2001.09.11: Breaking news on the net

How did the net and its users/developers react to the events of 2001.09.11?
Some of the responses are documented on this page in chronological order (all times are U.S. Eastern Daylight). See also the response by Las Vegas tourists and locals at the bottom of the page.

Julian Kilker

SPOT Infrared satellite image of Manhattan is taken, later posted online.
(Image copyright "CNES/SPOT Image 2001".)

CNN.com switched to a minimalist "breaking news" format to save bandwidth. Many news sites are difficult to access.

Nando.com provides extensive coverage. Page title ("Cannot find server") indicates difficulty of accessing site.

Foxnews.com, a graphics-heavy site, has difficulty serving images.

Raw firsthand reports are forwarded by Dave Farber's 25,000 subscriber interesting people list. It receives recognition in an AP piece in early October.

Members of slashdot.org, a technology discussion site, summarize news reports and provide direct links to information.

CNN.com has extensive multimedia package available. Many news sites rapidly acquire and use additional bandwidth using specialized technologies such as Akamai's "Platform." (Akamai's CTO is killed in the WTC American Airlines crash.)

Internettrafficreport.com documents a decrease in reponse time and an increase in packet loss on the Internet. Problems are rapidly addressed with extra servers and bandwidth, mirroring of sites, and use of specialized technologies such as Akamai's.

Pointers to interesting, just-released, under-reported, and unusual perspectives are forwarded by Phil Agre on his Red Rock Eater [RRE] mailing list (it has approximately 4,000 subscribers).

Programmers such as Ka-Ping Yee and colleagues rapidly design and create web sites with contact databases and assistance information. (See current version.)

By this time, Google's site is revised to include an expanded list of news and other resources it has cached.

Mourners in front of the "New York, New York" casino's small Statue of Library create a shrine.

Click image below for large (1.2 mb) panoramic view. (Netscape browsers may not display the large image properly. I'm looking into this.)