Explosion in downtown Bozeman. Twitterers first on the scene.

Posted: March 5th, 2009 | 10 Comments »
Image pulled from TwitPic post by @craigdugas
Above image was pulled from a TwitPic post by @craigdugas

I experienced the power of social media first-hand this morning.

At 8:12AM Boodles, a very nice, albeit expensive, restaurant/bar in Historic Downtown Bozeman, MT exploded. Two more bars, a children’s apparel store, and an art gallery were also destroyed. At the time of this writing, a gas leak is the suspected cause.

Where did I get this information? Twitter. Thanks to Twitter, I was aware of many of the details (I had even seen some early photos of the destruction via TwittPic) long before any of the local news and radio began reporting it.

As the day progresses, I continue to receive tweets with new information as it becomes available. Twitter users among the likes of @manifestphil and @bozchron have taken it upon themselves to cover the situation, using the #bozexplod hashtag, with a level of precision and speed that rivals the local media. They are reporting not only the current state of the disaster, but also providing phone numbers and other information for those in need of assistance as well as those who would like to help out.

While I had heard myriad commentaries about Twitter and its usefulness in a reporting context, I had never experienced this phenomenon until today. Social media has completely transformed the way news is delivered to the masses. We no longer have to wait for our local news agencies; we get the news as it happens. This is truly an amazing concept.

Update: For more information about the explosion, see the Bozeman Daily Chronicle’s story here.
Update: Updates from the Billings Gazette.
Update: Go here for updates from the city of Bozeman.
Update: Collection of photos and video here.

10 Comments on “Explosion in downtown Bozeman. Twitterers first on the scene.”

  1. 1 samh said at 12:53 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    Camden, this is a unique story. Thanks for writing it up.

  2. 2 Michael Becker said at 12:54 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    Thanks for the shout-out to the work that Bozeman’s Twitterers have done today. Judging by the number of retweets you’ve gotten already, I think this site’s traffic is going to jump today.

  3. 3 Pragmacat said at 2:21 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/03/05/news/state/20-bozeman.txt

    This article is pretty good as well. Twitter beats the regular news, hands down – thanks to all of the caring people involved…

  4. 4 Bozeman news said at 2:35 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    Thanks for posting this. I love reading this post and like how you write.

  5. 5 @KBOZRadio said at 3:45 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    Nice job, Camden!

  6. 6 SuperDaveh4eva said at 3:54 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    I was on Twitter tweeting about the gas expolsion in downtown Bozeman since the beginning of coverage this morning. My business partner @ManifestPhil we were some of the first tweeters to post amazing photos of the devastation. Those photos are now on on Digg at http://bit.ly/db3rD

  7. 7 Craig Dugas said at 3:59 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    Camden, great write-up. I think the social coverage by people via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr has been astounding.

  8. 8 Hypercrit » Web content generated from the Bozeman explosion today said at 6:50 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    [...] Camden Hardy Photography [...]

  9. 9 Philip Downer said at 6:56 pm on March 5th, 2009:

    Hi Camden,

    Thanks for another great article and especially for your focus on social media. We’ve been covering the story all day… Here’s the link on the Digg.com website:

    http://digg.com/world_news/Photos_of_explosion_in_Bozeman_MT_downtown_bozexplod?OTC-fft-3

  10. 10 Mark Mathson said at 4:15 pm on March 6th, 2009:

    Great analysis of the events that took place. Like you, I am also amazed at the speed news and collaboration can travel over social mediums like Twitter and blogs.