6, 2009
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AT 6:54 pm the first bomb went off at Zaveri Bazaar, a crowded marketplace in South Mumbai. In the next 12 minutes two more followed in different locations in the city. Even before the blasts torrential rain meant that roads were clogged. The attacks added to the confusion just as millions of people were returning home from work. With telephone lines jammed, many Mumbaikars turned to a familiar alternative:
they posted their whereabouts, and sought those of their close ones, on social networks.
Facebook doubled up as a discussion forum (and sometimes got philosophical). Users on Twitter, meanwhile, exchanged important real-time updates. Moments after the explosions, a link to an editable Google Docs spreadsheet was circulated frantically on the microblogging site. It carried names, addresses and phone numbers of people offering their houses as a refuge to those left stranded. The document was created by Nitin Sagar, an IT engineer in Delhi, 1,200km (720 miles) away.
"I saw that phone numbers started pouring in at about 7:30 pm, but most were getting lost in the Twitter timeline," Mr Sagar recalls. So he aggregated some of the names and phone numbers of people volunteering to help in a spreadsheet. This was re-tweeted to help funnel missed phone numbers from Twitter messages onto a single page, which registered more than 430 entries. How many people used it is unclear, but it showed that online response to a crisis can be highly disciplined.
Mr Sagar's was one among many similar efforts in a country famous for its legions of computer-savvy citizens. Barely 30 minutes after the blast Ajay Kumar, a software engineer on a vacation in his hometown of Lucknow, 1,200km to the north-east of Mumbai, set about creating a disaster tracker map (see picture). Built on a free open-source web and mobile platform called Ushahidi, it allows users to crowdsource crisis information, primarily from Twitter. Ushahidi was set up by a group of software enthusiasts with the intension of collecting eye-witness accounts of election violence in Kenya and place them on a map of the country. The service was also used during the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in 2010. Based on hashtags such as #here2help, #needhelp and #MumbaiBlasts, Mr Kumar flagged the map of Mumbai, indicating where people were stranded, or where they could seek shelter.
Clicking on the colour-coded dots on the map opens up a page with links to useful reports and alerts such as traffic updates, death toll, blood donors, hospital phone numbers and the like. The biggest problem is telling accurate and timely information from the unverified and outdated sort. Mr Kumar says that, for instance, tweets sent at 9:30 pm about roadblocks and traffic jams were still being re-tweeted hours later. Still, he makes sure that such information does not make it on the map. All content tagged on the page is moderated with the hope of providing useful information. "We read the time stamp of the information tweeted and decide if its stale or whether it should form part of our page."
Overwhelmed by insane traffic, Mr Kumar contacted other volunteers from Ushahidi, which has a stand-by task force with primary focus on such calamities. Soon, others were helping him sift through all the tweets, including ten people in America.
Less than an hour after the blasts, a Wikipedia entry giving a detailed account of the incident was also up. Replete with references, links and quotes, including reactions from international leaders, the page caused a stir when it claimed that the blast coincided with the birthday of Ajmal Kasab, the only Pakistani terrorist to be caught during the Mumbai attacks of 2008. Bloggers and users of social media set about trying to ascertain the veracity of this information. An eager Twitter user posted a copy of the enquiry form of India's Anti-Terrorist Squad which allegedly mentions Mr Kasabs date of birth as 13th July 2011. Early on July 14th, Indian Express, a national newspaper confirmed that this was a hoax. (Ironically, the same newspaper had claimed otherwise in an article a day before.) But the online furore illustrates that people are prepared to go to great lengths collectively to ensure that information available via social media is reliable.
This flies in the face of Mark Twain's fear that a lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is putting on its shoes, a problem that, one might think, is only exacerbated by the likes of Twitter. Instead, it appears, responsible netizens co-operate to stop rumours in their tracks. And, besides the odd vituperative tweet that Indian politicians should be shot for allowing such a dastardly act of terrorism to take place, most users were content to keep their opinions to themselves, focusing instead on re-tweeting important information. As the tragedy unfolded, social platforms have shown just how much good can be achieved, often in less than 140 characters, when people use them prudently.
