The 2004 Tsunami; what other "nobodies" accomplished

Fellow nobody Lee Hopkins, on his Better Communication Results blog, wrote yesterday about "How to create a global project management tool in 72 hours."

He was writing about the International Association of Nobodies, of course, but let me share the tale of another Web 2.0 meme-storm.

(Raganites and other Web 2.0 skeptics, you might want to sit up and listen.)

Within hours of the Southeast Asian earthquake and tsunami, three bloggers started Skyping, wondering what they could do to help. They turned to social media -- a Blogger blog, a wiki, Skype, and IM (all of it free, or nearly so). Within three days they had attracted 100,000 visits and 50 volunteer bloggers, wiki specialists, networkers. Within eight days, their SEA-EAT Blog & Wiki had attracted over 1 million visits, and 200 volunteers -- all unpaid, with no "organization chart" or "director" or "fundraising staff". They just did it.

Dina Mehta's early posting on the topic (5 days after the event), her later personal account and this Information Week article are well worth a read, if you would like to know more.

I first heard this story from Dina herself at last year's Reboot conference, and blogged about it in "We don't have the tools is OUT as an excuse." And I still believe that (and Web 2.0 skeptics should wake up to this): if three Bombay bloggers who had never met each other can form a distributed 200-volunteer charity information network in eight days... think what rich companies and associations can do.

Technorati Tags: nobody, International Association of Nobodies, SEA-EAT blog, Dina Mehta, Web 2.0

Posted by Allan Jenkins on April 10, 2006 at 05:14 PM in International Association of Nobodies, Reboot 7.0, Smart Communities, Social Tools, Tsunami | Permalink

Comments

This Tsunami example just goes to show how awesome social media can be. It's a quick and easy way to get a lot of people together that can be extremely useful in situations like the Tsunami or even Hurricaine Katrina. Since you first posted about I.A.N., I have read so many more blog postings about the true impact of social media and I can't believe that anybody would think negatively about it. My previous statement just proves the point even further. Just look at how many people that you have built relationships with through blogging, etc. have joined you in I.A.N. need I say any more?

Posted by: katherine | Apr 17, 2006 6:38:48 PM

I converted xx billion Blogshares game dollars into around 300 real world $ and donated it.
So a blogger game actually had a (small) impact on the real world.
link: http://www.langemark.com/node/949

Posted by: Gunnar Langemark | May 9, 2006 9:09:41 AM

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