Publishers Note: The humanity of the Internet came to life as the catastrophic tsunami swept through South East Asia. The treacherous waves, caused by an undersea quake, unexpectedly took the lives of thousands of natives and tourists along Asian coastlines.

The Internet is still in its infancy and with every major world event - Sept. 11, the War in Iraq - the Internet continues to play a new and more important role in how we as a global community respond. The Tsunami is no different.

We at PoliticsOnline will continue to respond as well, first with a donation (if you haven't, please give) and secondly with coverage and analysis of what it all means to us on the civic internet.

This Special Report is our hasty summary and analysis of what has happened so far. In the weeks ahead we will continue to provide ongoing coverage of the role of Internet in this continuing crisis. If you see something relevant and important that you think would interest our global readers, please pass it along.

Phil Noble
Publisher

Estimated Death Toll Indonesia: 79,940 Sri Lanka: 24,743 India: 7,330 Thailand: 2,394 Somalia: 120 Burma: 90 Maldives: 67 Malaysia: 65 Tanzania: 10 Seychelles: 1 Bangladesh: 2 Kenya: 1 Total : 114,000* 5 million affected** As of 12:00 a.m, Indian Standard time, 31/12/2004 *Source : BBC

The mercilessness of Asia's tsunami grows clearer with each new posting to the web. Worst-hit Indonesia sharply raised its death toll, taking the number of fatalities around the whole Indian Ocean region above 150,000 in 12 nations, according to Reuters. Though the waters have calmed there is increasing alarm that the death toll could skyrocket if survivors are not given assistance.

"As many as 5 million people are not able to access what they need for living," said David Nabarro, head of a World Health Organization (WHO) crisis team.

Help is now trickling in from all over in the word in response to the disaster, and from the beginning many in the online world have been instrumental in providing information to those seeking answers and relief to those in need.

1) Blogs, Emails Were First to Respond - Showed How Tsunami Came With No Warning And Its Impact

Email messages and blog posts from individuals gave the first eyewitness accounts in areas where the water came ashore; and for a short time these messages were the only form of live communication available as mainstream media was unable to reach the devastation until the waters subsided.

One such example is the email excerpts of Robert Stenehiem (found at The Seattle Times website), a Seattle native and merchant seaman who was on vacation on Phuket Island in Thailand when the tsunami hit can.

"The weirdest thing just happened. I was eating breakfast at a restaurant about a block from the beach. I was about halfway through when I noticed a major exodus from the beach, a major traffic flow of bikes going full speed ahead and cars also," wrote Stenehiem in his first email.

However, the biggest role the Internet is now playing the affected countries is providing relief efforts and information on missing persons.

2) Individuals Turned To the Web To Respond In New And Innovative Ways

Online efforts quickly came to life as the waters receded, in many cases led by average people doing extraordinary acts via the Internet.

- Eyewitness Accounts - Amateur Videos From The Sky Photographer's Story - Relief - Red Cross Relief Web World Vision NPR List Of Where To Give - News and Information - Channel News Asia Special Coverage SEA-EAT Blog Phuket Disaster Message Board BBC Asia Quake Disaster Lonely Planet The Guardian Coverage Tsunami News Aggregator

One of the most significant online relief efforts quickly came together when a group of online friends created the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog (SEA-EAT), an online journal with a plethora of links about how to help affected countries through financial and clothing donations to various charities. The patchworked Internet site along with other alternative soursces such as Lonely Planet were used to provide specific resources larger mainstream sites could not provide, such as tracking missing persons and donating to relief efforts.

There are countless examples of how individuals contected through online communities are helping in whatever way possible, such as Pim, a blogger from San Francisco, who offered to translate Thai-language webpages, and is even offered to call hospitals in Thailand on friends and relatives' behalf.

In Italy Reuters reports on an Internet site set up by an Italian schoolboy, previously dedicated to "The Simpsons," is now helping people track down loved ones missing since the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. The creator Valerio Natale, a 14-year-old high school student, says two missing Italian holidaymakers -- Dario Collodi and Liliana Giordanino -- have already been found thanks to postings on his web page.

The Internet has also been cathartic for some of the families, according to The Times-Picayune. Chat groups and forums have become virtual town squares for those who are literally halfway around the world and feel a need to connect with others.

That's what led Lisa Fish to post a notice on a newly created bulletin board aimed at helping people locate missing loved ones.

Though bloggers and ordinary were in many cases at the front lines of relief efforts, corporate and nonprofit organizations relief efforts have also taken advantage of the internet.

3) Online Organizations Transition Their Websites To 'Crisis Management' and Providing Help

In a remakably short time, the web has become one gaint 'crisis management' web. Online retailers, discussion groups, search engines, political parties, news organizations - just about every type of organization is 'doing something'.

We are in the middle of a fundamental shift from mass media to the personal media of computers and the Internet, and charitable giving is a logical progression. - Paul Saffo, director of the Silicon Valley-based Institute for the Future.

A broad appeal to donate online was sent out to the web world Monday as Amazon.com began using its homepage to collect dontations for the American Red Cross for tsunami relief. The Houston Chronicle reported that during the first four hours more than $315,000 was collected. By Wednesday evening more than 53,000 people had donated more than $3 million. The number grew to $9 million by Friday.

The Seattle-based retailer also used the site to solicit American Red Cross donations after the terrorists attacks of 2001 and generated $6.8 million in contributions through that effort. The Red Cross announced Thursday online donations outstripped traditional phone banks by more than 2 to 1.

