Web outperforms Media in Mumbai Blast

BANGALORE, INDIA: The effectiveness of web is again brought out as terror attacks paralyze India's financial capital, Mumbai.

The usage of web came in a new colour and flavour as the mobile and fixed line circuits to city were clogged since large number of people was trying to get in touch with each other in the city. Amidst a situation beleaguered by terror from all sides, blogging became a major source of information.

It was through the 'Mumbai Help' blog that bloggers offered to help users get through to their family and friends in the city, or to get information on them. 

Dina Mehta, an ethnographer by profession and a blogger on Mumbai Help, said, "We will do what we can."

"We are certainly providing people emotional support at this difficult time," she added.

The Mumbai Help's teams were checking out on Thursday if hospitals have put out the list of the injured and dead, in order to pass on the information to bloggers and callers.

The famous micro-blogging site Twitter helped in passing information about the attacks.

Twitter, popular micro blogging sites, where the users communicate with short messages, witnessed an intense response on Thursday.

Last night Twitter this micro blogging service witnessed more than six million members worldwide.

The Twitter users in India especially in Mumbai were providing instant eyewitness accounts of the unfolding drama. 

Some of the sources estimated that the messages, known as "tweets", were being posted to the site at a rate of around 70 tweets every five seconds when the news of the tragedy first broke. 

Twitter users took up the role of social workers by sending tweets pleading for blood donors to make their way to the JJ Hospital in Mumbai, as stocks were in danger of running low in the wake of the atrocity.

The Google Map was also brought into picture to identify the locations of the incidents, with links to news stories and eyewitness accounts. 

Among other cameos played by web, there was the first-hand account of the Mumbai attacks on Flickr that came from Vinukumar Ranganathan who grabbed his camera and headed out onto the streets of the city, taking a series of photos showing mangled cars, bloodstained roads and fleeing crowds. He uploaded more than 112 photos to Flickr.  

As Twitter is one of the most powerful social medium for spreading news and information, some government agencies feared that the terrorists would also use it as a tool for communication.

The many mainstream media outlets including CNN, used video footage and photos sent in from people on the ground in Mumbai to illustrate their reports, and many television stations, radio stations and newspapers were also keeping a close eye on Twitter and the blogosphere in the hope of finding out more information.

It turns out that there is a lot of fuel packed within the online machinery than what has been realized by users or even crisis management agencies so far.

Do you think that there is a silent power sleeping inside the Web, which when tapped properly, can be the answer to so many questions that haunt us when terror numbs all other mediums? Do you think that our authorities are still blind and deaf to the strength that is wrapped inside a normal citizen and his normal Web citizenship? They have shown what can be done when they are forced to wake up. What do you think?