A sad predilection for sensational reporting on Facebook (echoing the Second Life fetish with many tech journalists) leads to the most bizarre assertions.
The Telegraph reports on a story that will appear in the New Scientist with claims that Facebook is more effective than emergency services in a disaster. Of course, what it means is that Facebook, in the US, with reliable broadband wired and wireless coverage, with a ubiquity of PCs, where everyone speaks, reads and comprehends English, where Universities are well connected, where everyone has laptops and where everyone and their pet Chihuahua have a Facebook account, the platform can on occasion get more information out quicker than emergency services.
Going by the headline alone, I would like to see really love to see “Facebook” conduct CPR on victims.
What next I wonder? Facebook helping IBM to solve all known and unknown problems related to disasters?
Ooooh. So exciting.
May 3, 2008 at 2:35 pm
[...] Sanjana also makes a point which I’d agree with entirely: Of course, what it means is that Facebook, in the US, with reliable broadband wired and wireless coverage, with a ubiquity of PCs, where everyone speaks, reads and comprehends English, where Universities are well connected, where everyone has laptops and where everyone and their pet Chihuahua have a Facebook account, the platform can on occasion get more information out quicker than emergency services. [...]