Digital Disruption

On Sunday morning I woke up at 4am to the sounds of what I thought was bombing! I guess I was dreaming about the Soviet / Georgian bombings and awoke in that reality. Then my mind told me I was in “Safe Toronto” but I still felt anxious as the sounds continued.

I switched on the radio - nothing.
I switched on the TV - nothing.
I went to Google and searched for any news on Toronto - nothing.

Then I reached for my Blackberry and sent out the series of Tweets above. Looking on Twitter Search led me to PhotoJunkie and to Youtube videos and Flickr photos.

This episode in Toronto sparked a great commentary by Jeremiah Owyang on the risks and opportunities of citizen journalism.

Dave Lougheed commented on how “Twitter scoops local news.”

Last week, the use of Twitter to report the L.A. earthquakes inspired Organic’s Mike Hudson to write an article about his experiences. Mike held a different view, in which, he found the phone a more useful tool for his crisis:

“While we all look to the Twitter, text and Facebook or whatever else as the ‘next’ way of doing things, I’d say the real hero of breaking news is consistently turning out to be the biggest dinosaur of them all, the phone.”

But in my case… at 5am, I went back to sleep, feeling way less anxious now that I was better informed. The traditional media were all still asleep! They finally woke up hours later and started reporting on the events. Empowered by Twitter, Youtube and Flickr, I was able to express my anxiety with the World, poll the community to find out more, share information and be educated by and be part of citizen journalism on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.