A surreal train journey

It was to become the strangest train journey of my life – well, so far, anyway.

On 22 July 2011, I was on my way from England to Arvika, my hometown in midwest Sweden. After the usual stop-over in Stockholm, at my best friend Lena's place, it was now time for the last leg of my journey. I boarded the train at Stockholm Central Station – only 3.5 hours now separated me from seeing my family and friends.

I found my seat, waved goodbye to Lena through the window, as the train started to move. Once my mobile office had been established (ie Macbook and iphone), I soon got on with some work.
And yes - Twitter on the side, as ever...
A certain tweet caught my eye. Someone (can't remember who now) had RT'ed a photo by a Norwegian man. It showed what appeared to be the aftermath of a bomb. Judging from the building on the photo, I realised that must have been some bomb...

I carried on working. But I kept getting more tweets about this bomb in my feed. More pictures, more witnesses tweeting, others RT-ing. As this train had Oslo as its final destination, the train was full of Norwegians, happily chatting away, talking about their experiences of Stockholm and comparing their shopping bargains. My thoughts: "I know something terrible has happened in your hometown. You don't know this yet. You're laughing. If you knew what I know, you wouldn't."

At first, I kept it to myself, but as I got more and more involved and realised the seriousness of what had just happened, I felt I had to share this. So I told people who were sitting around me. They were shocked when they heard which building it was and asked me to see the photos. The previous, chatty atmosphere suddenly changed. Worried fellow passengers started to call relatives and friends back in Oslo to make sure they were ok. I was busy reporting back to journalists in the UK, helping to translate tweets from Norwegian media, as they happened. In case you didn't know, the Swedish and Norwegian languages are fairly similar. Plus, if you have been brought up close to the border, as I have, you are practically 'half Norwegian'.

After a while, I started to notice other tweets. There seemed to have been some kind of shooting, on a Norwegian island. I remember thinking "What an awful day for my neighbouring country Norway. Two terrible deeds in the same day – such a strange coincidence." As we all know now, the Utøya shooting escalated and what initially looked like a one-off shooting became one of the worst atrocities in Norway. Maybe it was 'the social media person' in me, but as with the Oslo bombing, I felt this also had to be shared. Not least because I felt numbed by shock myself as I gradually realised what actually was happening and also the possible link to the Oslo bomb. I needed to talk to someone IRL, as it were. Who was behind this? Was it a lone madman or an organised terrorist group? If the latter – why then kill young people on an island? It didn't make sense to me. Well it still doesn't of course, although I can now see the 'logic' in Breivik's disturbed, sick thinking.

After having told my fellow passengers about Utøya, we all started to talk and try to make some sense of the events as they occurred. A little group had gathered around my Mac and I became some kind of news hub, providing information to people on board the train but also to media, back in the UK.
I had been planning to get some work done on this journey but that never happened. And it wasn't important anymore. I was typing and tweeting, translating and checking facts as best as I could.
Train staff walked past and I could inform them that the train station in Oslo had just been evacuated. They had not been informed about this and from now on, they stopped to check if I had any updates, every time they passed. It was all very surreal. My brother in Arvika called to ask where I was.
I honestly didn't have a clue. I was hardly aware of the fact I was on a train... It was all just too much to take in – like there was no place for anything else.

When the train finally rolled in on the familiar tracks of Arvika railway station, the afternoon had turned into evening. I had reached my destination and I was... home. Normally, this fills me with an incredible joy and excitement as I walk the short walk from the railway station to my brother's place. But this time, my legs felt wobbly, I felt totally exhausted and drained.

I have been meaning to write this blog post since that evening in July, last year. I have started many times, but ended up deleting it all. It just hasn't felt right. But last night, I watched the documentary on BBC2 about Breivik and – as many times before – heard the young people of Utøya giving their stories. This, together with today's trial brought it all up again. So, here you have it – my story.

Unsocial Media?

Last week, the MP for Corby and Northamptonshire, Louise Mensch, said blackouts of Twitter and Facebook would have helped the police during the recent riots. As rumours spread fast via social media, the police wasted valuable time responding to false alarms. Louise Mensch also said BBMs (BlackBerry Messenger), with which help riots and looting were being coordinated, could have been dealt with by carrying out "maintenance" for a short period of time. Although few argued she was wrong in assuming social media was used in such a way, she faced a lot of criticism for suggesting a shut down.

