Associated Press: Japan disaster sparks social media innovation

Many thanks to Tomoko Hosaka at the Associated Press for including #QuakeBook in their coverage of social media use following the March 11th Earthquake. The story is now appearing in news outlets worldwide.

Associated Press: Japan disaster sparks social media innovation

2:46 Quakebook Editor Interviewed by Indie Reader

IndieReader.com is an online resource for writers and readers of independent books. On 30 March, one of Quakebook's editors answered IndieReader's questions about how Quakebook got started, and what it has been like pulling together contributors and resources from all over the world to publish an independent book.

Amy Edelman of IndieReader.com interviews Quakebook editor @ThatDanRyan

Amazing Artwork & Images

2:46 QuakeBook is more than just an anthology of personal experiences of the quake; there are also photos, images and artwork.

You can now see a small selection of these on the Excerpts page.

Quakebook Flickr In Japanese and.....

Almost 200 photos already.

Well done to @taotsu and @aragoto for getting the Quakebook group description in Japanese, encouraging over 50 members to join, and for creating a wonderful archive of Quakebook supporters' photos from Japan.

You must go and see the photos on Flickr.....

QuakeBook hits Google Newswire

AFP has now picked up the QuakeBook story, which means it has gone out on all the newswires.

The media page might need far more attention shortly! Thank you AFP.

Daily 2:46 Promotion

Every day at 2:46 Japan Standard Time, @quakebook will tweet a quote from Quakebook, as well as a link to the "Buy Quakebook" page on this blog. If you don't already follow @quakebook on Twitter, we ask you to start doing so, because every day we will be relying on all of our Twitter followers to retweet the quote of the day as soon as we post it. The Japan Times has already committed to follow and support us in the retweeting campaign.

Please send all your friends and family a link to this page, so that we can have as many @quakebook followers as possible helping us raise awareness for this amazing project.

2:46 Tokyo time is:

British Summer Time +8hrs
Greenwich Mean Time + 9hrs

Eastern Standard Time +13 hrs

Pacific Standard Time +16hrs

Singapore Standard Time -1hr

The current Tokyo time is:





What time is 2:46pm in your part of the world?

Barry Eisler writes the foreword

The good news keeps coming thick and fast. You can check out Barry Eisler's books on his website.

Poster sales reach $15,000

Sales of the poster that became the cover of #quakebook have already raised $15,000.


Order yours here http://bit.ly/dYfUpj 

Japan Times prints Quakebook stories

The Japan Times has done a wonderful thing for us and published seven stories from Quakebook in the Tuesday 29 March issue. You can access them using the link below. While reading the stories, you will get a sampling of the range of emotions and difficulties experienced by both quake survivors and remote observers. We hope these stories touch your heart and pique your interest, because it is to the credit of many of the contributors to Quakebook that they were able to tell anyone their tales at all.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110329zg.html

More great media coverage!

BBC News technology blogger Rory Cellan-Jones has written an excellent piece about Quakebook. It was published on the BBC News blog website on 28 March, and you can read the full article, including mostly positive reader comments, by clicking on the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2011/03/quakebook_social_media.html

Quakebook editors and supporters send out a huge "Thank You" to Mr. Cellan-Jones for his upbeat reporting on our efforts.

In addition, on the same day CNNGo Asia also published a piece on Quakebook. You can read what they had to say at the following link:

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/life/japan-tsunami-earthquake-2011/japan-earthquake-aid-book-crowd-sourced-just-seven-days-560

Quakebook on LinkedIn

Don't miss the opportunity to connect with Quakebook.

We are now on LinkedIn - join us!

We have a final book cover!

This in no way undermines the logo, but it is the final book cover that you will soon be able to enjoy on your preferred device when Quakebook goes on sale digitally in a day or two.

All about the logo

Our awesome logo designer, @marikurisato, has put down her art tools to tell you where the logo came from:

"The logo inspiration came almost immediately. The whole country was affected. That fact demanded a symbol of nationality, without using stereotypical imagery (no samurai for example.) Therefore I researched the color of Japan's modern National Flag as the most basic perimeter. I wanted to resist an image that showed quake damage, or a wound, but rather hinted at the strength in the most fundamentally universal image of helping someone up.

"My usual style is very detailed, but I wanted to minimize a specific ethnic group, and rather project a humanity wide effort, which is why the arms are silhouettes coming from outside the flag's "sun" image. Then it was a matter of refining the image to it's most basic shapes, without dehumanizing the sensation. I hope it conveys not just an emotion, but a sense of purpose and action.

"I actually felt almost feverish, as if I was just watching myself work from the outside, being controlled by the idea."

WE  LOVE IT!

