Do a search for this. The ash from the Icelandic volcano has over taken Europe. Many of the airports in Europe have closed.
People that are stranded in Europe are using social media to catch rides and find people that will help them. There are facebook groups and hash tags that are helping people get home. They are using Twitter and Facebook to get tricks and tips on travel. People are asking their followers on Twitter who is driving to where and whether they can catch a ride with them. It’s pretty amazing to see the street innovation of social media.
identitySPECIALIST 
This is probably the best justification for incorporating location-based services (LBS) into social media applications I’ve seen to-date. While civil defense and emergency response is completely beyond the scope of location based cell apps FourSquare, NearbyTweet, GPS-driven Gowalla and even Facebook and Google, it sure is a nice recourse to have in a situation like this. The civil authorities can do their job, and individuals can help each other too.
But I still have major concerns about privacy and personal safety with potential exposure due to LBS usage for social media when there is NOT a crisis or natural disaster in progress….
Thanks for the comment. I love your blog. I need to read more of it.
Thank you, you are kind. Please come back and visit me there? I am glad that you are still here, nearly ten years later. I read about 10 of your posts, left prolific that in the past, but that’s okay. I hope you are doing well. I understand some of your old posts so much better now, now that I have grown in my understanding of life and people. Thank you for sharing of yourself so that we all may learn, taking our own path but arriving at a similar or identical place.
Oops, meant to say that I read 10 of your posts today, and that you are LESS prolific. I didn’t intend to suggest that you are now or were ever more or less of a LEFTIST! Meep! Happily, this is not a blog about politics 🙂