IABC to work with Habitat for Humanity before 2007 New Orleans conference

This just in on an all-member IABC email:

New Orleans, Louisiana is the site of IABC’s 2007 International Conference on 24-27 June, where IABCers will take part in restoring New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. In March 2007, IABC will recruit a healthy (and heat-resistant) team of volunteers and staff to partner with Habitat for Humanity on Friday, 22 June and Saturday, 23 June to rebuild homes in a recovering New Orleans neighborhood.

I think that is splendid. I was critical of IABC last year when it failed to respond vigorously to the disaster. While the organization (actually, the affected region) raised some money, it ignored ideas such as restocking the professional libraries of displaced professionals (which it could have easily done from inventory). And since IABC leaders actually had to evacuate New Orleans in front of Katrina, I've always wondered why five bright communicators, at the top of the profession, stuck in a 20-hour car ride to Baton Rouge, could not have come up with some ideas.

Now IABC is going up on the scoreboard. And I'm happy. Get ready to sign up.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 07:00pm in IABC, Katrina | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (5)

Recovery 2.0 Fiddles While Kashmir Burns: "We Don't Have the Tools" is OUT as an Excuse (Reprise)

Friend Neville Hobson urges us to Help Victims of Pakistan Earthquake. With a death toll climbing north of 20,000, the October 2005 Kashmir Earthquake knocks the entire Atlantic Hurricane season into the corner.

After the earthquake & tsunami last year, the SEA-EAT blog/wiki project -- an entirely grassroots effort --  organized and swung into action within hours. After hearing Dina Mehta describe the effort at Reboot, I wrote about it, saying "We Don't Have the Tools is NOT an Excuse".

Just as they did in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (my post here), many of the same team spontaneously assembled behind the South Asia Quake Help effort within hours of the quake:  ("News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts after the South Asia Earthquake of October 8th, 2005.")

And are doing an outstanding job. You can volunteer, by the way.

These three efforts in nine months point, unfortunately, to the sluggishness and bureaucracy already clogging the arteries of Jeff Jarvis' Recovery 2.0 effort, which is aimed at doing what the SEA-EAT team already does far better.  After weeks of talking about it, Jarvis managed to convene a meeting to talk about the project. The results of this meeting?

* We need to work on standards and APIs for the tools and data bases people create to help in disasters. The peoplefinder standard is already underway and some of the folks from Yahoo at the meeting — who had experience on the ground in Houston and also at the Red Cross network operations center — are working on improvements. At a minimum, we need to do a better job harnessing the internet to help people find each other.

* We need to meet face-to-face with government, NGOs, and business to offer help and coordinate. There is a meeting in Washington on Oct. 17 about just that.

In the meantime, the Kashmir was being leveled by an earthquake, and the South Asia Quake Help team organized itself and got to work. No meetings, no discussions of software options, no meetings in Washington.

Jeff Jarvis: You have great influence; the members of your group have great influence. Instead of reinventing the wheel, why not use your influence to push funds and volunteers into the group behind SEA-EAT, Katrina Help, and South Asia Quake Help? The money your group has spent on travel alone -- just on the BART -- could fund any of these efforts.

How about it?

Technorati tags: Recovery 2.0Recovery2.0 pakistan+earthquake

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 10:52am in Citizen Journalism, Current Affairs, Katrina, Online Media, Pakistan Earthquake, Smart Communities, Society, Tsunami | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (5) | TrackBack (2)

The New Orleans Diaspora

So where did everyone go in the wake of Hurricane Katrina? Here's a map, based on 40,000 entries to various "I'm safe!" Katrina websites. The map at the EPodunk website is interactive.

Via The Map Room.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:57am in Cartography, Current Affairs, Katrina, South | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (0) | TrackBack (0)

Lesson for Communicators: Grassroots Tsunami Team Remobilizes For Katrina

What can ordinary people do in the face of catastrophe?

Jeremy Pepper and Richard Edelman believe natural disasters are events that leave bloggers and wiki-builders powerless.  Warren Bickford believes there's little that IABC can do. (Addendum: Jeff Jarvis is hard at work with a coterie to solve the next disaster -- Jeff, why don't you and your group help solve this one first: Keep reading for how you can volunteer.)

Nothing could be further from the truth: bloggers can make a difference. While I agree with Pepper that few bloggers seem to be doing more than complaining about government efforts,  I'd like to point out a huge exception.

I've written earlier about the incredible South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog/wiki effort that went into action hours after the tsunami. Grassroots- organized using blogs, wikis, IM, and Skype. And effective at a time with most governments and relief organizations were in shock.

The same team has swung into action with the Katrina Help blog and wiki. The team, spanning three continents, including professional communicators, has used the blog, the wike, IM, and Skype to set up:

• A comprehensive blog, operating since August 29th.
• A wiki, updated seemingly hourly, with job offers, transportation offers, housing offers, updated emergency management information, info about conditions on the ground. Comunicators: PR-blogger Constantin Basturea is one of the moderators.
• A PeopleFinder effort to help locate missing persons and reunite them with families. They need volunteers, including communicators!
• A ShelterFinder effort: ditto above, you can volunteer.
• A KatrinaHelpLine, staffed 24/7 by volunteers. This is Skype-based, with a New Orleans area Skype-in number (+1 504 208 1564).

So what can IABC and its members, PRSA and its members, any communicator -- or any one of us, for that matter, do to help this effort?

• Well, we can donate your time. Plenty of information about that on the Wiki.
• We can also donate money or services to keep the effort going. It's a volunteer effort, and they are using free software (Blogger, Skype, etc) but there are some hosting costs. You can read more about their needs here. Microcontributions or contributions-in-kind appear welcome.

The lesson here for communicators? Bloggers and micro-media users -- real communicators -- can make a difference. It's a question of rapid organization and will. We don't have the tools is no longer an excuse for us.

Via Conversations with Dina and other sources.

Posted by Allan Jenkins at 11:32am in Blogging for the Sheer Hell of It, Citizen Journalism, Communication, Current Affairs, IABC, Katrina, PRSA, Social Tools, South, Tsunami | Permalink | Comments Welcome! (5) | TrackBack (2)