tag:,2009:/1/tag:72.47.210.69,2005://1.4683- Comments for Disaster Response and the Web in 2005: The Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina Movable Type 4.23-en tag:72.47.210.69,2005://1.4683 2005-12-20T10:20:15Z 2007-12-16T23:15:56Z Disaster Response and the Web in 2005: The Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina I've published a post on ZDNet that details how the Web was used for good in 2005, in very bad situations. It was actually something I wrote for the book I'm working on with Joshua Porter, but it will almost certainly not be used (due to the book having a design focus). So I thought... Richard MacManus http://www.readwriteweb.com I've published a post on ZDNet that details how the Web was used for good in 2005, in very bad situations. It was actually something I wrote for the book I'm working on with Joshua Porter, but it will almost certainly not be used (due to the book having a design focus). So I thought I'd share it with you now, because I learned a lot researching that extract.

The most emotionally affecting memories of 2005 were the two huge natural disasters that struck the world - and how people responded to them. In this post I will review how the Web was utilized by thousands of people to help and to deal with those tragedies.

The Tsunami

When a magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused huge tsunami waves to hit coastal areas of south and east Asia in late December 2004, the public response was one of shock and then emergency assistance on a global scale. It quickly became apparent that the Web was being used in response to the disaster in three main ways:

1) as a constantly updated source of news about the disaster;

2) as a way for ordinary people to respond emotionally;

3) and probably most importantly, to organize aid efforts. [Full story on ZDNet...]

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