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I have been tracking the role of citizen journalism in the 11/26 Mumbai terror attack in a timeline, a work-in-progress case study and a Flickr set of screenshots.

Hundreds of people — led by Vinukumar Ranganathan, Dina Mehta and Peter Griffin — shared news and other useful information from Mumbai on Twitter, Flickr and their blogs. Several bloggers live-blogged the event while Global Voices and DesiPundit worked hard to highlight the best posts.

However, even as we spent sleepless nights highlighting the most useful information on the Mumbai terror attack, several other people were busy spreading hate through some of the same online tools.

I don’t think of myself as particularly political and, in three years of blogging, I haven’t written even one post that is political in nature. My first tendency is to shy away from participating in emotionally charged political discussions like the ones beginning to dominate the Indian blogosphere now. I’m sure many of you feel the same way.

However, we will be doing ourselves great disservice if we step back and let the loonies take over. The 11/26 Mumbai terror attack is over, but the work of the online community in India is not over.

( The Mumbai terror attack has finally ended after more than 60 hours.

I was interviews by CBS News yesterday for a story on the role of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

A small clip from the interview was shown on The Early Show at CBS News today morning (YouTube)–

Here is the full text of the CBS News story –

Web A Reliable Resource In Mumbai Madness
New Media Allowed The World To Look In On A City In Crisis
NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2008

(CBS) The reach of the Internet proved a reliable resource when madness took to the streets of Mumbai on Wednesday as new media allowed the world to look in on a city in crisis and receive real-time information from citizen journalists as events were first unfolding.

Before the sights and sounds of the attacks in Mumbai could be televised, cell phones and the Internet were abuzz, both in blogs and with images as the horror unfolded, reports Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

“What’s important is to get a quick sense of what’s happening,” said social networking expert Gaurav Mishra. “One of the first real photographs of the scene was posted by somebody on Flickr.”

Introduction

Over the last day and a half, I have been following the story on the critical role played by citizen journalism in the 11/26 Mumbai terror attacks.

Mainstream media and the tech blogosphere have also been following the story actively.

The story has been framed in several ways — “new media vs. mainstream media”, “Twitter vs. blogs”, and even “Indian vs. American internet users” — and I thought that it may be worthwhile to write a long article length post and separate the myths from the reality.

I’ll divide my post into three parts —

- Part 1: What happened with citizen journalism during the 11/26 Mumbai terror attack?

- Part 2: How was it different from what has happened with citizen journalism before?

- Part 3: What does it mean for the future of citizen journalism?

Part 1: What happened with citizen journalism during the 11/26 Mumbai terror attack?

The citizen journalism narrative during the 11/26 Mumbai terror attack was not about bloggers going out into the disturbed areas with their camera phones, shooting photos and videos of the live action, then uploading it to their blogs or social networks, and writing in-depth commentary to accompany it.

Earlier today, Indian daily DNA interviewed me for a story on the role of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Here is the full text of the DNA story –

Twitter edges out blogs, Flickr and YouTube survive
Sreejiraj Eluvangal / DNA
Friday, November 28, 2008 03:03 IST

Twitter blew apart the blogosphere, as netizens clamoured for information about the Mumbai attacks

When Vinukumar Ranganathan spent about Rs1 lakh on a digital camera and lenses; he never thought it would one day lead to international fame. But thanks to the increasing power of the Internet, even a hobbyist like Vinu has suddenly become the celebrated face of citizen journalism.

“Yesterday, at about 10.30pm, I heard two loud bangs,” says the 27-year-old mobile software-builder, who lives next to the Colaba Fire Station in South Mumbai. “I did not pay much heed to it. But my sister was watching the TV and suddenly she said, ‘there’s shooting at the railway station’. So, I collected my camera and stepped out to investigate.”

The following Indian bloggers have been live-blogging the Mumbai terror attacks. While most bloggers are posting news and opinion based on mainstream media coverage, a few are posting first hand accounts and even photographs. I still haven’t seen any user generated videos.

Some of these links came from DesiPundit, GlobalVoices and BlogAdda.

