[Air-l] The Net Response - Using the Internet to Support Relief and Response

[Steven Clift]

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The Net Response

By Steven Clift
http://www.publicus.net
Future updates: netresponse-subscribe at yahoogroups.com


During this time of great tragedy now is the time to use
all the tools we have available to help the families of the
missing, the dead and injured survivors.  We need to come
together as communities within our nation and nations
around the world as we respond and care for one another.

You can do something right now via the Internet from your
home and place of work as well as donate blood, money, and
time to relief efforts.  Use the Internet as a simple
communication tool to provide mutual benefit and support to
others in this crisis and help build the bonds required to
deal with what comes next.  Bringing people together and
strengthening the bonds of family, friendship, and
neighbors is step one, online and in-person.

Step two is to use the Internet to gain insight and
understanding on a global basis so we can more effectively
respond and change the environment that motivates terrorism.
While our governments, intelligence operations, and armies
will respond with great force, we as humans can do our part
one person at a time.

The cornerstone of your action is the creation of different
kinds of e-mail group lists. You can create a free e-mail
lists in minutes from websites like YahooGroups
<http://groups.yahoo.com/>, Topica <http://topica.com>, and
others.  An e-mail list allows you to exchange messages
through one e-mail address (i.e. myfamily at yahoogroups.com)
among a group of members subscribed to the list.  E-mail
can be private or public and lists may be set-up to deliver
one-way announcements or allow open discussion.  If you
create a public e-mail list, send me an announcement
netresponse at publicus.net that I can share with others.

Take action now by creating an e-mail list for:

   1. Your Family - Create an e-mail group list for your
   extended family.  E-mail lists will help you communicate
   as a family group in an easy and convenient manner.
   Step one is to collect all of your family member
   addresses. You should do this whether this directly
   affected your family or not.

   2. Friends - Create an e-mail list for friends who want
   to provide mutual support to each other and families of
   those who are missing, confirmed dead, or survivors who
   need assistance.  Of course, any group of friends can
   create a list to support the needs of any shared friend
   in any difficult life situation or simply to make group
   contact easy across the country, town, or world.

   3. Neighbors - Whether for the people who live on your
   block, your larger neighborhood or entire town, e-mail
   forums you should build an e-mail list in the common
   interest for community conversation.  These forums are
   technically like all those global special interest
   discussion forums, but instead are local and general in
   nature.  When a community is in crisis, it needs a forum
   that people can turn to for immediate many-to-many
   communication.  At the very local level we need the
   protection of neighbors who communicate with one another
   and the Internet can help break that ice required to
   rebuild the in-person connections required to survive.  I
   run an e-mail list for my neighborhood, so can you.  If
   we see suspicious activity in our neighborhoods, we need
   the bonds to discover and report such activity to the
   appropriate authorities.  Building trust among neighbors
   is a key building block for local safety and security.
   See my related article on Building the Online Commons
   <http://e-democracy.org/do/commons.html> for more advice.

   4. Area Response to Attacks - One way to help coordinate
   tributes and the response in your country (many of those
   missing are citizens of many countries), state, or city,
   is to create special e-mail lists for communication among
   those seeking to aid the recovery or those who want to
   respond.  Such forums can be created to deal with local
   issues such as helping traumatized children, organizing
   rallies and memorial services, or dealing with local
   discrimination and acts not in the spirit of domestic
   tolerance.

   5. Share News, Information and Views - Through e-mail
   lists like the Sept11info at yahoogroups.com set up
   voluntarily by Andy Carvin
   <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sept11info> thousands of
   people are sharing breaking news and in-depth resources
   that allow us to gain deeper insights into what is
   happening.  My own site <http://www.politicalbs.com>
   provides quick links to additional web-based political
   discussion forums and to government and media sources
   around the world. As the United States and its allies
   develop their response, the Internet will be used on a
   global basis to share news and information unlike never
   before.  This and e-mail lists that you create will allow
   people to communicate directly and unmediated around the
   world.  We will be able to interact directly with those
   in the Middle East and read their news just as they can
   watch and read ours.  Nothing will break down the highly
   propagandistic mass media in some countries or even our
   own as military action is taken.  That is not that point.
   The challenge for us is to use the Internet to build
   direct human connection among the vast majority of
   moderate and reasonable individuals in all countries so
   we can learn as much as we can about the motivations of
   terrorists and how to most effectively attack and cut off
   the support for those organizations and ideologies.

However you respond to recent events, the Internet can play
a useful and practical role.  That said, the Internet is
only a small part of what we all can and should do.  Events
like these help us appreciate our families and friends and
what really matters in this world.  By organizing online we
can more quickly respond to what is next and hopefully help
control our own destiny.

Finally, if you are interested in ways we can use the
Internet to deal with this situation, join my low volume
NetResponse e-mail list and stay tuned for future updates.
To subscribe send a message to
<netresponse-subscribe at yahoogroups.com>. If you are
technically involved in any existing relief, response, or
media efforts or if you want to contribute your ideas,
advanced technical and programming skills, or your
technical infrastructure, join the NetResponse Technical
working group by sending an e-mail to
<netresponse-tech-subscribe at yahoogroups.com>.