Internet helps search for victims

When Peter Griffin, a Mumbai advertising worker, heard of the tsunami crisis that had struck Asia, his first instinct was to help.

As the beginnings of a massive relief effort were co-ordinated and aid began flowing into affected regions, he realised that the response lacked a vital element - information.

With Paola di Maio, Dina Mehta and a small group of internet contributors, many from tsunami-affected areas, Griffin established SEA-EAT, the South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami weblog (see link below).

With more than two million visits since it was established this month, it has fast become the online clearinghouse for information and contact details.

The success of Griffin's blog - the word is derived from web log, a constantly updated internet journal, usually run by one person - says much about the way the internet has forever changed the nature of disaster relief.

Disaster zones in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have become physical hubs for frantic information exchange; hundreds of noticeboards and virtual morgues have sprung up, featuring the frustrating juxtaposition of photos of the dead alongside pleas for information on the missing.

Governments in these areas lack the organisation to co-ordinate the information and effectively deal with the flood of inquiries from desperate relatives, many of whom are now taking to the internet to search for their missing friends and family.

At hundreds of message boards, blogs and chat rooms which have been specially created by individuals, news agencies and charities, people can list descriptions of missing loved ones or search official records for their whereabouts.

Most browsers are the relatives and friends of thousands of missing Westerners who were travelling through Asia when the tsunami hit. They use the internet to sort through lists of the dead on Government websites, or look for relatives in the multitude of pictures of the injured and orphaned on hospital home pages.

Viola Hellstroem was one of thousands scouring the internet for word of her family, who were holidaying in Thailand as the tsunami struck, when she found a photograph of her nephew, Hannes Bergstroem.

Pictures of the 2-year-old were posted by a Phuket hospital.

"I screamed for joy," she told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. Hannes has since been reunited with his father.

Peoplematch, a website set up by the biometric company RC Group, offers a more sophisticated means of helping relatives to track down the missing.

The Hong Kong company compiles photos of the dead and stores them on its online database, allowing internet users who have missing relatives to upload pictures of them to be scanned against the database using a facial mapping system - close matches are emailed back to relatives for confirmation.

The website is free and is updated hourly as volunteers photograph victims of the tsunami across Thailand.

The founders of these virtual information centres are not surprised that people are turning to the internet for information that was previously available only to rescue workers on the ground.

Websites, with their geographically diverse network of dedicated volunteers, can provide centrally organised accurate disaster updates with a speed that cannot be matched by traditional avenues.

Critical information spreads like a forest fire, says Rohit Gupta, a Mumbai journalist and contributor to SEA-EAT.

Technology has also become the primary source of private aid for what is the biggest international relief effort in history. Internet donations have led the way in an unprecedented outpouring of private aid - Amazon.com alone has raised more than US$15 million ($21 million) through direct donations to the Red Cross via its website.

Websites have also sprung up advising users about the relative merits of individual charities. Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator, allows users to choose a cause to donate to based on efficiency and focus.

The transparency and accessibility that the internet has brought to the donation process have unquestionably been one of the principal reasons for its success.

Jeremy Farrell, a 22-year-old Australian who was holidaying in Malaysia when the tsunami hit and who posts regular updates on the Malaysian recovery to his blog, believes the crisis will for ever change the way we view the internet.

"Previously this kind of technology was being harnessed for commercial purposes but this has shown how the internet's virtual presence is its biggest advantage - allowing it to function in places the traditional media cannot."