Editor's note: This post is written by Bobby Fishkin, CEO of Reframe It. Follow Bobby on Twitter: @bobbyfishkin.
Haiti.com crowdsources the task of connecting real-time information from Haiti into a graphical information system that first responders use to find and respond to needs on the ground. On Friday evening at 9 pm, James Fierro, the principal Shareholder of Caribbean Online, who owns Haiti.com, circulated an email to say that he felt a responsibility to do whatever possible with this domain name to help respond to the emergency situation in Haiti resulting from Thursday's devastating earthquake. By Sunday at 4 pm through the extensive efforts of Aza Razkin, Josh Rosen and myself, a practical and relevant crowdsource project was live.
We launched Haiti.com in response to Tuesday's devastating earthquake in the Haitian city of Port-Au-Prince. When survivors in Haiti phone or text relatives, the people receiving the call don't always know where to send the information. Some of them mention this information online to try to find anyone who can help. When journalists and survivors notice urgent situations, they often don't have the time to route this information to the aid workers on the ground who are closest to being able to respond.
Haiti.com allows volunteers to dig through the piles of real time information that mention Haiti found in blog posts, tweets and news articles to find actionable information about problems on the ground in Haiti. Volunteers check if the information has already been mapped, and if it hasn't, they can add this information in such a way that Ushahidi can verify the information and aid workers can respond. Ushahidi is playing a major role in mapping the situation on the ground in Haiti in ways that help organizations like the Red Cross and Oxfam locate problems and address them. NGOs such as Plan International, Oxfam, American Red Cross and the Clinton Foundation currently using Ushahidi data in the field in Haiti. Any volunteer is welcome to participate. Simply follow the steps listed under "How to Help" on the home page.
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Bobby Fishkin is CEO of Reframe It, a company that lets people comment on any web page, with or without the permission of the site. Bobby has been a Fellow of the Richard Florida Creativity Group and Fellow of the Office of the Mayor of Baltimore, USA. Bobby conceived and developed the Books for Teachers program, which has created hundreds of classroom libraries in the state of Connecticut. A magna cum laude graduate of Yale College with a B.A. in Philosophy, Bobby is also a playwright who has been produced in London and New York. Follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/bobbyfishkin
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