Today, Haiti's capital city fell to ruins. Having spent a lot of time in Port-au-Prince, working with Haitians, I am devastated. My friends in Haiti have yet to be accounted for, and I am desperate for news about their whereabouts. And, in my desperation for new, updated information...twitter has come to the rescue.
Although I blogged about my skepticism for social technology just a few days ago, tonight I had an epiphany. Instead of waiting for traditional news outlets to get a crew on the ground to tell me what had happened, I saw and heard from Haitians reporting their own tragic reality via tweets, twitterpics, ireport, facebook, blogs and skype. It was timely, it was raw, and it was truthful.
So, in solidarity with my Haitian friends, I overcame my fear of social technology all at once. I chirped, blogged, e-mailed and facebooked my network to encourage donations to the Red Cross relief effort. In just an hour, those communications have generated $60 that I know about. I feel useful, and it's all thanks to social technology. Amazing.
PLEASE TEXT "HAITI" TO "90999" TO DONATE $10 TO THE AMERICAN RED CROSS RELIEF EFFORT. The effort is supported by the US State Department.
Although I blogged about my skepticism for social technology just a few days ago, tonight I had an epiphany. Instead of waiting for traditional news outlets to get a crew on the ground to tell me what had happened, I saw and heard from Haitians reporting their own tragic reality via tweets, twitterpics, ireport, facebook, blogs and skype. It was timely, it was raw, and it was truthful.
So, in solidarity with my Haitian friends, I overcame my fear of social technology all at once. I chirped, blogged, e-mailed and facebooked my network to encourage donations to the Red Cross relief effort. In just an hour, those communications have generated $60 that I know about. I feel useful, and it's all thanks to social technology. Amazing.
PLEASE TEXT "HAITI" TO "90999" TO DONATE $10 TO THE AMERICAN RED CROSS RELIEF EFFORT. The effort is supported by the US State Department.
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