By Alma Anonas-Carpio for The Philippines Graphic

Typhoon Ondoy's apocalyptic passage across Luzon tested the mettle of the government, civic volunteers and the country's telecommunications system. Technology was what made the difference with this storm, as it was the first calamity met with a civilian digital response that was swift, efficient and coordinated.

The government was unable to coordinate rescue and relief operations immediately due to floods, downed landlines and loss of electricity in areas where floods exceeded two meters. Tech-savvy social networking mavens filled the communications gap, using their Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as their webpages on Mutiply and their e-groups on portals like Yahoo and Google to issue alerts about missing and stranded people, traffic bottlenecks, flooding and, in some sorry instances, looting and scams.

Online volunteers harnessed the power of GoogleMaps and the open-source and web-based Sahana disaster monitoring and coordination software to pinpoint areas of flooding and places where people were awaiting rescue on rooftops.

As Ondoy moved off and the government's relief operations continued at a snail's pace, the rapid-fire online exchange of data on Facebook status messages evolved into a platform for linking and coordinating volunteer groups and donors from unaffected areas of the country and from overseas.

By Day Two of the digital people power effort to coordinate rescue and relief activities, the web-ring of people using the internet to help Ondoy's victims had turned the free software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform into an early-warning mechanism: Two more storms were threatening mother Filipinas and they began disseminating weather satellite feeds, warnings and disaster preparation and mitigation tips online.

The effort went viral, with mobile telecommunications and internet on mobile phone handsets drafted into the effort to save lives and bring help where it was needed the most. AM radio, of course, was broadcasting from Day One onwards and one FM station, Jam 88.3, reformatted its broadcast to give way to public service announcements and carry pleas for help on the airwaves.

Television stations and foreign news agencies like CNN and the newswires, and their websites, also turned to the internet and its dedicated cadre of Filipino citizen journalists for information and updates, which the bloggers and social network users also carried on their public message boards.

This was the central hub from which efforts to help made by shipping firms like Negros Navigation, WG&A and Sulpicio Lines and airlines, particularly the beleaguered flag-carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), grew. Online, expatriate Filipinos gleaned information on the most reliable modes of sending donations in cash and kind and they, too, used the internet to contact their host governments and other expat Pinoys and friends of foreign citizenship to seek assistance for Ondoy's victims.

For the first time, Filipinos across the islands and overseas were not helpless witnesses to their countrymen's plight. They were actively involved in mobilization efforts online and offline. For the first time, aid poured in within hours of the calamity instead of days or weeks. Here, we caught a glimpse of the true power of the internet and mobile communications. Perhaps this is the best argument for the government and the private sector to push for a 100% broadband penetration rate in addition to the excellent mobile phone service the country already enjoys.

The bayanihan spirit that is inherently Filipino soared, powered by technology, and another people power revolution blossomed. This time, the people power was for the people who could not be served by an inefficient and overburdened government, not to topple a president.

This digitally-driven people power also enabled Filipinos who were disabled, trapped in their homes by rising water or otherwise unable to physically assist their compatriots, to put their talents and skills to use. They, too are Filipinos and, with cyberspace and mobile telephony, they, too could, and did, serve, putting their brains and technical expertise to the best possible use and, in the process, saving lives and ensuring the efficient and accurate delivery and monitoring of relief goods and dispatch of able-bodied and skilled volunteers - doctors, nurses, social workers and police and military rescuers - to the areas sorely in need of them.

As with Edsa 1986, the Filipino has set a milestone. Social networking has been used for many things: A casual means of keeping in touch with one's friends and family; marketing products to a targeted audience; even for spying on one's ex-loves. Filipinos across the net have shown that social networking has a deeper and more relevant impact on life in the Philippines as we know it: These networks and the internet are tools that can be used for quickly saving lives on a massive scale when disaster strikes.