It feels a bit like 9/11 again, on the Net:
>Officials are claiming it was a power surge of some kind
I find it hard to believe a power surge could knock out a bus
= = =
Local BBC reporting several explosions at London stations and explosions on at least one bus. Entire Underground and most major rail stations closed. Eyewitness descriptions of trhe top of a bus in Tavistock square being blown off.
= = =
Greeting from the City of London!
Things ok here, if ppl a bit panicked. We've been asked to shut windows and keep away. Outside, people are milling around but it seems pretty calm.
= = =
Good lord. Situation in London is pretty chaotic. Lots of rumours flying around. So far, casualties appear low, although the high level of organisation (tube incident was a time to cause maximum damage) means that I'm just hoping there isn't another shoe to drop.
[from Metafilter]
Those postings were from early this morning, just as the bombings in London were happening, and this kind of contradictory, on-the-fly reporting isn’t too unlike what we saw online on 9/11.
But what’s new this time: Blogs. All of a sudden, all those personal online diaries about people and their cats and their jobs they hate and their friends they hang out with is each a little testament to survival and shock and determination to go on. Four years ago, that all happened in emails, flying back and forth, everyone worrying digitally but privately whether their loved ones were okay, everyone confirming digitally but privately that they were safe. Now, it’s happening out in the open:
I'm fine, as is Paul. Everyone we know is present and accounted for, though inevitably we know some people who were more caught up in the chaos this morning than either of us.
[from me(ish) dot org : a digital approximation]
Home at last - I've had a long day stuck on trains but I'm OK - unlike some of our fellow countrymen. Your thoughts should be with them tonight as mine are.
[from An Englishman’s Castle]
I’m still in shock about what’s happened today in London. Fortunately, everyone I’ve contacted has been OK, but it’s still been pretty devastating.
...
For those of you who have been hurt or have had loved ones hurt, I send my depest sympathies.
I’m going to finish this post now, as I don’t know what else to say, and I’m worried anything else I’d say would be trite.
[from Ramblin’s Rosen]
These and many more British bloggers can be found via UKBlogs Aggregator and London Bloggers.
The other big difference today: Flickr. Folks are just uploading images like crazy. Sure, this one got to Flickr via the BBC...
...but this one is jes folks, from Meg at me(ish) dot org...
I don’t think you can call what each individual blogger is doing “journalism,” but in the aggregate, I think it’s not too far amiss to call this “mass journalism,” creating a picture of a moment in time in a way that could never have been achieved even a year ago. It’s not a replacement for traditional journalistic reporting on the event -- it’s an alternative view, from down on the ground, from the people it’s happening to.
