CorpComms Magazine

A British blogger has launched a unique scheme to raise money for Japan's disaster relief effort by publishing texts and tweets sent in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that wreaked havoc on the country's north east coast.

Our Man in Abiko, a blogger who lives in Japan, is collecting messages sent for exactly two weeks after the disaster hit the country on 10 March at 2.46pm. Photographs and illustrations of the disaster will also be contained within the self-published #Quakebook.

His campaign kicked off with the blog post: 'I'm looking for contributions from anyone who has something to say about the earthquake (eg where were you when it happened, what did you feel? How have you helped? Did it change anything in the way you live your life? Are you coping with grief? Or just bewildered behind a barrage of media images?) I'm not looking for windy poetic stuff, just honest stuff.'

By 24 March, Our Man in Abiko had collected 30,000 words almost entirely from Twitter. Embracing the crowdsourcing nature of the book, he then posted a blog asking followers whether the title should include words such as 'Japan' or 'earthquake' in order to reach more of the public as it would appear higher on the search engines.

He added: 'We ain't writing for search engines, we're writing for our future.'

Just over one day before his self-imposed deadline, Our Man In Abiko indicated that his efforts had not been in vain, saying: 'The good news - we've got some cracking tales from the frontlines and the home front, all beautifully cleaned up and headlined, some great art - all the ingredients of a great book.'

The book will first appear as a digital download, but it is hoped that it will swiftly appear in a printed format.

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