There have been reports that the terrorists possibly were backed by Pakistan, India’s unfriendly neighbor. But, again, why?

In my view, the teams of professional killers are Islamist extremists, focused on destabilizing a significant part of the world which will have profound ripple effects around the world, including the U.S. and Britain. Their goal might be to push India and Pakistan to a nuclear brink. Who really knows at this point?

What I have been watching is how innocent people, many Americans, who are trapped in burning hotels or in hiding have been communicating with their families, the media and the outside world. Twitter has played a significant role in providing and coordinating essential and, sometimes, life-saving news.

I have provided a couple of images taken on my iPhone last night of news from #mumbai on Twitter, just to show what it looks like. The news posts have been faster-moving than any other news media.

On the continually updated Twitter bulletin board of mini-blogs, simply identified as #mumbai, we have seen an astonishing flow of news – hospitals putting out pleas for blood, messages that individuals are safe, fatalities, and the movement of the gunmen.

As CNN Online reported, “With more than six million members worldwide, an estimated 80 messages or tweets, were being sent to Twitter.com via SMS every five seconds providing eyewitness accounts and updates.”

Twitter’s activity, importance and influence has grown so quickly that the Indian government forced Twitter to switch off its service in India due to fear that the gunmen, too, might have access and be monitoring. I don’t think Twitter had any other option, despite Twitter’s importance, because too many details sometimes are shared publicly on Twitter.

We can, however, monitor #mumbai today. You must first have a Twitter account, which is both free and easy.

#Mumbai is another example of how online social media, like Twitter, is redefining news in the Internet age.

For more perspective about the value and activity on #Mumbai, I recommend reading Doug Vanisky’s blog – DeeJayDog Productions.

The more appealing green line represents job data results for Social Network … Web 2.0 … the Digital Revolution. So as the downward job trend slumps across mainstream media, the strong growth in social online media opportunities continues.

I am going to be test driving it and will report back on what it’s like. Your comments are always welcome.

By the way … when I got an Apple “green” display, I thought I was really cool!

Certainly for social networking among family, friends, business associates and colleagues, there is nothing quite as popular or user-friendly as Facebook.

I was on a conference panel last Friday with Jim Brady of The Washington Post, who said that public relations people should use Facebook to communicate with journalists and bloggers. He is absolutely right!