Hurricane Gustav, Social Media and Real World Social Change

Recent examples of social media banding together online to organize and help people offline happened this past weekend as Hurricane Gustav barreled down on the Gulf Coast.

Within hours of the projected path hitting weather sources, social media types like Andy Carvin have spearheaded efforts to create a network for those fleeing from the hurricane to get help if they need it, and for those headed that way to help to find out where they were most needed.

How did something that takes massive, well funded governments and government agencies days to set up take mere hours? Carvin used tools like Twitter and Ning and the social network of contacts he had built up on tools like Twitter to form a group of willing volunteers, with each volunteer assuming a task and running with it to the next level.