Google has also posted a link on its home page that offered "Ways to help with tsunami relief.'' Another click brought users to a screen with links to relief agencies ranging from Unicef and Oxfam to the Amazon.com home page, according to the Washington Post.

On America Online's start page, subscribers yesterday found links to donate to disaster relief funds through Network for Good -- a Web-based nonprofit founded in 2001 by AOL, Cisco Systems and Yahoo.

Apple Computer's home page is also devoted to fund-raising for relief efforts.

Technology has had a huge impact on our ability to disseminate information about what we're doing. - Kara Bunte, Red Cross spokeswoman.

The desire to donate online is simply astonishing. "It's the largest number of online donations we've ever had," said Kris Torgeson, spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders. The outpour of donations has even caught some websites off guard. Catholic Relief Services reported it was so overwhelmed with Web traffic that its site crashed.

A novel idea using eBay is another example of people giving anyway they can. AuctionDrop.com, in cooperation with UPS, is allowing people to drop off items with a resale value of $75 or more to be auctioned on eBay with all proceeds donated to CARE's South Asian Disaster Relief fund.

4) The Net Created Instant Links for National Governments to Reach Their Citizens Scattered All Around the World

Holiday-makers were also among those caught by surprise. Nearly 5,000 foreigners -- half from Sweden and Germany -- are missing, many in Thailand, where 710 foreigners have been confirmed dead. Many governments quickly turned to the net to find new and different ways to connect with their citizens scattered in distant lands.

The distraught relatives and friends of those missing after the most catastrophic tsunami on record are turning to the Internet to search for loved ones. In Hong Kong and Singapore to Australia, Britain, the United States and Sweden, people are scanning through lists of names of victims and posting bulletins to look for those missing. And for a handful of people, the internet is reuniting families.

A 2-year-old Swedish boy who was found dazed and alone on a roadside in the wasteland of a tsunami-devastated Thai resort area was reunited Tuesday with his uncle, who spotted the child's picture on the Internet.

This flow of news from one man in the street to another certainly fosters a spirit of community, where any bit of news is better than no news. - Tan, a blogger and former copywriter in Malaysia.

Many government websites have set up listing names of victims from the disaster. Thai officials alone have setup three: phuketitcity.com, disaster.go.th, narenthorn.or.th. Of the hundreds of bulletins posted on these sites, a handful had good news for some.

On the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Web site, dozens of people posted notes seeking someone.

Others sent text messages from across continents in a bid to find those who are missing, according to MSNBC.

In Sweden and Denmark, mobile phone operators stopped charging for mobile calls to and from Southeast Asia for 48 hours to make it easier for survivors to get in touch with their families.

The Swedish companies also sent text messages to all Swedish-registered phones in Thailand asking subscribers to call their families or the Swedish Embassy.

5) NGO's Come Of Age Online With Crisis

This global disaster may witness the 'coming of age' of the Internet for NGOs and other charitable organizations. For years, the Internet has served as a rallying point for relief efforts with agencies and organizations increasingly utilizing the good will of those fortunate enough to have access to technology. However, with the global growth of the web this diasater may be the beginning of a true global response via NGOs and non profit groups.

Tech News World notes some of the most recent events:

Basically, society's response to disaster relief is being changed fundamentally by the Internet. - John Hartman, vice president of client services for Kintera.

"After the September 11 terrorist attacks, numerous groups and companies used the Internet to organize and collect donations for victims and relief efforts. More recently, according to Martin, the Red Cross saw online support emerge for victims of the summer's series of hurricanes, with Internet traffic and donations spiking just after each storm hit. Martin said relief for the devastating tsunami in South Asia, viewed as one of the worst natural disasters in a generation, was proportionate to the scope of the disaster.

While this summer's hurricanes brought in $19 million over ten days, the response to the South Asia tragedy has brought in $18 million in just three days, Martin said.

Unfortunately it's not the first time people sitting at their computers learned of a crisis and responded by giving. Charitable online donations rose dramatically after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but relief officials said the scale of online giving has grown dramatically since then."

Malaysian news website Star-Tech Central writes, "the earthquake and tsunami catastrophe is the first event of its kind to be covered by bloggers, amateur online journalists reporting from the scene of the disaster - in many cases, their own back yards."

Madan Rao a media consultant based in Bangalore India, also notes, "almost exactly one year ago, a disastrous earthquake struck Iran, and the Web was used by a number of international news media and relief organizations to disseminate news, share information about missing citizens, and coordinate relief efforts.

Aid Promised To Help Victims World Bank $250m UK $96m EU $44m US: $350m Canada: $33m Japan: $30m Australia: $27m France: $20.4m Denmark: $15.6m Saudi Arabia: $10m

6) The Dark Side - Give Online, But Beware Of Fraud

While the U.S. federal government has made attempts to crack down on charity fraud since September 11, 2001 - the Patriot Act increased the penalty of impersonating a Red Cross member to five years from one - and Internet users have become more savvy, phony charities are trying harder than ever to swindle donors on the Internet, according to the New York Sun.

If you question the validity of an organization, contact the state or federal consumer department with which they are required to register. Donors can also visit charitywatch.org, the Web site of the American Institute of Philanthropy, for a list of recommended charities that are conducting tsunami relief efforts.

Officials advised those making donations online to be suspicious of e-mail solicitations and seek out reputable organizations that they are interested in supporting.

PoliticsOnline encourages you to give in whatever way you can. All of the online donation sites listed in this report provide secure online credit card transactions. For more information, use the provided news and information links in this report. Also visit PoliticsOnline.com and its blog BuzzWebster.com for continuing Internet news updates.

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