Japan Times will print excerpts tomorrow

Yes, it is now time to read Quakebook. In a few hours, the Japan Times will publish excerpts from the book.

We can't wait! Thank you to the Times for its support.

Is Quakebook ahead of its time?

Well, yes. Obviously. No-one has ever done anything like this before!

However, for the observant amongst you, the reason our first blog post is dated 2018 is to keep that particular post at the top so everyone understands what Quakebook is from the start. All new posts come below that.

Thanks to @AqParavane for querying the logic of this!! It's a Blogger thing.

Earthquake and Tsunami Photos on Flickr

Photos from Quakebook supporters are now on Flickr. Thanks to @taotsu for setting it up.

How did Quakebook begin?

Everyone who writes about, reports on or buys #Quakebook is going to have one simple question: how did this all start?

So, after some searching around, I traced the origin of Quakebook - both the name and the original idea. Here is the series of tweets from @ourmaninabiko that will answer the questions you all have.

When you buy your copy of Quakebook, you'll see that the first three tweets below have been given the first page in the book, opposite the copyright listings. That's how important these words are to us, to this project. They formed the germ of the idea for everything we have done since.

Within 4 minutes, the idea was being fleshed out:

And a mere 17 minutes later, we find where the original inspiration came from:

So, that should give every reader and journalist the information they require about how this started!

And where did the name come from?

It was pointed out quite quickly, by @marikurisato, that he had the hashtag right there!

You may note that the 74 submissions had come in a mere 15 hours from the original idea. Which says something about the power of the Internet and those who use it. And how willingly people from around the world jumped in to help those in Japan, who despite all they were going through, also found the time and energy to write about their experiences. Now, there are just hours to wait to Buy the Book!

The Editing is Finished!!

To all those who have done a truly amazing job on the edit - a massive round of applause. And may you all now enjoy a much earned chance to sleep.

So, to @ourmaninabiko, @thatdanryan, @whatwhated, @sandrajapandra, @shogannai, @robertodevido @Rosencrantz_M


Three cheers from all the #quakebook supporters around the world.

(I hope I haven't missed anyone - apologies if I have).

Next step is the meeting with Amazon tomorrow.......

Quakebook Wordle

Thanks to @cyberdoyle for generating a Wordle for us.

Please follow @quakebook

It really is that simple! Show your support for #quakebook by following @quakebook

Without twitter, we would not be where we are today!

Who is in #quakebook - take a peek

NB this is not formatted folks, just names and stuff so you can see. Yes, I know Names and Title are out of alphabetical order. There is a reason. Carry on.


