Web's role in disaster relief

It has become a mainstream tool and medium in times of crisis, according to the Los Angeles Times - in ways the Internet's founders never dreamed 30 years ago. Besides enabling contributions and relaying info fast, "it reunited families and connected them with shelter. It turned amateur photographers into chroniclers of history and ordinary people into pundits. It allowed television stations to keep broadcasting and newspapers to keep publishing. It relayed heartbreaking tales of loss and intimate moments of triumph." The examples are inspiring: Craigslist.com's classifieds site was "jammed with offers of shelter across the country" and more than half of the $500 million+ in donations the Red Cross has received came in via its Web site. You'll find more in the Times article, which also tells how the Net personalizes and humanizes these huge events.