Rising use of social web amid disasters

The communication, collaboration, networking and coming together of people after the unprecedented and devastating earthquake in Haiti has once again illustrated the importance of social web.
As the traditional channels of communications collapsed in the area and as rescue professionals were stuck away for a while before getting to the scene of disaster to help victims, Tweeters, Facebookers, charity organisations and users of other social media tools collaborated to share information, raise cash and check whereabouts of the loved ones.
Immediately after the disaster struck, social web was full of minute-by-minute updates, appeal for help, witness accounts and some stomach curdling pictures from the scene.
Even now, thousands of web users from around the world are continuing to come to social networking sites for sharing news in the aftermath of the earthquake and are searching for news about missed relatives.
Twitter's "Trending Topics" today focus around- "Help Haiti" and "Yele"- posts that are raising funds for the victims. It was reported that major media channels connected with aid workers through Skype as phone lines were dead and redundant.
This latest disaster highlights the way social media sites have evolved and used as a means of raising global awareness and even for campaigning. In the past we have seen the effective use of social web in environmental campaigning, Iran elections, Hudson bay plane landing and more recently in the support shown towards Google's exit from China.
The first pictures of the Hudson bay plane incident was out on Twitter and then on terrestrial news channels where as in Iran, the authorities could not control the expression of displeasure through Twitter by Iranians.
More recently, social web has given people an alternative medium to be heard and be heard effectively.
The opinion of people and their information in these websites are so binding and hard to ignore that it helps not just raise awareness and bring transparency but force the authorities to act in favour of the emotions and views expressed through the web.
How social networking sites and the web in general have proactively played their roles in enabling loved ones get in touch with or know the whereabouts of the victims of the unprecedented earthquake in Haiti will go a long way in calming their critics.