Learning from twitter in Mumbai

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Tim O'Reilly" <tim () oreilly com>
Date: November 26, 2008 7:47:11 PM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Learning from twitter in Mumbai

Good piece by W. David Stephenson:

http://stephensonstrategies.com/2008/11/26/us-officials-must-monitor-learn-from-use-of-web-20-in-mumbai/

Once again, the first news of the Mumbai attacks came not through the  
media, but through Twitter. India is extremely sophisticated in use of  
mobile devices, probably more so than is the case in the US, and many  
Indians are active users of Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and other mobile  
social networks. It’s imperative that US officials closely track how  
Indians are using these services during the continuing attacks, and  
try to glean ideas on how they could be adapted to the US.

I can’t stress enough: people can and will use these devices and apps  
in a terrorist attack, so it is imperative that officials start  
telling us what kind of information would be relevant from Twitter,  
Flickr, etc. (and, BTW, what shouldn’t be spread: one Twitter user in  
Mumbai tweeted me that people were sending the exact location of  
people still in the hotels, and could tip off the terrorists) and that  
they begin to monitor these networks in disasters, terrorist attacks,  
etc.

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tim () oreilly com, http://radar.oreilly.com







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