London Riots: Organized and Now Cleaned Up by Social Media…Now That Is Two sides of the Spectrum!
After days of riots in London, thousands of Londoners and worldwide supporters are taking to social networks to help reclaim the streets of London. Possibly, the first Twitter organized post-riot clean up party!
While the rioters organized using the underground paths of Blackberry Messenger, the highly spreadable mediums of Facebook and Twitter have shown to be the perfect platforms for mobilizing cleanup organizers and followers in the early aftermath of the rioting.
For the most part, organization has been very smooth, with a few key hubs across social platforms taking root. The @RiotCleanup Twitter page has amassed more than 50,000 followers in fewer than 10 hours and is consistently broadcasting cleanup locations and times, along with other pertinent information regarding the initiative.
On Facebook, a similar page has emerged as the central location for information on the world’s largest social network. And for a more static look at where the action is, riotcleanup.co.uk is being constantly updated with cleanup location information. The creator of the website and resident of rural Shropshire, England explained: “I was sitting at home following the #londonriots hashtag — then I saw #riotcleanup start to appear. I am not in London, but wanted to do something. Near enough simultaneously, I registered riotcleanup.co.uk as someone else got the Twitter account @riotcleanup going. Then, I just knocked something together as fast as possible and uploaded it!”
Stunning!!!
Beyond the riot cleanup, another effort to catch and prosecute looters has taken root, with the Tumblr account “Catch A Looter” accepting and posting images of looters for identification.
Now how brilliant is that!?!?!
Business Continuity Planning & Emergency Management 
Regina,
Lokks like some officials are try to block social media or slow it down:
August 15, Associated Press – (California) Hackers protest BART decision to block cellphones. San Francisco’s mass transit system prepared for renewed protests August 15, a day after hackers angry over blocked cell phone service at some transit stations broke into a Web site and posted company contact information for more than 2,000 customers. The action by a hacker group known as Anonymous was the latest showdown between anarchists angry at perceived attempts to limit free speech, and officials trying to control protests that grow out of social networking and have the potential to become violent. Anonymous posted people’s names, phone numbers, and street and e-mail addresses on its own Web site, while also calling for a disruption of the Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) evening commute August 15. BART officials said August 14 they were working a strategy to try to block any efforts by protesters to try to disrupt the service. The transit agency disabled the effected Web site August 14 after it also had been altered by apparent hackers who posted images of the so-called Guy Fawkes masks that anarchists have previously worn when showing up to physical protests. The cyber attack came in response to the BART’s decision to block wireless service in several of its San Francisco stations August 11 as the agency aimed to thwart a planned protest over a transit police shooting. Officials said the protest had been designed to disrupt the evening commute.
Source: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/08/15/hackers_protest_bart_decision_to_block_cellphones/
Thanks Mike for this comment. I heard that Anonymous had hacked the BART website but had not yet done the data mining to discover the reason…thanks for the link!
Be well, Regina