Shared mobiles and the Mumbai blasts

As I’ve mentioned, in India, I’m researching how people share mobile phones and the according manifestations of it in space and territory.

There’s one instance of it right now in Mumbai, with the bomb blasts last night that killed 183 and injured 714. As happened with terrorist attacks in London last year, people are organizing online to check in with and contact people’s families. Dina Mehta reported on a number of these efforts on her blog. Also, generated because of the attacks, there are a blog and wiki where
people are placing information and coordinating calls to mobile phones. The Mumbai metroblog also posts information, linking to other sources in the traditional and non-traditional media.

Again, nothing totally new with this, but people are lending mobiles to each other. It’s a different sharing modality than my research but also is important. It is generated by need and emergency–people are using their mobiles to call the mobiles of people they don’t know but are listed as missing on the websites above. Though I’ve not yet found direct accounts, I figure people shared mobiles and called their loved ones to or from the stations and the hospitals. And finally, it’s an event that took
place in particular places at a specific time.