Bloggers on Mumbai terror attacks

From a blog called Remix Concepts in India, apparently in Mumbai, a wrap-up on "the Power of Web and Citizen Reports" including blogs, twitter feeds and Wikipedia as terrorists struck Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) this week. Said the anonymous (epinonymous?) blogger RC:

Anyone who doubts the power of the social web need only take a look at the activity on Twitter last night, the micro-blogging service that has more than six million members worldwide.

Mere moments after the first shots were fired, Twitter users in India, and especially in Mumbai, were providing instant eyewitness accounts of the unfolding drama.

Fascinating quotes and links, from Twitter, from other blogs in Mumbai, the rapidly evolving Wikipedia page on the fighting and a resident who took more than a hundred pictures with his cellphone and posted them to Flickr. "RC," who usually provides other fare on the blog, added some thoughts on the role of social networking sites as fighting flared up in the city:

New media analyst Cherian George said events such as the Mumbai attacks have highlighted the emergence of citizen journalism and user-generated content.

“If the event is highly dispersed and affects very large numbers of people, it would be physically impossible for a very large news organisation to keep track of every development,” Mr George told Reuters. “Those kind of events show the great potential for all these user accounts to be valuable to the mainstream media."

Indeed, many mainstream media outlets, including CNN, used video footage and photos sent in from people on the ground in Mumbai to illustrate their reports, and many television stations, radio stations and newspapers were also keeping a close eye on Twitter and the blogosphere in the hope of finding out more information.

Despite the obvious value and immediacy of these eyewitness accounts, there are signs that the blogosphere is struggling to know what to do for the best when these sort of incidents occur.

In more normal times, Remix Concepts is "the Archieve of Everything in this world," adding: "Mainly we concentrate upon Sports, Girls, Entertainment, Fun, Educational (Science), Technology and Gadgets, and any other Remix Concepts."