I also disagree with Louise Mensch. I can see where she is coming from, but at the end of the day, Twitter, Facebook and the rest of it are just tools. A way of communicating, like... you know, talking. Free speech, free use of social media is part of our rights but it also comes with responsabilities. People will use it both for good and bad. In my view, bans or shutdowns, like the ones we saw during the Arab Spring, must be avoided.

Personally, I made good use of Twitter during the riots. And no, not for rioting. On 'that' Monday evening, my non tweeting daughter had to get from work in North London back to her home in Hackney. I had been observing the escalating violence and rioting during the afternoon, via twitter and the news. She hadn't. I knew she hadn't, as she was busy working that day. Obviously, she had heard things were happening but was not aware of the way the riots had spread.

The more I heard about things kicking off in Hackney, the more I felt I had to warn her. I texted her and she texted me back and promised she would look out for my texts. I was following the #hackney, #londonfields and the #dalston hashtags on twitter as well as the #riots and the #london ones. I saw a lot of people warning about 'bike mugging', especially in London Fields. I sent a her another SMS. "Make sure your mobile is charged before leaving work and - hold on to it!" She replied: "Oh, I'm heading to South London first, to pick up my NEW (!) bike after work, then I'll be cycling back to Hackney and London Fields."

Yeah right. "Recalculating"...

Her boyfriend was going to join her from (his) work in South London - on his bike. However, once they heard from me how the riots had spread and developed into the very area where they lived, they decided to leave their bikes in South London and take the tube to Dalston Junction, then walk. We kept in touch via SMS during their journey back. Via twitter, I could keep up with the movements of the rioting mob and make sure they knew which areas to avoid. Note - I don't even live in London, I live in Swindon... It was with a great sigh of relief I finally received a text saying they were now back home. Safe. Well, at least they were indoors.

This is just one example of how social media was put to good use during the riots. I am sure lots of people did the same thing as we did, to protect loved ones. As we now all know, communities later made incredibly good use of social media in the clean up process. Not least @Riotcleanup did a brilliant job organising help across London for both cleaning and general support.

I think a shutdown of social media would not just be undesirable. It would be dangerous.

What do you think?

Twitter rocks!

I have been neglecting this blog long enough now. Time for another post - long overdue! Aware of the repetition, I feel I once again have to praise the social media revolution called Twitter. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this phenomenon in the beginning, but on the recommendation of my son, thought I'd give it a go.

And - boy, am I glad I did. It has given me material enough to write a book, should I want to. That should probably be a 'Twook'. The latest episode would tell about how I became the first ever customer for Tweetalondoncab, met an American 'Social Catalyst and Twitter Guru' at a Central London 'tweet-up', and also how an armchair Blur in Hyde Park dream became reality. 

And if that wasn't enough, I have also just arranged a meeting with an MP, to discuss flood defences. Later on in July, I'm invited to a tweet-up in Lincolnshire. The tweeter in question visited London some weeks ago and we managed to meet up at King's Cross for 10 minutes. Speaking of books... he spent the whole of Father's day to write a book on Twitter, with 140 characters at the time. No - he is not mad, but he did this in memory of his late son who died last year. 

Twitter has meant new friends on the photo-sharing website Flickr, as well. There are some great photographers out there in the real world. Cameras on mobile phones might come across as an unnecessary 'extra' when all you want to do is making phone calls. But - it is a daunting thought that so many people around the country capture so many moments in life and post them for others to enjoy. 

Whenever I feel homesick (for Sweden), I tweet one of my friends over there. She kindly tweets me pictures and updates in both Swedish and English. I'm sure it confuses the hell out of my English speaking tweeps.

So - I'm sticking to Twitter. The only sad bit is that many people who don't 'get' Twitter think it is another Facebook or even worse - some kind of dating site. It couldn't be further from the truth. The thing is, you make of twitter what you want. People on Twitter - also known as 'tweeps' - respect each other. There's a lot of fun banter going on in between the more serious tweet debates. 

My impression is, you trust your fellow tweeps. I give you an example: I just sent a cheque to another person as payment for the Blur tickets. We had built up a good relation between us so she just said "I trust you. I send you the tickets and you send me the cheque later."

Besides, if you don't trust someone, you can always 'unfollow', as us tweeps say when we stop following one and other. You will notice there's a lot of Twitter lingo involved, but you soon get the hang of both hashtags, trends, twitpics, and RTs. And the odd twat!