The Internet and the tragedy of September 11.
Sandeep
Krishnamurthy
sandeep@u.washington.edu
Photos of the tragedy
New York Post pictures(Powerpoint presentation)
New
York Times pictures(Interactive Slide Show)
A fantastic compilation (It
takes time to load, but it is worth it)
Interactive News Reports
Technical Analysis of the Incident
Detailed
description of flight paths and the incident
A presentation by an engineering professor on why the
buildings collapsed
The Network of Hijackers
Using social network analysis and public information, Valdis Krebs has
put together a fascinating
picture of the network of
hijackers. Also, see his insightful analysis of this network.
Media Report
Most News Sites Were
Unavailable Right Away
w Top
sites such as CNN.com, NYTimes.com and ABCNews.com were unavailable between
9:00-10:00am Eastern time immediately following the attacks due to severe
traffic overload.
n Usatoday.com
18.2% availability, MSNBC.com 22.0%
availability.
w Most
of the news sites reduced the size of their homepages by eliminating graphics-
n E.g. CNN.com's homepage went from
255 kilobytes to about 20 kilobytes.
Search engines were deluged with exceptional levels of customer
traffic.
Life on Google on September 11 and soon
afterwards
This
article presents extensive information on how the tragedy manifested itself
on Google. For example, it describes
the top 10 searches on Google on September 11.
What People Said Soon
After the Attack
One of the properties of the Internet is that it is a permanent
medium. Records of reactions from that
day are preserved for posterity. I have
included below excerpts from Metafilter, a news community.
You can read the entire thread by clicking here. A similar conversation
ensued on Slashdot.
w
I'm
looking at it right now (we can see the WTC from our office) and it looks like a
second plane just hit the second tower (we just saw it happen). I can't confirm
it but it's absolutely crazy...
w
I'm not
normally a praying man. But I'm praying right now...
w
going
crazy here in korea....please please post as much detail as you can. CNBC Asia
is giving minimal coverage, and i can't access any of the major news sites...
w
My skin is
absolutely crawling.
w
Some sort
of bombing at the pentagon just occurred.
w
Oh, man...
I am so sick. This is the day everything changed. I was just there the day before
yesterday, the World Trade Center. There are so many people there....
w
A rumour
that the Iraqis have hijacked 7 passenger planes around the world and are
planning more of this. This is the rumour here, I'm in Paris, has anyone else
heard anything like this?
w
The top of
one of the trade towers has collapsed into the street.
w
I'm in
midtown --- looking straight down fifth Ave. all you can see is a column of
smoke where the collapsed tower is.
w
I'm
feeling the need to leave the country, myself.
w
CNN
reported that the plane that downed in PA actually originated out of Chicago.
w
I am in
Europe and cannot get any lines into the US. All of you with family abroad, let
them know you're OK.
w
I am
shaking. There are no words.
“I’m Okay” Registry
The purpose of this registry was to let people know you were OK. The
top two such registries were-
n
Registry
allows users at New York, Washington D.C and Pennsylvania to indicate that they
are OK.
n
It was
created by Bill Schunn, a software developer.
Online Memorials and
Tributes
These are too numerous to list here.
Here are some that I liked-
You can
view and post messages regarding the tragedy at this site.
Great site
with a lot of links to interesting information(e.g. free flags)
Musical
tribute.
Another
musical tribute.
Children drawings about the disaster
The New York Times has a collection
of children drawings about the disaster.
Donations
People donated at Amazon.com, Yahoo, Paypal, Redcross.org
etc. to the Red Cross disaster relief fund(over $7 million). By September 13,
Amazon had collected 71,516 donations totaling to over $2.3 million. Amazon waived
its usual fee.
Mourners from around the
globe.
This photo gallery
shows people mourning across the globe.
What if the Taliban Won
An e-mail has been circulating with the subject line- What if the Taliban
won. Here are two images
from that e-mail. Image 1, 2.
Cartoons- From the bizarre to the moving
Find the Terrorist
cartoon
Cagle’s Cartoon Headquarters-
Extensive Links
Rumors, Myths, Urban
Legends and Conspiracy Theories
Rumors propagated on the
Internet related to the tragedy
w
Canadian
journalist Gordon Sinclair’s editorial originally
written in 1973 was recirculated as new.
w
A picture of the devil/satan emerged from the smoke of the World Trade
Center. This actually spooked some
people out.
w
Arab
schoolchildren in Jersey City told their classmates ahead of time that the
World Trade Center would be attacked.
w
Cnn used
old pictures in story that there were celebrations on the West Bank.
A comprehensive list of these rumors is available here.
News Explosion on the Internet
As we all know, through the
Internet, one can access papers from around the world. If you have not been to this incredible collection of online
newspapers, do it now. When I asked
my students if they had a chance to visit a source of Pakistani news, most said
that they did not realize there could be English news papers out of
Pakistan! Well, they do.
Here are some sources of news that you may not have considered-
w
From
Pakistan
w
From India
w
From
Britain
My hope is that this is a terrible aberration and we will return
to a world of lasting peace.
“It is possible to live in peace”
- Gandhi