I’ll regularly update this post, along with my original post on citizen journalism in Mumbai terrorist attacks.

- Global Voices (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)

- MumbaiHelp Blog (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)

- India Uncut (first-hand)

- Sonia Faleiro (first-hand)

- Arun Shanbag (first-hand + photos)

- Manish Vij at Ultrabrown (1, 2 and 3)

- John Mathew (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

- Arzan Sam Wadia at Mumbai Metblogs (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)

- Aditya Sengupta

- Saroj (1, 2)

- Kunal Sheth (1, 2, 3, 4)

- Praful

- Falstaff

- Prem Panicker (1, 2)

Earlier today, UK-based Journalism.co.uk interviewed me for a story on the role of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Here is the full text of the Journalism.co.uk story –

‘I am surprised by the lack of user-generated content’, says Mumbai attack live-blogger
Posted: 27/11/08 By: Judith Townend

The mainstream media may be paying attention to blogs, microblogs and social media sites to report on the terrorism attacks in Mumbai, but there has been a surprisingly low level of user-generated content said Gaurav Mishra, who has been live-blogging events for 21 hours (at time of writing) from Washington.

This is not the first time the world is witnessing a huge event through user-generated content, Mishra, the Yahoo! Fellow in Residence for the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, told Journalism.co.uk.

Take the Asian Tsunami coverage as an example, Mishra said. “At that time there was no Twitter but people were text messaging from the ground.

Over the last 24 hours, ‘in terms of original content there’s extremely little’, he added.

“The only meaningful example of first hand citizen journalism in the entire episode,” Mishra said, “were the 100 plus photos from Vinukumar Ranganathan, or ‘Vinu’, uploaded on Flickr, early in the seize.

Earlier today, Indian Daily LiveMint interviewed me for a story on the role of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Here is the full text of the LiveMint story –

Web a-twitter with terror attacks
Social networking sites act as news media for thousands during terrorist attacks that killed over 100 people
Melissa A. Bell

New Delhi: Shortly after terrorist attacks riddled South Mumbai, rather than turning on their televisions, thousands of people across the world turned to the World Wide Web for instant information.

Social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, were instantly updated with on-the-scene information, all compacted into 140-word updates. Twitter seemed to be the most popular site, with 50-100 messages uploaded per minute, and tagged under the chain of “mumbai” or “#mumbai”.

Some pleaded for information: “‘Emergency’ can some one check if there bomb blast of some shootout in Oberoi hotel of anywhere in Mumbai? I am at Inox inside”.

Meanwhile, other users broadcast the news: “Guys pls stay wherever u r…mumbai is under terrorist attacks… god help us.” Throughout the night and into Thursday, the site had a constant stream of voices reporting, commenting and lamenting the state of Mumbai.

Earlier today, US Daily Star Telegram quoted me extensively on a story on the role of citizen journalism in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Here is the full text of the Star Telegram story –

Users flock to social networking sites to share details of attacks
BY ANDREW CHAVEZ acha...@star-telegram.com
Thu, Nov. 27, 2008

While many people were glued to cable news channels looking for information about the terrorist attacks in Bombay, India, others, such as Gaurav Mishra, were glued to their laptops, taking in a flood of firsthand accounts posted on the Internet.

Mishra, a visiting professor at Georgetown University who studies online social media in developing countries, said many social networking sites provided information faster than major news organizations.

Researchers first saw the phenomenon during the massive tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004 and saw it again in the U.S. during Hurricane Katrina, he said.

Mishra said the attack in the city also known as Mumbai was no exception. Internet use in India is low compared with countries such as the U.S. and China, but it has grown about 1,100 percent since 2000, with about 60 million users now, according to data compiled by Internet World Stats.

Scott Adams on his contribution to energy conservation -

Then I remembered I’ve never procreated. That’s a huge energy savings. When you create new humans, they start leaving the lights on, driving, eating, pooping, and doing all sorts of energy-inefficient things. By not creating any new humans, I’m saving a huge amount of energy!

Scott Adams would have made a very different campaign to encourage people to save power in Mumbai -

Save power while you have sex. Use a condom!