As Hurricane Ike rumbles in the clouds over Texas, we should thank President Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower for helping us track the maelstrom.
Say what?
The Texas-born Korean War general is credited with commissioning the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to determine how the United States could prepare itself for a Soviet missile attack, in the wake of Sputnik’s launch on October 4, 1957.
Months after that official act, the DARPA whiz kids “built” the Internet as a means for scientists and academicians to communicate over a blossoming computer network.
Fast forward to today and one of the best sources of Hurricane Ike information is the Hurricane Information Center, a Ning social networking portal that NPR senior manager Andy Carvin created for Gustav. It’s so popular that CNN, if we use the network as a gauge, regularly taps into the data.
If you think of cyberspace as a giant cloud, then isn’t it ironic that the man who essentially set the bricks in motion to build an international computer network is now the namesake of the most dangerous hurricane to hit his birthplace in 25 years?
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Could you say a bit more on how CNN has been using the site? I haven’t been watching much cnn since I was working on the site, and wasn’t aware they were doing anything with it, apart from Rick Sanchez reading one of my tweets during Gustav.
You are probably right, Andy. I wrote that looking more to the future than the present, adding buzz for your tremendous efforts!
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