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I think what they have done is fantastic, and I can't wait to read the book. I want to buy a copy for my grandchildren, this will be the first of its kind. I guess many more will follow their example, JFDI Big Society in action, using their skills, knowledge and data for the greater good.
Well done for blogging about it, spread the joy. quakebook.net
chris

Don't forget _Stranded_ -- the magazine that Andrew Losowsky and a bunch of others (including myself) put together while stranded due to the volcano in 2010, with all profits to International Rescue Committee. See

There is perhaps a role for the media here; wider than just publicity.

If I was a con artist, I might have been able to leverage the goodwill of others to pull this together, earn a load of money and then disappear without giving a penny to the named charity (The Japan Red Cross in this case). In these types of situations, where things move very fast, the media should be using its investigative resources to provide a bit of due diligence and assurance over the project so that buyers can be confident they're not being ripped off. Alternatively, the book should be "published" by the charity directly, or the funds held by a trusted escrow service.

As the world moves faster, there is more scope for criminals to take advantage of tragic events (we see it already with spam linking to malware within hours of such disasters). The media, charities and others need to be equally fast in supporting and providing assurance for genuine activities.

this is a really interesting initiative. the strongest earthquake i have experienced was of 7.9, in 2001 in el salvador. there are tremors there all the time, and anyone who has been through a strong earthquake experience knows that they can come at any time, when you are anywhere. when the subject comes up, im always interested in asking people - what were you doing when it hit? (personally, at 11am on a saturday, still sleeping but suddenly on the floor, and trying to make it outside dodging all the objects in the house). everyone living their daily lives, suddenly joined together by a collective experience. i hope a print version does come out, i would definitely buy it.

Also don't forget 100 Stories for Haiti launched in early 2010 in response to the earthquake there, 50 Stories for Pakistan in response to the floods summer 2010, 100 Stories for Queensland in response to the flooding there at the start of this year, and also New Sun Rising, which will be out in a few weeks in response to the Japanese earthquake & tsunami - slightly different from Quakebook in that it, like the others I've mentioned, is a fiction anthology rather than reflections on experiencing the event itself.

All worthy projects, and all donating proceeds to the relevant disaster relief efforts.

There seems to be quite a groundswell of initiatives to raise money for Japan, including a number of arts-based ones. The UK -based Japan Art Auction is currently collecting work for an auction in Manchester on April 7th, bids also taken online at . Online bids are via the British Red Cross so I trust will be seen as transparent.

Mr. Cellan-Jones, I am one of the editors of Quakebook (the one in Brisbane, California) and I would like to personally thank you for writing this lovely piece about our book and our efforts to help the Japanese people. Objective and upbeat press coverage such as yours is going to go a long way towards making the Quakebook project an amazing success. Thanks again, and cheers. --Dan Ryan, Brisbane, California

Mr. Rigby, I assure you that our intentions are pure and will be carried out as we have claimed and planned. I understand your skepticism about ventures like Quakebook, considering the unscrupulous things people have done using charitable work as a smoke screen for criminal activity. However, if you want to know more about our project and its motives, please follow the link to our blog, which is in the article above. Or you may contact me directly on Twitter, where my ID is @ThatDanRyan.

I didn't get any feeling of 'a rip off in motion'; Great concept, clearly working, cyber community coming together springing from one idea, to anothers idea, developing and growing. I will buy and recommend the book to friends and family.

Great idea and potentially great value for this disaster charity initiative - BUT BEWARE those who could easily exploit this by copying a legitimate downlaod and possibly offering the Quakebook from an unauthorised source and diverting revenues to criminal coffers.

johndubyah makes an excellent point in his comment, and I appreciate it. Vigilance for such things is an unfortunate necessity. I wish it were not, and I hope no one tries to rip people off disguised as our project. And I'd like to thank all of you so far for your comments.

So presumably this is in English? A double-edged effect of all this global networking is that while increasing numbers of people can communicate internationally, language is not a neutral medium, or at least it comes loaded with a particular history. I'd be interested to hear what Japanese people think about this and to what extent people have felt able to contribute in their second or other language. Does this present an editing challenge? Were translators involved, or will they be?

And there's a project on 'Daily Paintworks' aiming to raise money for a list of charities for Japan.
Buy a painting and contribute that way.

(I have no personal interest)

There is a current twitter appeal for japan on: @simonkingesq .

A fantastic initiative. The voice-over/audiobook community of the UK and US have done a similar thing, creating a 3.5hr audiobook for Japan in just 4 days. It can be found at The whole thing was organised on Twitter and has had some fantastic support from around the world.

Good for them, and I wish them joy.

I am astonished by how completely the Christchurch, NZ earthquake has dropped off the seismograph. Small in absolute comparison, but losing 0.005% of the national population is almost as dramatic an impact as losing 0.015%.

Maybe this is a good thing - Christchurch needs the tourists to forget the bad moment and think about the pleasure of visiting what I am sure is still a beautiful area. But it seems a little hard on the poor souls there, being so completely forgotten by the rest of the world.