Web to the rescue
the first of january, 2005
The Tsunami will be remembered as a catastrophic natural disaster. But it is also a milestone in the development of the internet. At first it was a total failure - neither internet, nor any other form of technology failed to instantly transmit news of impending waves, in spite of a several hour long gap between the first and last waves hitting.
Somehow, the worlds mobile phones, fax machines and computers seem to have all been turned off at one simultaneous point. As a result, tens of thousand of lives could have been saved, allowing them to move to higher ground. This could easily be solved, and must never be allowed to happen again.Hokusai Katusushika's "The Wave"
Since this early failure, the internet has turned itself around. Thousands, perhaps millions of sites and blogs are now helping rescue work, and raise money. Many millions of pounds have already been donated, much of it through online contributions which might not otherwise been made.
Many sites have added ways to contribute to the relief. Amazon has included a prominent link to The Red Cross, Google has a Tsunami Relief Page and the BBC, as well as breaking news coverage has a "How to help" page. Many hundreds of sites have been created to help identify victims, and coordinate rescue work. A site has been launched in Hong Kong that enables internet users to upload photos of missing relatives which will be scanned against a database of victims in Phuket, Thailand.
This displays the awesome power that has now been unleashed. The webs army of volunteers must now keep the attention of the world focused on Asia, so that it is not forgotten, to make sure that the aid and recovery is followed through until the end.
An umbrella organisation called the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has been set up by a coalition of 12 charities and has been taking many donations via its specially created website.
It urged people to go online where possible to help because donations could be processed more quickly than cash donated in other ways, meaning aid could be delivered as quickly as possible. Other methods to donate are calling them, sending them money and now you can text them.
The site has so far received almost ￡8m, with more than 11,000 donations being made online every hour.
Update: The DEC has now received over ￡60m in contributions, of which over ￡27m has been made in online contributions.
1 Ben Spicer 48
2 Ben 3
3 Ben Spicer: 3
4 Ben S 3