Friday declared 'Blogging for Disaster Relief Day'

What started as blogger Andy Carvin's late night insomnia-fueled contemplation, resulted in his declaration of Friday as International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day-- an idea that has just started circulating in the blogosphere.

Carvin was impressed by the online community's quick response to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, particularly sites like Wikipedia, Nola.com, Craigslist, NowPublic.com and the KatrinaHelp wiki. And yet, like many, he was also surprised not to see efforts rise to TsunamiHelp proportions. "For those of you who may not remember, bloggers from around the world formed an alliance to publish an international blog and clearinghouse of tsunami-related information," Carvin wrote. The Katrina information is out there, but it's being dispersed with no coordination, he added.

So bloggers are being asked Friday to take a break from usual blog content to post something constructive about disaster relief, such as links to relevant sites, photos, a plug for Red Cross donations, or even a survivor's story. They are also asked to include the related Technorati tag so people can find their way to an entire collection of related items.

Blog community response:

"Anti-Bush blogs continue to bash Bush, while pro-Bush blogs continue to praise him. Travel blogs continue to talk about travel. Tech blogs talk tech, pet blogs talk pets. Can't we all just take a break and focus on helping disaster victims for just a moment?"
--Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth

"The idea is to get bloggers everywhere to post about their thoughts, feelings, worries, hopes.(But not politics, please. There will be enough time for that soon)"
--A Mom on a Mission

"For my part I would like to point again to the donation page for the Red Cross. Please do give a little, every dollar or Euro counts. "
--ConversationBlog.com