In the last blog, I mentioned some of the data collected on Gen X and Y. There were some insightful comments posted as well- thanks so much fellow bloggers!

This week I was preoccupied by the Hurricanes in the SE. My daughter and her family live in New Orleans. They evacuated safely for Katrina and returned to join the rest of the citizens committed to rebuilding New Orleans. This past weekend, they had to evacuate again- everyone was worried that Gustav would arrive as a category 4 hurricane with a direct hit on NO.  Fortunately, the storm downgraded to a 2 by the time it reached land. Nevertheless, it caused much damage to the area. So, I was riveted to CNN watching the news and passing along whatever info I could glean while they were on the road to TN.

While I was watching Rick Sanchez, on CNN I noticed something I had NEVER seen before. It points right back to the prior blogs and the desire for people to interact via technology. Rick Sanchez discussed all of the updates, had two separate screens on behind him with pictures of the storm hitting and graphs of the path of the storm. In addition, he had a couple of computers monitoring the news and answering requests for information and comments from Twitter, Facebook and My Space. He even had the cameras zoom in to show the threads. Rick Sanchez told the audience that he appreciated all of the questions and comments, because that allowed him to know what the audience wanted/needed to hear- like where the path of the storm would go after it landed and got past New Orleans, how about Lafayette, etc. He also shared that there were some questions that he wouldn't have thought about when reporting this storm.

Let me share the NUMBERS of requests Rick Sanchez mentioned on air:

• 4,683 comments/questions on Twitter
• 1000 comments/questions from Facebook
• 500 comments/questions from My Space

It was the most interesting, helpful and informative news coverage I have ever seen.

It was interactive!  Are YOU?