web logs aid disaster recovery some of the most vivid descriptions of the devastation in southern asia are on the internet - in the form of web logs or blogs.  bloggers have been offering snapshots of information from around the region and are also providing some useful information for those who want to help. indian writer rohit gupta edits a group blog called dogs without borders. when he created it  the site was supposed to be a forum to discuss relations between india and pakistan. but in the wake of sunday s tsunami  mr gupta and his fellow bloggers switched gears.  they wanted to blog the tsunami and its aftermath. one sri lankan blogger in the group goes by the online name morquendi. with internet service disrupted by the tsunami  morquendi started sending sms text messages via cell phone from the affected areas of sri lanka.  we started publishing these smses   says mr gupta.   morquendi was describing scenes like 1 600 bodies washed up on a shore  and people burying  and burying and burying them. people digging holes with their hands. and this was coming through an sms message.  we didn t have visual accounts on radio or on tv  or in the print media.  soon  thousands of web users around the world were logging on to read morquendi s first hand accounts. in one message  morquendi wrote about a sri lankan woman who was running home with a friend when the wave hit.  she was being swept away   morquendi s message read.  she grabbed a tree with one hand and her friend with the other. she says she watched the water pull her friend away.  mr gupta says the power of morquendi s text message blogs was palpable.  he was running around  looking for friends  burying bodies  carrying bodies   mr gupta says of morquendi.  i can t even begin to imagine the psychological state he was in when he was sending us reports  and doing the relief work at the same time.  he was caught between being a journalist and being a human being.   others blogs are helping to spread information about relief efforts. dina mehta is an indian blogger who s helping with the newly created south east asia earthquake and tsunami blog. she says the blog is not meant to be filled with first person accounts.  what we re doing is we re building a resource   she says.  anyone who says  ok  i want to come and do some work in india  volunteer in india  or in sri lanka or malaysia  this is the sort of one-stop-shop that they can come to for all sorts of resources - emergency help lines  relief agencies  aid agencies  contacts for them etc.   ms mehta also says she wishes that governments in the region would realise the power of blogs.  imagine if they had this resource available to them  if there was a disaster  how quickly you could funnel aid in  and get people to help   she says. bloggers in the united states are also getting involved. ramdhan yadav kotamaraja is originally from india  but now lives in dallas. mr kotamaraja wanted to help those affected by the tsunami by pooling money with concerned friends. so  he set up an online payment system on his website. then  says mr kotamaraja  the blogging world found out.  all my blogger friends started linking up my site  and i saw a lot of people other than my friends. i d say 70% of the donations came from people i don t know.  it s simply unbelievable to me  that people that i don t know will come and start donating.  news spreads quickly on weblogs  a phenomenon that helps bloggers expand their audience and scope. in sri lanka  blogger morquendi is recruiting others to help. one recruit calls himself heretic. in one of his latest posts  heretic asks:  have you ever seen fishing trawlers on the road  ever seen a bus inside a house   well   heretic writes   that was just the least affected areas - so you can just imagine - or can you   he concludes:  keep it blogged.   clark boyd is technology correspondent for the world  a bbc world service and wgbh-boston co-production.