Online crisis management: A web of support | The Economist
they posted their whereabouts, and sought those of their close ones, on social networks.
Facebook doubled up as a discussion forum (and sometimes got philosophical). Users on Twitter, meanwhile, exchanged important real-time updates. Moments after the explosions, a link to an editable Google Docs spreadsheet was circulated frantically on the microblogging site. It carried names, addresses and phone numbers of people offering their houses as a refuge to those left stranded. The document was created by Nitin Sagar, an IT engineer in Delhi, 1,200km (720 miles) away.
"I saw that phone numbers started pouring in at about 7:30 pm, but most were getting lost in the Twitter timeline," Mr Sagar recalls. So he aggregated some of the names and phone numbers of people volunteering to help in a spreadsheet. This was re-tweeted to help funnel missed phone numbers from Twitter messages onto a single page, which registered more than 430 entries. How many people used it is unclear, but it showed that online response to a crisis can be highly disciplined.
Mr Sagar's was one among many similar efforts in a country famous for its legions of computer-savvy citizens. Barely 30 minutes after the blast Ajay Kumar, a software engineer on a vacation in his hometown of Lucknow, 1,200km to the north-east of Mumbai, set about creating a disaster tracker map (see picture). Built on a free open-source web and mobile platform called Ushahidi, it allows users to crowdsource crisis information, primarily from Twitter. Ushahidi was set up by a group of software enthusiasts with the intension of collecting eye-witness accounts of election violence in Kenya and place them on a map of the country. The service was also used during the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in 2010. Based on hashtags such as #here2help, #needhelp and #MumbaiBlasts, Mr Kumar flagged the map of Mumbai, indicating where people were stranded, or where they could seek shelter.
Clicking on the colour-coded dots on the map opens up a page with links to useful reports and alerts such as traffic updates, death toll, blood donors, hospital phone numbers and the like. The biggest problem is telling accurate and timely information from the unverified and outdated sort. Mr Kumar says that, for instance, tweets sent at 9:30 pm about roadblocks and traffic jams were still being re-tweeted hours later. Still, he makes sure that such information does not make it on the map. All content tagged on the page is moderated with the hope of providing useful information. "We read the time stamp of the information tweeted and decide if its stale or whether it should form part of our page."
Overwhelmed by insane traffic, Mr Kumar contacted other volunteers from Ushahidi, which has a stand-by task force with primary focus on such calamities. Soon, others were helping him sift through all the tweets, including ten people in America.
Less than an hour after the blasts, a Wikipedia entry giving a detailed account of the incident was also up. Replete with references, links and quotes, including reactions from international leaders, the page caused a stir when it claimed that the blast coincided with the birthday of Ajmal Kasab, the only Pakistani terrorist to be caught during the Mumbai attacks of 2008. Bloggers and users of social media set about trying to ascertain the veracity of this information. An eager Twitter user posted a copy of the enquiry form of India's Anti-Terrorist Squad which allegedly mentions Mr Kasabs date of birth as 13th July 2011. Early on July 14th, Indian Express, a national newspaper confirmed that this was a hoax. (Ironically, the same newspaper had claimed otherwise in an article a day before.) But the online furore illustrates that people are prepared to go to great lengths collectively to ensure that information available via social media is reliable.
This flies in the face of Mark Twain's fear that a lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is putting on its shoes, a problem that, one might think, is only exacerbated by the likes of Twitter. Instead, it appears, responsible netizens co-operate to stop rumours in their tracks. And, besides the odd vituperative tweet that Indian politicians should be shot for allowing such a dastardly act of terrorism to take place, most users were content to keep their opinions to themselves, focusing instead on re-tweeting important information. As the tragedy unfolded, social platforms have shown just how much good can be achieved, often in less than 140 characters, when people use them prudently.
Online crisis management: A web of support | The Economist
