#2611 - Crowd Mobilisation and Lessons in Resilience.

It has been 10 years since the #2611 attacks. The tragedy continues to haunt - have we learnt our lessons? Are we adequately prepared for another?

While most of our thoughts on this poignant anniversary have been uploaded, relatively less has been spoken of how citizens #crowdsourced their energies online to address the unfolding tragedy during those fateful hours. Consider:-

1. Although there were only 6 mn #Twitter users worldwide, tweets were published within a few minutes, from across the world. @romik wrote, "grenades thrown at Colaba." #SiliconValley based @skverma added, "people have been evacuated or are barricaded in their rooms.". 

2. Within 4 hours, #MumbaiAttacks got its own #Wikipedia page. It was edited more than 1,800 times before the last #terrorist was neutralised. 

3. #GoogleMaps permitted each #bomb blast and #firefight to be instantly tagged, helping chart out the operational situation in near real-time, and build it's history. Even location of victims' funerals were mapped. Realising that the information could be exploited by terror handlers, crowds began to police the news online - "ALL LIVE UPDATES - PLEASE STOP TWEETING" began to do the rounds. 

4. #EmergencyCoordination also began to take shape - requests for blood donation, directing donors to hospitals where victims were taken, etc., augmenting public broadcasts and word-of-mouth significantly. 

5. As #FakeNews gained traction, online communities began sifting through data, separating fact from fiction.

The scale of this citizen-led mobilisation, and its impact on the morale of citizens, the city and the country make 26/11 a unique case-study for its time, meriting a deeper study. Of late, citizen response towards natural disasters across the country are a case in point.

As we continue to rightly debate institutional capacity, the ability of our people to mobilise, empowered by an amazing repertoire of online tools, must be factored into our contingency plans. More sharing, openness to involvement and greater interaction with the public is in the interest of our #security teams - in government and in the private sector. 

And, while there will be negative consequences, the more such situations play out, are brainstormed, or red-teamed, the better we will become at channeling national capacity optimally. This is one area where India's #demographicdividend can play out most effectively. Let's not waste this opportunity.

Credit: PW Singer, Emerson T Brooking, "LikeWar: The Weaponisation of Social Media".