Self-Organizing Social Behavior Occasioned By Low-Cost Communication Technology : The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004

Recent advances in information and communication technology have facilitated revolutionary change in the publishing technology available to individuals. Ubiquitous and low-cost access to the Internet has provided a means for a new type of news intermediary to emerge: citizen journalism using freely available weblog technology. A case study of the emergence of a self-organizing social entity - a dynamic virtual news network - following the 2004 South Asian tsunami is examined. An overview history of social thought on self-organizing social behavior is presented, along with a short economic history of three revolutionary communication technologies: movable-type printing, telegraphy and the Internet. Areas for further research are suggested