Posts Tagged ‘Haiti’
Image courtesy of Twitter.com
The Tall Man with Glasses, aka Stuart Witts, began his career in digital marketing back when the term social media referred to the act of writing one’s name on the side of the railway lines. This was a time before Dreamweaver, when the humble Notepad was the only HTML editor of choice.
What better perspective from which to write about Twitter’s dizzyingly speedy rise to its current status as an indispensable tool?
Stuart looks at the way news consumers and gatherers, and those who simply love a great conversation have come to rely on Twitter, and examines whether or not they would benefit if the service had competition.
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Every time the dreaded fail whale appears, doom mongers surface and spread alarmist tales. During the recent earthquake in Haiti, there were no exceptions to that rule.
After one of the aftershocks, Twitter crashed for 90 minutes and concerns over its weaknesses as a single point of contact were raised.
In a sense, the fact that concerns were raised at all bears testimony to Twitter’s meteoric rise as a communications medium. For it to be considered so important during events of this magnitude is frankly astounding, but as Uncle Ben advised the young Spiderman; ‘With great power comes great responsibility’.
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Image courtesy of the US Navy via Wikimedia Commons
It is now more than a fortnight since Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Billions of dollars in donations have poured in to relief operations, as stories of devastation and miraculous survival have gushed out of Port-Au-Prince.
Digital strategist Jonathan Waddingham and his team at online fundraising website JustGiving.com have not had much time to breathe since horror struck the Caribbean island nation on January 12. However, as the chaos gives way to rebuilding efforts, Jonathan takes a moment to reflect on how response to this disaster reflects changes in the way in which charities are now making full use of the real-time web.
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As news broke on January 12 of a massive earthquake in Haiti, some of the first details to emerge were from charities on the ground. In the past, this may have occurred via press release, a day or so after the event; this time the first information came in, via Tweets. Later, it came via blogs, phone blogs, photos and videos – all of them, online channels.
The 2005 Asian Tsunami was a milestone, in terms of the adoption of the internet by charities as a way of raising money. It was the first time that the total of online donations amounted to more than the total raised via traditional cash giving. Haiti’s terrible tragedy may prove a similar landmark in how charities use the real-time web.
images courtesy United Nations Development Programme
Paul Farrell is a freelance journalist and blogger who writes about conflict. His blog covers topics like abuses of police power and human rights issues from across the globe.
Who better than a social justice-oriented thinker with a passion for social media to introduce and explain Ushahidi – a crowd-sourced online disaster relief agency?
It is extraordinarily difficult to fathom quite what is going on in Haiti right now. No amount of graphic video and images could ever really get the horrific reality through our computer screens and into our consciousness.
With the possible exception of Rush Limbaugh – a US talk show host who cynically announced President Barack Obama would use the disaster to curry favour with ‘both dark and light-skinned Americans’ – the international community has shown great and genuine concern. Millions of dollars are pouring into Haiti while search and rescue teams sent from around the world clamber over the ruins of the island nation’s towns and villages, to provide assistance to as many survivors as possible.
But the real problem is how to effectively distribute help in devastation zones like Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Competition between aid agencies and governments, combined with acute logistical problems can significantly delay the delivery of aid to the areas and the individuals most in need.
images courtesy United Nations Development Programme
Media140 blogger Peter Bouvier is Social Media Editor for a UK Government body and has worked in project management, planning and education. Peter is also a keen consumer of current affairs, whose impressive writing skills shine whenever he is armed with a burning issue and a keyboard.
Peter was on hand to take a look at how useful social media have been in mobilising aid to Haiti this past week, as the already fragile communications infrastructure on the quake-devastated island nation broke down completely.
International relief efforts may be hampered and many lines of communication remain down, however, social media is proving its worth in Haiti.
Only 10 per cent of the country’s nine million people have internet access, yet Twitter feeds gave an immediate picture of the earthquake and photos emerged on Twitpic and Flickr almost instantaneously.
First-hand videos of quake-ravaged Port-au-Prince also appeared on YouTube within hours of the quake, alongside Haitians’ personal appeals to the world for aid and support.
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