Guest post by Mayumi Suzuki.
MVPs in Japan are among those working to shore up emergency communications on the heels of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. Various government- and rescue agency-built Web sites designed to deliver vital information—such as shelter availability and current radiation levels—have been overwhelmed by high demand from the millions of people affected by the disaster. Microsoft, some of its partners and members of the Japan Windows Azure user group, including MVPs Sunao Tomita, Tatsuaki Sakai, Takahito Yamatoya, and an MVP who goes by the handle normalian, have joined forces to create mirror sites using Cloud services to relieve pressure on the heavily loaded sites.
For those attempting to stay informed about current conditions or find critical resources, the mirror sites help create seamless access to information.
We’ve listed the emergency communication channels currently being supported by mirror Web sites below. In addition, MVP Keiichi Hashimoto, Sigma Consulting and Sitecore have contributed to developing an earthquake information portal on MSN using the Windows Azure platform. And MVP Uichiro Nozawa has created a site called Local Voices which collects tweets about safety and support issues from the Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures.
Please note—ongoing support is available to organizations providing information to those affected by the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. For help developing a Web site or supporting a heavily loaded site, get in touch at
CURRENT MIRROR SITES
Japan Red Cross: http://jrcmirror1.cloudapp.net/contribution/l3/Vcms3_00002069.html
Tohoku Electric Co: http://teiden.eq0311.info/jp110311/teidentohoku/tohoku.html
Iwate Prefectural Government: http://prefiwatecache1.cloudapp.net
Iwate Newspaper: http://iwate-np-cache.cloudapp.net/
Iwate Disaster Prevention Information Portal: http://pref-iwate-bousai.cloudapp.net/~bousai/
Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health: http://tokyo-eiken-cache.cloudapp.net/
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technologies: Radiation Monitoring Information Site: http://teiden.eq0311.info/housyasen/110315.html
Tokyo Electric Co. Rolling Blackouts Information: http://kakunin.cloudapp.net/ and http://kakunin.cloudapp.net/mb.php
Nuclear Plant Q&A: http://smcjapan.blob.core.windows.net/web/index.htm
Chiba Prefectural Government: Disaster Volunteer: http://chiba-saigai-vc-cache.cloudapp.net/
Ibaraki Prefectural Government, Social Welfare: http://ibaraki-welfare-cache.cloudapp.net/
Aomori Prefectural Government, Social Welfare: http://aosyakyo-cache.cloudapp.net/
Sendai City Government, Social Welfare: http://shakyo-sendai-cache.cloudapp.net/