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The best way to get reliable UK train travel updates during the current light covering of snow appears to be the excellent uktrains service, which publishes updates to Twitter for 25 rail companies. Especially when the official website for some companies appears to be as reliable as the trains themselves.

'No trains' Pic by aburt on Flickr (CC Licence)

Once again Twitter is showing itself as an excellent mechanism for information, following on from the #uksnow mash-up in my last post.

But although it’s still new enough to get coverage on mainstream media such as the BBC, (@bensmith is talking about UKtrains at the BBC as I type), it’s not without precedent (Not to diminish the great work by Ben Smith (uktrains) and Ben Marsh (uksnow).

Back in October 2007, Twitter users @nateritter and @viss used the hashtag #sandiegofire to distribute information on fires in California.

And then there were the earthquakes. US, UK and China.

There was the tragedy in Mumbai, and the use of Twitter to start alerting people about the status of hospitals and need for blood donations.

And some emergency services have a Twitter account, such as the LA Fire Dept.

The interesting thing about #uksnow and uktrains is how the interpretation and use of data pulled from, and pushed into Twitter is evolving to make more effective services for information.

Plenty of people have talked about how Twitter is moving into the mainstream, or how Facebook made an offer to purchase the microblogging service – but in many ways the mainstream are being sucked into Twitter – exactly as happened with Facebook en route to 150 million+ global active users.

The ability to instantly update was highlighted at the weekend, when Mike Wilson (@2drinksbehind) tweeted ‘Holy fucking shit I wasbjust in a plane crash!’

As he continued to post updates it emerged that it was the second crash he’s experienced, some of his experiences and possible causes (flagged up as such), and the fact that Continental Airlines wouldn’t serve drinks to the passengers once they were all safely away from the plane.

Silicon Valley Insider has screenshots of the whole thing, and there’s interesting commentary from Loic Le Meur, Jeff Jarvis, Mashable, Laurel Papworth, and The Blog Herald -  and that’s just sources from my RSS feeds!

What’s interesting is how Loic, for example, points out spokespeople weren’t able to give out any details on live TV news, despite the fact we could all follow Tweets from somewhere going through the experience – and Pete Cashmore at Mashable points to the changing roles of news and newsrooms.

Apparently Mike has now been interviewed by Fox News. And apparently the chairman of Continental Airlines was on the replacement flight!

He’s also gained a lot of new followers as a result of the experience.
The implications for news reporters and news sources are becoming more and more important with every piece of breaking news on Twitter. Mike was able to send messages and images from the crash site – and could have also shot live video, all from his mobile, and all distributed instantly online.

For the visceral experience of an event, nothing can compete with that.

Where news sources still provide value is in finding the context of those individual experiences – for instance, when a spokesperson appeared to say they couldn’t say anything, where was a reporter asking about Mike’s messages?

We’ve already had

• Mumbai
• The U.S Election
• Earthquakes

I wrote about how news sites have to change back in July. At that time, the LA Times was the first new source I’d seen to reference Twitter. The fact it’s got a Twitter account probably helps. During Mumbai, both the BBC and CNN were referencing it alongside Flickr.

And there has been plenty of reaction by readers of traditional news sources, as well as from the blogosphere. Many have questioned whether instant updates can be trusted, and whether they’re the sort of thing we expect from traditional news sources.

Part of this, I suspect, is from people who don’t use Twitter and therefore don’t have the human filter as a way of referencing trust. (Incidentally, David Armano’s diagram is one of the most succinct and effective ways of explaining Twitter I’ve seen!).

The Human Filter by David Armano (Logic+Emotion)

And the other part is that news sources are still slowly developing from their coccoon and haven’t fully worked out how to implement Twitter and the meaningful context and analysis on top of it in a readily apparent way.

The sooner websites integrate Twitter, Flickr, Qik, etc, the sooner we can see the value they layer on top.

As the full horror of the ongoing terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) unfolds, Twitter has once again become the place to find first hand accounts and updates. So much so, that CNN is citing both Twitter and Flickr as the places to keep up with the latest updates, as updated by @Moto62 and many others.

Meanwhile @BreakingNewz is trying to raise awareness of a blood shortage at JJ Hospital due to the attacks. And @hemanshukumar provides a phone number to donate at St George’s hospital. And @Netra provided a direct contact for the blood bank at JJ Hospital.

Other reports on the role Twitter is playing in relaying first hand reports and reactions to the news include Techcrunch, and GigaOm.

Responses and reactions are flowing incredibly fast on Twitter, and you can follow the stream here. (Flickr results are here). Or you can follow a localised Twitter search updates.

It’s hard to find the right words to express the sympathy I have for everyone there right now, but seeing individuals sharing important information to help each other is a reminder of the good in the world. And also that in the debates about monetising microblogging, perhaps we’ve missed a far more important role and legacy we could be helping to develop further as a response tool to tragic situations.