BizJournals Portfolio
Oct 25 2007 12:00am EDT

Technology and the California Fires

An ounce of good may be coming out of the California fires. For the first time, an array of instantaneous, mobile, Web 2.0 technology is being used by people and institutions to deal with a disaster as it happens.

This could be significant. The 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia woke people up to the ways technology could be used during a disaster -- but in that case wasn't. Since then, countries and companies have created things like text messaging alert systems. More importantly, individuals have figured out how to use on-line services like Twitter and Craigslist to track disasters and help affected people.

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