Another example of a Web 2.0 meme-storm

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 us, of course, but let me share the tale of another Web 2.0 meme-storm that predates us by about 15 months.

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: International Association of Nobodies, nobodies, Dina Mehta, SEA-EAT, tsunami

Comments

[Serge Cornelus]

Great if not amazing story, Allan. Thanks for letting (nobodies like) us in on it.