After the earthquake: internet as crisis management tool

Image by Mexicanwave via FlickrWhen the story of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake broke through Twitter, it was obvious that the largest disaster in more than a decade would be dealt with different, because China was online now. Sam Flemming of CIC has neatly summerized the many different ways online tools have been helping in the aftermath of the crisis.

• A BBS helping a military helocopter to find a good place to land
• Spreading information faster than ever
• Finding missed persons
• Dealing with the grieve

The figures are just amazing:

For anyone who knows China, the fact that the Internet and Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) served as a central platform for the nation to share the latest information, to help out and to grieve should come as no surprise. At last count, China has 210 million Internet users and likely now has more users than any other country in the world. Chinese netizens are also among the most engaged in the world, with some reports suggesting that 98% have created content for BBS, blogs and other forms of IWOM. The netizens were out in full force during the week following the event: major portals hosted over 23 million netizen comments and blogs with over 12.6 million comments.

More at the special edition of the IWOM May Watch.

Update: Here is a neat example of the power of the internet, translated by Global Voices. Increasingly tents for survivors of the earthquake are showing up at places they were not meant for, like up-scale communities in Chengdu. Needless to say this is causing an outcry.