Haiti: Texting, social Web connecting survivors with help

Struggling earthquake survivors in Haiti can now text for help. "Countless volunteers" receiving the messages, the US State Department, the Pentagon, aid organizations, and Haiti's leading cellphone carrier make up an emergency contact network for Haitians seeking aid, the New York Times reports. The story leads with the experience of Coast Guard volunteer and Chicago tech firm owner Ryan Bank, who told the Times he's received more than 18,000 messages. Some volunteers monitor Facebook and Twitter postings for information indicating where supplies are needed. Messages through the network have "helped identify a tent city that the American military and relief workers were previously unaware of." To get the word out, the mobile carrier in Haiti sent "the distress code number – 4636 – to every cellphone on the Haitian network. Word of the program also went out on local Haitian radio stations." Text messaging was still possible even with damage done from fallen cell towers.

Haiti relief from kid virtual worlds

As we mention in our VW safety tips, some worlds offer opportunities for charitable giving in the "real world" – even for up-to-the-minute relief efforts like Haiti's. For example, Sony's FreeRealms.com offers $10 donations for Haiti with purchases of specific virtual goods in-world; GaiaOnline.com "is matching up to $10,000 in donations to the Red Cross and setting aside a dedicated forum for discussing and coordinating relief efforts by its users"; and Sanrio's HelloKittyOnline.com "is gearing up for a guild-based event asking teams to craft virtual goods in a race to build up a donation to Doctors Without Borders and an aid effort to Haiti," VirtualWorldNews.com reports. Other charitable teen and kid worlds are MyYearbook.com (whose users have donated $250,000 so far), WiglingtonandWenks.com, and Xeko.com. Meanwhile, Haiti's only film school, Cine Institute, is now rubble, but its "young filmmakers have been tirelessly been documenting" the earthquake's, tech education pundit Derek Baird blogs. They've been using social media to share eyewitness reports via Twitter, Vimeo, and the institute's own site, Baird adds. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, N.Y., this Friday, there will be a very "real world" Haiti Solidarity Benefit organized by students at Global Kids and the High School for Global Citizenship.

Haiti mobile-relief update

The Red Cross reports that $22 million had been raised via cellphones for Haiti earthquake relief (about a fifth of the $112 million in total donations), the Washington Post reports. The previous cellphone fundraising record was a mere $400,000.

Social Web's help for Haiti

With emails from President Obama, tweets in Twitter, and cellphones sending “Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to @RedCross relief," fixed and mobile social media are raising millions for Haiti earthquake relief. Yesterday (1/14) may've been "the biggest day for mobile giving to date, CNET reports, adding that Facebook said its users "have been posting more than 1,500 status updates a minute containing the word Haiti." The New York Times reports today that "the American Red Cross, which is working with a mobile donations firm called mGive, said Thursday that it had raised more than $5 million this way" and "nearly $35 million" in general by Thursday night, "surpassing the amounts it received in the same time period after Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami." This is an important media story for classroom and dinner-table discussion, but parents and teachers will also appreciate this "teachable moment" for new media literacy. Because, unfortunately, "with any urgent call for donations often comes a rash of scams that can pilfer cash or result in identity theft," another CNET post warns. The article offers advice for applying critical thinking to texted, posted, and tweeted solicitations – and so does the FBI.