The emergence of Twitter over the last few years has dramatically changed the way we receive our news. No longer do we have to wait for the newspapers the next morning or watch the news on tv at the top of the hour. With twitter we get instant breaking news from people like you and me who happen to be in the right place at the right time. Or sometimes they get caught up in natural disasters and they send out messages to warn others. As you probably know, I started tweeting last year (@RichardBarrow) and have I gained an enormous amount from the experience.
I love the immediacy of the medium. Like the other week when within seconds everyone on twitter knew that an earthquake was rocking Thailand. The news also went out shortly afterwards that it wasn’t as bad in Thailand as it could have been. Another natural disaster recently happened down south with floods and mudslides. Using Twitter we were able to get the information out of places to avoid as well as updates on flights and train services. I had a few worried parents contact me about their children who were backpacking on the islands of Koh Tao and Koh Phangan. They hadn’t heard from them. By using Twitter I was able to get in touch with people on these islands to find out the real situation. This put the parents minds at rest.
Map of People on Twitter in Thailand
[cetsEmbedGmap src=http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=210550963008557722983.00049fbf39409dcce4b7e&z=6 width=450 height=650 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=no]
After the recent events in Thailand, I came up with the idea of putting together a map of people on Twitter across Thailand. The idea is that you can find out for yourself what is actually happening in a particular region. For example, if you are flying to Chiang Mai for a holiday and want to know if it is raining every day, then just click on the marker for that province and contact one of the tweeple who are there. Obviously some people are going to be more helpful than others. If you currently live in Thailand and would like to be added to this map, then please leave a comment below or send me a tweet to @RichardBarrow. I think the map will also prove to be a great way to make new friends. I know I have.
