Devangshu Datta: The new relief networks

TECHNO BEAT

The Internet is supposed to be capable of surviving nuclear attacks. The tsunami was orders of magnitude more powerful than the biggest bomb. But the Internet survived.

In fact, where modern communication infrastructure existed, it came back online soon after the waves receded. The combination of Net-cellphone networks has since proved invaluable.

If it wasn't for collective tardiness, modern communication could have cut death tolls in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The tsunami hit the Indian mainland and the Lankan beaches over an hour after it devastated the Andamans. There was time for evacuations.

Yet nobody in the Indian administration, or in Sri Lanka, reacted to the blitz. Only one coastal village in Tamil Nadu was evacuated and that was because of a phone call from a private citizen in Singapore. The director-general of the Thai Meteorological Board didn't issue warnings for fears of causing panic. (He has since been removed.)

For several days, mobile networks were the only means of communication. Luckily, digital convergence makes mobile-net connectivity seamless. Websites sprang up to offer realtime updates from disaster zones via text messaging and digital pics.

Plenty has been written recently (some of it by this correspondent) on the drawbacks of cameraphones. The positives came to light post-tsunami. Pictures of the missing and the unidentified were rapidly transferred to global platforms. Missing people have since been found and, tragically, thousands of victims have been identified.

Blogs proved another multiplier. Bloggers' networks consist of people with similar interests who read each other and link to interesting information. Much of the time, blogging is an incestuous and self-indulgent exercise.

But it creates global networks. And blogger networks working in tandem created communications history after the tsunami. In particular, one blog (Tsunami Help, at http://tsunami help.blogspot.com) has been a trailblazer that shows an evolving model for remotely coordinating disaster relief efforts.

Tsunami Help was established by three bloggers in Mumbai. It is germane to note that none of these people have ever met. They contacted their own personal blogger networks and created chain effects. The core "team" grew to over 200 volunteers.

In the eight days since the tsunami, the site has processed well over a million visitors. In order to understand what the blog platform provides, it is necessary to understand how the Net leverages information.

There are aid agencies seeking funding and volunteers; there are people willing to donate money, time and skills. There are onsite relief workers who know what is needed where.

For example, a Canadian fire-fighter with Bahasa fluency should contact agencies in Indonesia or Malaysia. A district that needs medicines should not be inundated with clothes instead. The net provides clearing houses to match such needs and offers.

There are people across the globe looking for missing friends and relatives; there are pictures of unidentified victims logged in at every disaster spot. The Net provides an interface where pictures can be viewed and matched by location.

It is possible for an Internet-savvy searcher to locate most relevant information by sorting multiple search-engine results. But a large team of dedicated searchers provide more detailed information with much more efficiency than individuals.

By dint of using wiki formats in a subsite, the Tsunami Help volunteers team also created an easily-referenced database.

In effect, the blogger network turned into a vast human-intermediated search engine as every member of the expanding network brought in more skills and discrimination.

This blog, and others like it, help provide a massively-detailed overview of relief. They link to missing picture-sites and to aid agencies.

They connect SMS networks, creating a platform where relief workers disseminate information about needs on the ground. They create forums for volunteers to offer their skills.

Obviously the blogger network wasn't created with such functions in mind "" in fact, it wasn't created, it "just growed". But technology always causes unforseen consequences. This one proves that blogging has come of age.