In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

The aftermath of both major Asian natural disasters – the earthquake in China and the Burmese cyclone — has displayed the web’s ability to be an source and aggregator of multi-media information in the wake of disaster situations.

This phenomenon is being well covered by Global Voices, a non-profit citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

This post combines post-earthquake video mashups from various sources, area maps as well as Twitter reports in English and Chinese — a sample below:

四川大学要求同学离开宿舍 通知4点余震开始

https://twitter.com/shizhao/statuses/809213970

据说四川地区CDMA，小灵通可以打通

https://twitter.com/niubi/statuses/809205236

Another story on Global Voices reports on the use of Twitter in Burma which is particularly important because of government restrictions on information and the press:

“Burmese journalists face restrictions on cyclone coverage as authorities have placed restrictions on journalists covering the disaster areas. Burmese junta forcing storm victims to leave monasteries, separating families. Cyclone death toll is rising. An interesting campaign: Project Nargis – Using internet to check weather report step by step. (in Burmese)”