Contemporary Learning

On Saturday I stood under burnt trees in the hills north of Chum Creek, about 75 kilometres out of Melbourne.  At my feet a carpet of ash covered the dry earth. A light wind was blowing which filled my nostrils with the pungent aroma of a scorch landscape.

Old Chum Creek Rd, February, 2009

I stood next to a woman whose animal shelter had been decimated by the recent bushfires, watching at least forty people go about the job of restoring the shelter so that injured animals could return to it.

‘Are they mainly locals?’ I asked as I nodded in the direction of the workers.

‘I hardly know any of them,’ she replied. ‘They just turned up this morning.’

I smiled, realising that most of the people who had gathered there had assembled via word of mouth or by technology – many had listed their names on a wiki that was set up to help bushfire victims and to help them quickly.

I stumbled across the Victorian Bushfires Goods and Services wiki a few weeks ago thanks to a link put out on Twitter.   I retweeted the link as did others and things gained momentum over the following days.  Now the site has literally hundreds of people volunteering services and resources.  In a way, it is testimony to the generosity of spirit that defines many communities.

In the midst of so much devastation in the hills around Chum Creek, it was quite moving to witness a group of strangers coming together to help others.  There are those who dismiss social media as a fad, something whimsical and ephemeral.  I believe otherwise.  I believe that social media has the capacity to rouse people quickly, rally them and bring about significant change.  (It is curious to note that wiki is Hawaiian for hurry). Seeing the difference one wiki made upon the lives of the owners of the animal shelter on the weekend was both poignant and inspiring.

In this particular situation, the Victorian Bushfires Goods and Services wiki was the catalyst for action.  It allowed an eclectic group of individuals to mobilise and make a difference.   Perhaps a small difference in the grand scheme of things, but an important one to those concerned.

There remain hundreds of people who have been directly affected by the fires, if not thousands, and there are countless others who want to help.  Social mechanisms such as Twitter, YouTube, wikis and blogs are no longer the novelty they once were.  In some respects they have come of age, being recognised by politicians, pontiffs, celebrities and organisations as a powerful medium for communications.  But for me, it is the grassroots aspect of these communication tools that have made them so appealing and why I believe they will increasingly play an important role in times of need.