This article was published on February 4, 2010

Digital Media Saves a Real Life


Digital Media Saves a Real Life

beach-webcamThe Baywatch TV series may be in reruns, but it seems that we can now all participate in dramatic beach rescues courtesy of digital technology.

In Germany today (BBC reports), a person watching a beautiful sunset via a webcam spotted camera flashes out in the icy sea and alerted the authorities. It turns out that a man drifting out to sea in freezing temperatures had the presence to use his camera flash as an emergency beacon and was luckily spotted via a webcam setup to look out into the sea. A fortunate rescue ensued and a man’s life was saved because of web technology.

As usual when there is crossover from digital/social life into the real world, this may have curious implications in the area of public safety. Is it that much of a stretch to have crowd sourced neighborhood watches or street traffic updates and enforcement. Surely many interesting developments of this kind will follow.

[Image source]

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