The advancement of wireless phone cameras is not in instantly being able to send your cat's exploits to friends, but in the recording of significant historical events as they happen from an average person's perspective.

As hundreds of people photographed London yesterday, they didn't just capture material for the major media to glom onto and blast on TV worldwide. They captured the tragic events from a view of random people recording other random people in a time of crisis.

Valuable as a good professional photographer is in getting the "essance" of an event (if you can call it that) with a great photo, the haphazard snaps of people in the event are valuable, and something rarely seen until the proliferation of technology we have now.

To me, it's the difference between a well-written history book covering the events and major people of a time period, and a first-hand diary written by an average person of that period. Which was a rare thing.

That "diary" is another perspective; another chance to be reminded of our commonality and brotherhood across all people and locations and times.

And we could use a few more reminders of that.