IMPT Sun Updates: Launch Haiti SOS 4636 SMS HOTLINE/ New list Lists

Sun am Updates on New Haiti SOS text service- Please share widely.

Several groups have emerged in the past 72 hours to help survivors connect and report to a centralised FREE hotline, via SMS. Others continue to provide centralized digital, interactive ways for LOVED ONES to contact survivors or share updates.

Note that I posted last night about Inveneo's plan to rebuild a provisional wireless grid for telecommunications. In the interim, the local cell phone service in Haiti is up, though spotty. People can now post via free text msg that will be shared with First Responder.

A caveat: as diff groups, private and outside media, jump in, there is risk of repetition and weaker, not greater, coordination. We implore new groups to work WITH, not in competition, with existing networks that are already established to centralize information about survivors and dispatch triage communications.

I'll encourage the SOS hotline being set up by the Thomson Reuters
Foundation for inside Haiti to post automatically to Ushahidi, so digital mapping occurs at the same time.

I'm going to repost some posts from Bob Corbett's listserve here - and will try to share details of the emerging evacuation plan as the day unfolds.

People continue to post to USHAHIDI www.haiti.ushahidi.com.

Now Google Earth has joined, and the Thomson Reuters
Foundation that helped in the tsunami:

For the Haitian people/groups IN HAITI:

Haiti information service launched by Thomson Reuters Foundation
Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:14am EST

PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI, Jan 17 - The Thomson Reuters Foundation
has today launched a first-of-its kind, free disaster-
information service for the people of Haiti. The service
allows survivors of Haiti's earthquake to receive critical
information by text message directly to their phones, free of
charge.

WORLD | NATURAL DISASTERS

To register, survivors subscribing to the Digicell network,
the largest in the Caribbean, simply text their location to
the SMS shortcode 4636. By return, up-to-date, reliable,
actionable information will be sent to them wherever they are
in Haiti, helping them to reach shelter, aid and loved ones.
The service will cost them nothing.

The service also acts as a news and information gathering
mechanism, whereby survivors can report information directly
into the EIS team of specialist journalists. The EIS team will
collate this information and it will be made available to
agencies, emergency teams and local media.

People outside of Haiti and the quake zone can register their
loved ones' cell phone numbers on their behalf.

TO REGISTER FOR THE SERVICE

- If inside Haiti: text your location to 4636 directly from
your own phone

- If inside Haiti and registering someone else's phone number:
send a text with REGISTER or REGISTRE and the loved ones'
number and location, to 4636

- If overseas: text REGISTER or REGISTRE and the loved ones'
local Haiti number, and location to +4673 749 4535

- Note: The SMS shortcode is dependent on local telecom
infrastructure; if the infrastructure fails, the local SMS
service will not work

The EIS also aims to get critical information to survivors via
local media, especially radio, and the Thomson Reuters
Foundation already has a team of expert humanitarian
journalists in Haiti working around the clock to collect and
disseminate information.

Working with technology partner InSTEDD and aid agencies
including the Red Cross, the Thomson Reuters Foundation aims
to help Haitians with practical information to help them take
control of their own recovery.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO, Monique Villa, said this
morning, "In times of major natural catastrophes, information
itself is aid, as crucial as shelter or blankets. All forms of
communication in Haiti have been impaired and the EIS team
will help fill the communication void providing reliable,
actionable information to the disaster affected population.

"We only launched our new service in December on the fifth
anniversary of the Asian Tsunami and whilst you never want or
anticipate significant natural disasters, I am pleased that
our service is now up and running so that we can come to the
aid of the people of Haiti."

For more Haiti coverage from the Foundation's AlertNet
service, click www.alertnet.org/.
*******

DIASPORA NETWORKING:

(thanks to repost from Sean Harvey (roughguides@gmail.com)

For the Haitian people/groups OUTSIDE HAITI/ in DIASPORA:

Google Earth's People Finder for the Haiti Earthquake:
/
Description:
People Finder allows the Haitian diaspora to check the status of loved ones while also allowing relief organizations a common back-end to store data.
The launch was announced by US Secretary of State Clinton and we're seeing considerable activity for both information on missing persons as well as
requests for information. We're hoping this proves to be genuinely valuable.

*********

Finally, two days ago I posted about Jean Claude Bajeux and LOCAL Haitians who had started lists of survivors in their networks, blogging here.