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a highly motivated individual or small group engenders a process which
begins in a loosely structured and informal way. As momentum builds up
and action becomes more focused, the engagement process may become
more formalized and institutionalized.
At one extreme, highly amorphous structures are occurring spontane-
ously. There are indications that ICT is fostering and enabling citizen en-
gagement in exciting and innovative ways. One dramatic example of an
emerging phenomenon is afforded by the SEA-EAT initiative which arose
following the December 2004 Tsunami disaster: “
The December 26, 2004
tsunami that hit the communities encircling the Indian Ocean will be re-
membered as one of the world's worst natural disasters. It may also well
be remembered as one of the earliest successful uses of the entire contin-
uum of Internet and other communications tools to respond, to help, to
grieve
” (Smith et al. 2005). Individuals across the globe created SEA-EAT
(the South - East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami weblog) within 12 hours
of the initial earthquake to coordinate the news, information and reactions
that were dominating web space. Many different forms of digital technolo-
gies were used including blogs which served as the earliest reporting
mechanisms of the disaster. The SEA-EAT blog was used to quickly res-
pond to the outpouring of support and grief, by providing news, informa-
tion and contacts. An online blog recording eye witness accounts was also
published by the mainstream press. The facility to make donations online
resulted in contributions from individual Americans matching the $350
million pledge of the US Government within ten days of the disaster; total
online donations worldwide reached $750 million by January 10
th
. The
disaster also led to the creation of 'wikis' (a web application that allows
users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to
edit the content - see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIKI) to document the event
for posterity. Mobile phones and 'short message service' (SMS) or text
messaging also played a part and were used by citizen journalists to report
on the aftermath of the tsunami from places without Internet infrastructure
(Smith et al. 2005).
Contributions to the SEA-EAT blog about the tsunami and its impact
were tailing off when a devastating earthquake took place in Kashmir on
8
th
October 2005. Within 24 hours, another blog had been set up with simi-
lar objectives and functions as the tsunami-help blog.
In terms of the technologies used, blogging and contributions to wikis
are perhaps the most transforming new technologies in giving citizens their
own voice. An important factor in their appeal may well be the fact that at
present, access to these technologies is a free resource. In the case of blogs,
sustainability depends primarily on the commitment of the blogger. Their
use relies on the efforts, commitment and enthusiasm of the contributors.
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