Since I have clients on the other side of the globe right now, my sleep schedule can be a little wacky. This morning was a sleep-in morning, so I was still in bed at 8:13 or so.

We had a pretty serious storm last night - about ten inches of very wet snow. I'd heard it sliding off the roof several times during the night. So when I woke up at 8:13 or so to a rumbling noise, that's all I thought it was - more snow sliding off the roof. So I rolled over and went back to sleep.

When I was mostly awake an hour later, I wandered downstairs to check my email. A friend of mine in California sent me an instant message as soon as I sat down. It said, "hey, you doing okay today? My best Bozeman bud said there was some sort of explosion downtown..." And I went wha huh? I assured her that I was okay, and that we had snow, but I had no idea what happened downtown.

My first thought was to google, so I did. That brought me a few links to newspapers with just a sketch of what I knew had to be an ongoing news story. (For those of you not already in the know, here's a link to the local newspaper story.) My next thought was to turn on the TV and see if one of the local stations had any video. That's when I discovered the snow had temporarily knocked out my satellite TV reception. Hrm.

So then I wondered if there was a twitter hashtag yet. I just had no idea how many Bozeman locals used Twitter. I'd never checked before. A little digging brought me to the #bozexplod hashtag. And boy, was it hopping. By the time I read one page of messages from local Bozeman residents (including links to photos) there would already be another 20 comments to read.

So I was getting updates on the story every 30 seconds or so, with some great photos and links to things like live streaming radio broadcasts of press conferences. (It hadn't even occurred to me to turn on the radio.) So I could sit in the comfort of my own home and get way more information than if I had been standing on the street downtown getting in the way.

This is why I love technology, and why I feel like we're still in the middle of figuring out how best to use it. This was a very natural, very useful way of getting information about what was going on in my small town in the middle of nowhere.

There was very little national news coverage of the story - and even if CNN had really glommed onto it, the local Twitterers still would have done better. By noon they were reminding us that the firefighters and police could sure use something to eat, and maybe a drink of water. They started organizing where to bring donations for emergency personnel.

But I'm sure there are still evolutions to how this technology will sort itself out in the future. The crowdsourced google map of affected areas and suggested alternate routes for getting around was an excellent use of the knowledge-sphere. Many people contributed to creating that map, and many more found it a useful resource - much more useful than a radio or TV news reporter chanting off a list of street names.

It's been a surreal day. One person is still missing, the fire is still burning, and the Twitter feed is still rolling along - a little slower now, but still with great information. And now I've starting following the twitters of several locals. Who knew this day would bring so much.