Names - Yoshiko Ikeda, West Tokyo
Alive - Steve Nagata, Tokyo
Another - Masumi Nabekawa Abiko, Chiba
Beautiful - Christopher Maurer, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Birthday - Jonas Neergaard-Nielson, Tokyo
Bravery - Yoshie Sherriff, Abiko, Chiba
Cakes - Arun Vemuri, Tokyo
Care - Yuki Watanabe, Tokyo
Ceiling-light - Brian Wood, Tokyo
Ceremonies - Wesley Cheek, Kyoto
Changed - Florian, Osaka
Close - Debora K. Ohnishi, Utsunomiya, Tochigi
Contrast - Vadim Zendejas, Vadim Zendejas
Conversation - Michael Gakuran, Nagoya
Cushions - Shaun Hickox, Tokyo
Dark - Andy Heather, Kyoto
Debris - Greg Harbin, Wakabayashi, Sendai
Decisions - Ted Taylor, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Determination - Andy Sharp, Yokohama
Disappeared - Brighid Rader, Kentuky, USA
Distance - Brent Stirling, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Encouragement - Grandfather Hibiki, Sendai
Engage - Tokyo Twilighter, Tokyo
Escape - James Hou, Koriyama, Fukushima
Evacuated - Takamori Hayao, Osaka
Exactly - Mark Rende, Nihonbashi, Tokyo
Expectations - Miho Nishihiro, Abiko, Chiba
Experience - Kosuke Ishihara, Abiko, Chiba
Facebook - Joel David Neff, Takanezawa, Tochigi
Faculty - Rodney Van Meter, Yokohama
Forget - Michiko Segawa, Chiba
Forward - Maxamillian John, London
Ganbaro - Lowlypoetic, Kyoto
Gesture - N. Cobayne, Shizuoka
Goal - Naomi, Canada
God - John Janzen, Japan
Graduation - May Arai, Kamakura
Harmony - Tom Hope, Tokyo
Heart - Victoria, Tokyo
Help - Yui and Shizue Nonaka, Abiko, Chiba
Home - Kimberly Tierney, Tokyo
Illusion - Hiromi Davis, Tosashimizu, Kochi
Leaving - Sandra Barron, Los Angeles
Lingering - Soso Bureau staff, Soma and Futaba cities
Lost - Matthew Holmes, Shimokitazawa
Loving - Shehan Raban, Kohoku, Chiba
Lucky - Stephen Lyth, Tokyo
Muenbotoke - Jake Adelstein, Tokyo
Morals - Yuichiro Ito, Kesenuma, Miyagi
Mountain - Edan Corkill, Zushi, Kanagawa
Neighbors - Yumiko Takemoto, Hitachinaka, Ibaraki
Normal - Laurent Fintoni, Koenji, Tokyo
OK - Naotoshi Nabekawa, Abiko, Chiba
Options - Jason Morgan, Kawasaki
Overwhelmed - Corey Wallace, Aukland, New Zealand
Pajamas - Mark Warschauer, Tokyo
Photographs - Mari Aquarian, Concord, New Hampshire, USA
Positive - Arthur Davis, Tosahimizu, Kochi
Precious - Keiko Fujii, Abiko, Chiba
Prepared - Annamarie Sasagawa, Shinjuku Sasagawa
Radioactive - Ian Martin, Tokyo
Really? - Chikae Singleton, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Rebuilding - Mr Salaryman, Tokyo
Recovery - Yoko Kobayashi, Abiko, Chiba
Relief - Don Myles, Falkirk, Scotland
Remoteness - Sybil Murray, United Kingdom
Same - Baye McNeil, Yokohama
Scenarios - Miles Woodroffe, Tokyo
Shaken - James Simpson, Kawasaki
Signs - Terrie Matsuura, Shizuoka
Strength - Ai Hinton, Kashiwa
Strong - Robert Ouwehand, Seoul, South Korea
Television - Richard Smart, Tokyo
Together - Jesse Johnson, Abiko, Chiba
Tremors - Iain Hair, Tokyo
Trousers - Joseph Tame, Tokyo
Underground - Bigger in Japan, Kamakura
Underneath - Yuko Kato, Tokyo
Understanding - Mari Kurisato, Denver, Colorado, USA
Values - Kaoru Raban, Kohoku, Chiba
Vertical - Philip Brasor, Tokyo
Voices - Jessica Tomoko Perez, The Bronx, New York
Waiting - Kevin Wood, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Want - Dan Castellano, Tokyo
Window - William Gibson, Vancouver, BC
Test - Yushi Tabe, Tokyo

More love from the Blogsphere

A supporter of ours on Twitter, @julia_10mh, has written a lovely piece about Quakebook and the aftermath of the earthquake. Please follow the link below to read the entire text of the piece she posted on her blog.

http://10mh.net/2011/03/26/quakebook/

Another Twitter supporter, @goodandbadjapan, also wrote a nice piece on his blog about us. To read it, follow the link below:

http://goodandbadjapan.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/quakebook/

And yet more here from @ShootTokyo

http://shoottokyo.com/2011/03/27/quakebook/

Thank you all!

Yoko Ono tweets about QuakeBook

Volunteer to help QuakeBook

We now have a volunteer form on the site. Please help the project succeed by helping out with your skills, contacts - anything!

QuakeBook on Facebook

Don't forget to come and "Like" our QuakeBook Facebook page!

Tweeted by Twitter!

QuakeBook has been tweeted by Twitter

William Gibson, science fiction legend, contributes to Quakebook

One of the authors we are very proud to present is science fiction giant William Gibson, who wrote an original piece JUST FOR US!

Media Coverage, Part 2

A piece by Jared Keller at The Atlantic. Buzz in the blogsphere for Quakebook is getting off to a very prestigious start.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/03/-quakebook-crowdsourced-japan-charity-book/73041/

Media coverage, Part 1

Some of the first media coverage for Quakebook, by the good folks at Publishing Perspectives:

http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/03/quakebook-twitter-sourced-japan-charity-book-246-self-pubbed-in-one-week/

Grunts on the #quakebook project

Did I forget you, misspell you or put you in the wrong bit? Leave a comment and I'll fix it for the book!

Copy Editors

Lindsey Annison

Sandra Barron

Jesse Johnson

Joanne Greenway

Dan Ryan

Owen Schaefer

Jenny Silver

Vania Sofiandi

Aimee Weinstein

Translators

Hiromi Davis

Yoshiko Ikeda

Yuko Kato

Tomomi McElwee

M. Rosewood

Andy Sharp

Yoshie Sherriff

Fernando Ramos

@se7elndn

Designers/Illustrators

Mari Kurisato

Edward Harrison

Advisors

Kevin Carroll

Rick Martin

Welcome to QUAKEBOOK

For now, see Our Man in Abiko for updates, until we get started here.