3.11—Devastation, Community and Rebuilding

By now anyone reading this knows all about the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disasters that have hit Northern Japan this past month. While there was strong shaking in Shizuoka on March 11th, I have been fortunate living far enough way to not experience any damage. But I do have family and friends in the Tohoku (Northern area) of Japan who were affected directly, but again fortunate to have survived and with their homes intact. Large bottles of sake are waiting to be consumed when we finally get together again.

What has really been special to me is the community spirit and rebuilding efforts by people, regardless of nationality or distance. The Twitter community has been particularly amazing. Immediately after (practically during) the shaking, tweets were going out checking on people and letting others know they are all right. Information was also quickly spread—translations of press conferences, where to get news, info and more. It continues today with reports on the affected areas, volunteer efforts and calls for supplies/help.

One of the most revolutionary is the twitter-sourced Quakebook. Conceived by @ourmaninabiko with a twitter call for submissions, it was created with the help of volunteer writers, artists, editors, designers and more. Most never met each other in person while it was created. Just published in Kindle format, all proceeds from sales will be donated to the Japan Red Cross. Read more about Quakebook at http://www.quakebook.org/ and if you haven’t already, do buy a copy for yourself and more for friends/family.