There were several terrorist attacks last night in Mumbai (Bombay) India and thanks to a combo of Facebook, Reddit.com and IBNLive.com I learned about the attacks and have been following them for the past several hours. My wife’s family is from Mumbai and we spent part of my honeymoon there so we have an interest in the city. We stayed at the Taj Majal hotel, which is one of the hotels attacked and spent time at some of the others.
I’ve been holed up in front of my computers all day blogging about Black Friday, but I learned about the attacks when a friends sent me a message via Facebook. I opened up Reddit, which is my favorite social news site and found a link to IBNLive.com and I was instantly watching live video reports from Indian journalists (English speaking if you’re interested in checking it out).
Dozens of people (87 so far) have been killed there and even more have been injured. Hostages are still being held and the city is in chaos. Our sympathies are with those in India.
I surround myself with technology and am jaded to how fast technology is progressing. The way I experience news now still amazes me. I’ve been on the Internet for much longer than most people and still remember the first time I read a breaking news story online. AOL posted a story about the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing (1995) and that was the first time I got a glimpse of how the Internet would change media forever. Back then the idea of live streaming video was a pipe dream. Right now I’m literally watching our honeymoon suite burn in my web browser.
I can only imagine how the Internet will change how we experience the news in another 13 years.