Social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, are better known for creating new music superstars than for helping disaster survivors, but they could soon take on an important role in post-disaster recovery.Traditionally, in the aftermath of any catastrophic event, such as a hurricane, tsunami or terrorist attack, emergency call centres are quickly set up to disseminate information to the general public. However, a phone operator can only speak to one caller at a time, causing call centres to get overwhelmed with incoming calls, slow the flow of information and add to the anxiety of the situation.
Websites are much better at handling huge volumes of simultaneous visitors, and thus make a very good way of distributing up-to-date information to large numbers of people, very quickly.
However, there still remain potential barriers to using the internet for post disaster recovery information. The most obvious problem is that disasters may destroy the infrastructure that is vital to gaining internet access, namely electricity supply and computer hardware. For example, during Hurricane Katrina, more than a million residents and business in Louisiana were without power for several days while their property was underwater, rendering the net useless.
Mobile phones could provide a better tool due to their portable nature; furthermore, the availability of emergency battery charging packs, solar chargers and even wind-up phone chargers mean they can continue to operate when desktop PCs and laptops are down.
Social networking sites also have one large advantage over websites and call centres managed by local or national authorities: the ability of users to share information between themselves. It's often the people directly involved in the disaster who are best placed to give the most detailed and up-to-date information on the situation, which could include video and pictures in addition to written reports.
Rather than creating brand new networks specifically designed for disasters, some have suggested that it may be better to utilise existing social media networks that large numbers of people are already part of and which they are comfortable using.
Social networking sites have continued to grow in popularity and now cover a vast range of areas, from the more generalised and well-known sites such as MySpace, to highly specific sites that cover niche topics. They have become extremely successful in uniting people who are geographically dispersed yet share similar interests or needs.
