Iceland's Volcano Puts World in New Perspective

(April 19) -- Home might feel farther away than ever for travelers stranded by Iceland's volcanic eruption. But on the Internet, it's still a small world after all, as people connect to deal with -- or just learn about -- this rare occurrence.

The cloud of ash that's been spewing from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano since late last week has cost airlines more than $1 billion and forced hundreds of thousands of passengers to improvise. Along with all the vacationers and business travelers, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to cancel overseas trips. Like Obama, Germans Chancellor Angela Merkel couldn't make it to Poland for President Lech Kaczynski's funeral on Sunday. She had to get home from Italy by crossing the Alps in a car.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was stuck in JFK Airport last Friday and had to govern through his new iPad, according to the New York Daily News. In Norway, comedian John Cleese of Monty Python fame couldn't find a boat or train to get him home to Britain, so he ended up spending more than $5,100 for a 930-mile taxi ride to Brussels, Belgium, where he caught a train to London.

Now Britain is sending warships to bring home some of its citizens, and European Union officials are working to open more airspace. It's a tricky proposition because, as Newsweek's The Human Condition blog explains, the ash is drawn into the same jet stream over Europe that airlines use. Wired's GeekDad page tells why that ash is such a threat to jet engines. And The New York Times has this handy map to keep track of how airports across Europe are affected by the spreading cloud.

In Poland, author Anne Applebaum said the events of the past few days have reminded Europeans that they depend on airlines much more than they usually imagine. If air travel were to become unreliable for an indefinite period, she wrote for Slate, "the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean would suddenly seem deeper, the continent of Europe wider and longer -- almost as if we had gone back in time by a century."

Yet in the modern world of social media, the fallout from the volcano has brought people closer together. Stranded travelers have turned to Twitter, Facebook and various websites for help, GigaOm reported. One of the hottest volcano-related Twitter hashtags is -- what else? -- #ashtag.

TechPresident blogger Micah Sifry said social media have succeeded in this situation where corporate media have failed -- with such notable exceptions as the airline KLM's Twitter feed. Sifry described how he used Twitter to gather information and advice about finding a way out of Berlin -- saying he felt "like a ball being buoyed by an invisible network of friends and strangers, all connecting to me and with each other via the Internet."

Sifry's friend Jeff Jarvis told a similar tale on his BuzzMachine blog about escaping the looming ash cloud on one of the last flights out of Germany, through "the kindness of strangers and Twitter zen."

Most travelers haven't been as lucky as Jarvis. Some have even run out of money while waiting for flights, according to The Associated Press. In Iceland, an official site reported that about 1,800 tourists were stranded. But they all have a place to stay, the report said, and "they have all been given free passes to the country's numerous museums, as well as to the municipal public swimming pools and Jacuzzis -- all geothermally heated."

Among the unofficial sources of information about the "land of fire and ice" is the Twitter feed @thisisiceland -- written as if the country itself is speaking. (Sample Tweet: "Say hello to these three nice Norwegian girls who are stranded on me.") Naturally, someone also created a Twitter page for the volcanic ash cloud, @theashcloud. (Sample Tweet: "Lots of people avoiding me and going by train! How long will this isolation continue I wonder?")