December 27, 2004
@ 03:58 AM

I tend to think it takes a lot of insensitivity to stun me but it seems like I was incorrect. I was taken aback by Robert Scoble's post entitled Where's the blogosphere on first-hand earthquake reports? where he writes

By the way, PubSub really rocks (it lets you search blogs only and build an RSS feed so you can watch a specific search term over time -- something none of the big three search engines let you do). My posts only took a few minutes to start showing up in the earthquake feed I built. There's remarkably little blogging going on about the earthquake.

It's really disappointing. Citizen Journalism is really failing here. Almost no first-hand reports.

The mainstream press kicked the blogosphere's a##.

This is probably one of the most insensitive and unthinking posts I've seen in a while. A giant tidal wave kills over twelve thousand people and Robert Scoble's first instinct is to complain because none of the survivors rushed to their blogs immediately afterwards to post about it.

Wow...


 

Monday, 27 December 2004 04:54:10 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I just apologized and clarified over on my blog at http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/12/26.html#a9047
Monday, 27 December 2004 07:23:25 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Um, a giant tidal wave kills over twelve thousand people and your first instinct is to complain about Robert Scoble's call for better coverage?

Talk about a lack of perspective.
Gabe
Monday, 27 December 2004 11:08:43 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
insensitive? no. Plain nonsense? maybe.
Monday, 27 December 2004 11:50:11 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
People have to realize that blackouts are happening in the worst parts of the region.

Maldives, for example, is totally cut off from the rest of the world because they are below sea level and 2/3 of their islands are now completely under-water.

Chennai, India, where so many of my .NET Friends are, is also declared in a state of emergency with no electricity and worst, water and death toll is in the tens of thousands.

What is there to blog about ? That there are more bodies than body bags ? That grief-striken family members are screaming and tearing their hair out on the streets of Sri Lanka because their 2 year old has drowned before even knowing anything ? There is really nothing to blog about.

Do something about it.

http://www.softwaremaker.net/blog/PermaLink,guid,5e4f1eb6-eedc-4434-9e87-d642e9110585.aspx
Monday, 27 December 2004 21:49:19 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
when I read the post from Robert yesterday I didn't think it was insensitive. I did think "well ummm they probably arent blogging 'cuz they are trying to find missing family members or something" but I wasn't offended. Robert was commenting on the reporting, not the event itself. Cut him some slack Dare. I think Robert has proven himself to be a sensitive caring type over the years.
Monday, 27 December 2004 23:07:35 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I must say that I agree with Dare on this one, I could hardly believe what I read on Scoble's blog. It probably didn't come out the way he intended it, but still, publishing a piece like that shows a stunning lack of critical judgment. When tens of thousands of people are dead, I couldn't care less who reports it first. What we need to focus on is how we can help (and I'll grant Scoble that he blogged about that first, which is the one redeeming element in this story).
Tuesday, 28 December 2004 17:18:02 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

This is typical Dare. Trying to stir the pot a little bit. Dare, sit down. Robert has sent his check and softie matched it. It is also interesting to get meta on the reporting. It does not dishonor the dead to say that we want to know more about what is going on in asia from a unfiltered source. If you are offended, don't buy it, don't read it, but please don't say your opinion's right.
Tuesday, 28 December 2004 22:56:49 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Aftermath.Reflection()

http://www.softwaremaker.net/blog/PermaLink,guid,a4afd46b-4782-4583-aeec-ffba166df9c5.aspx
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