Wednesday, July 13, 2011

How a Google doc joined the battle to save lives during the Mumbai blasts

Spreadsheet gave information on blood transfusions, numbers for police, accommodation and offers of help

Hundreds of people used a shared spreadsheet on Google's system to post helpful numbers and information following the blasts in Mumbai.

The spreadsheet soon filled up with details offering blood transfusions, numbers for police stations, offers of accommodation and general offers of help.

Set up by Nitin Sagar, based in New Delhi, at 3.35pm BST, the document soon had scores of people adding offers of help. The number of people viewing the document quickly passed a thousand, forcing Google to limit the detail provided to keep it online.

People were asked to give their area, offer of help, contact number(s) and username.

On Twitter a hashtag – #heretohelp quickly developed too, with people also offering places to stay with contact details.


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds


Stuart Dredge 14 Jul, 2011


--
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/13/google-mumbai-blasts
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More