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Anorak News | Skiing Briton Rob Williams Dies On Twitter

Skiing Briton Rob Williams Dies On Twitter

by | 4th, March 2009

ROB Williams has died on a skiing holiday, and will be written about as the man who died on Twitter.

Rob Williams was in Verbier, along with his business partner, Jason Tavaria, and Michelle Dewberry, who made her name on Alan Sugar’s The Apprentice.

Williams became separated from the group in bad weather. He fell down a cliff onto rocks. Dewberry posted updates on Twitter website.

“2 of our ski party been missing since 4pm. Conditions terrible. 1 guy found but trapped. 20 man team searching for other.”

Mr Tavaria, also 29, transmitted a GPS satellite navigation signal from his iPhone. He located his position using Google Maps. He was rescued.

The party wrote a tweet to try and learn the numbers of the lost members’ mobile phones -the signals could be used to track them down. Twitter is not all about me.

It worked. Numbers came in.

Party member Alex Hoye tweeted:

“Rob’s number rec’d via Twitter; Jason now found using GPS / Google maps & phone; still working on finding Rob.”

Tweet:

“It’s 00:12h in Verbier. 0 degrees outside. Search team still looking for Rob. No update yet. will let everyone know as soon as we hear.”

He died. Tragic news.

But a sign that technology saves lives…



Posted: 4th, March 2009 | In: Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink