"Storm of the Century?" -An Interesting Use of Ning

[Sean Nash]

Gustav is one ugly storm. It is a category 4 storm that only lost wind speed by 10mph as it passed over land in Cuba today. Even uglier is the path it is taking. Gustav is taking a steady NW aim toward Louisiana, and perhaps, New Orleans.

Outspoken mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin, this evening ordered the evacuation of the city of New Orleans in advance of Gustav. I cannot even imagine the struggle one goes through prior to ordering such a massive movement of people from a modern US city. The only thing that probably makes this even an easier choice for Nagin is the fact that the city is still reeling in some ways from Katrina. In his words today, “You need to get your butt out of New Orleans. This is the storm of the century.”

This is not only a storm to watch for scientific interest, but now for historical interest. Hopefully the human tragedies of Katrina will be avoided this round. Apparently even the Republican national convention will be interrupted. CNN is now reporting that McCain and Palin will be heading to Mississippi in the area of the storm. In light of these events, one has to wonder the full nature of that trip. According to CNN, some republicans are reportedly even talking of using the convention as some sort of telethon to raise support for potential victims.

From the club chair in my front room, however, there is an even interesting sub-story developing. The use of emerging Internet communications technologies is being deployed in a large scale already. Here is a use of Ning that will certainly draw attention. Perhaps you can feel proud of the fact that you are already Ning and Twitter savvy. As I type this, CNN has a giant plasma screen on their broadcast to show Twitter responses in regard to the storm and evacuation.

So Ning... Ning is versatile. I personally saw its potential for impact in education. It is now being seen as a tool that can be rapidly employed to coordinate action around an emerging crisis. Twitter was used by firefighters of the recent California wildfire outbreak to coordinate services. It will be interesting to see how technologies we are using to facilitate our learning on a day to day basis can be used to encourage and coordinate action in a really spontaneous way.

Turn on the TV, turn on the web, turn on Ning and add Twitter to not only the web, but your phone... and connect to the world. The world is talking.

[Samantha Wilson]

i give this post all 4's! It grabbed my attention and once i started reading it I could not stop! It even gives insight on big topics today that really make a difference!! :)

[meagan]

4's all the way through! =) I really like that you talked about a current, relative issue. I love the way you wrote it! It kept my attention all the way through. Now i know how to write a well written blog!!

[Korby Trautman]

Quality~4
Personal~4
Conventions~4
Timeliness~4

Have you done this before?... Good Job!!

[ricky maddox]

I would have to say it was pretty good all around Mr. Nash. It was good how you began with a topic you knew would grab attention then used it to pass along the info you really wanted to get across to us. I am actually really surprised that people are using this stuff to the extent they are, I mean at the beginning of this year I wasn’t even sure what a ning was but now your showing us the examples of their real world use. Not just you either I mean Mrs. Sherard showed us an article about how Berock Obama and John McCain were using things like twitter, and my space to reach their younger supporters. So all in all 4's all around.

[kristen sheehan]

Well sorry I had to start it out soring you online...:) but what can I say it was good!! But I would have felt bad if you would have cried because it was bad... well maybe...:)

[Tori Scott]

ha ha... I think that this is really good!! =]]
Quality-4
Personal-4
Support-4
Communications-4
Conventions- 4
Timeliness-4
Sorry Mr. Nash i couldnt come up with anything creative to say =/

[Sean Nash]

Chris... you're dead to me.




wait- you're ok.

[Chris Michaels]

1 its my opinion lol


















4 though seriously

[Sean Nash]

awwww...... you guys are too kind.
ok, wait- you're right. it was good. ;-)

i didn't imagine you'd actually score it...
do i score yours online, in public spaces??

wow. good thing it was so positive.
what if i had cried?
heh.
;-)

[Abby Lucas]

4 in each category. The connections made this article interesting and relevant to anybody's life. The links you provided gave a more in depth look into the issues you mentioned. I found no grammar mistakes (and you can be sure I was searching for them too...). It's a very good example of a blog and will be a good reference for us to use.