9/11 Dominates the Internet Once Again

The Web once again became a global memorial for the victims of 9/11/01:

In every conceivable online forum, Net users paid tribute to firefighters and police officers. They prayed for the victims’ families. They reflected on the prospects of world peace. They shared their memories, hopes and fears.

“Our spirit unites us. Our hope makes us strong,” read a message from a Turkish man on one of the scores of discussion boards dedicated to reflections on the meaning of the day one year after hijacked commercial airliners slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Similarly poignant messages filtered in from the Far East to Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

As the tragedy unfolded a year ago, millions took to the Net to express their grief and anger. The outpouring of emotion in those first numbing hours seemed almost to give the medium a heart.

One year later, individuals and businesses turned to the Net to do what it does best — connect people from all over the world instantaneously.

Close to 30,000 sites dedicated to the event were created between Sept. 11 and Dec. 1, according to Pew Internet & American Life Project.

One site trying to preserve the digital history of the attacks is https://911digitalarchive.org/, a project run by the American Social History Project and the Center for Media and Learning at the City of University New York.

“Sept. 11 was the first fully digital event in world history,” said Fritz Umbrach, a historian at City University of New York working on the project.

“If historians are going to fully understand the public response to 9-11, we need to collect this new digital material, especially as the personal computer becomes the primary communication method for the U.S.

“About 100 million people sent e-mail in days and weeks after attacks,” he continued. “It’s the best record of people’s immediate response.” Wednesday, the commercial aspect of the medium was muted.

….”Just a wish of Peace for all the victims, Victims of attacks in the US, of attacks in Asia, Palestine or any other land where violent people try to destroy Peace and Love. We are all the same and all we come from God. Peace.”