Social media websites offer some of the most viral ways of spreading information across the internet. This Friday, your feed will probably be flooded with news and conversations about a tsunami hitting the coast of California. Don’t freak out. Just know that its Exercise 24, a drill run by natural disaster experts at San Diego State University, in partnership with InRelief.org.  They will test the entire social media community’s responsiveness to crisis. From George Bressler, the university’s adjunct faculty member and lead coordinator of X24:

“X24 is an open, ‘no fault’ environment for nations, organizations and the global community to explore collaborative technologies and develop solutions to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief challenges”

The commencement of the drill will be marked by a news about a major earthquake off the coast of Huntington Beach, California, that will trigger a tidal wave and cause an oil spill. People will be asked to visit InRelief.org to see if the website can handle so much traffic. The drill ends on Saturday.  Surely we’ve learned the oldest of early adopters, from the Orson Welles generation?