The big power of 140 characters

A few days after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Atlantic seaboard, devastating places like Staten Island, I saw something on Twitter I'd never seen before - a request for a significant donation:

Met and responded to by the Foundation (within hours)

 Agreement reached -

All on Twitter. In a matter of hours.

There's another storm bearing down on the east coast. Many people (family members of mine, included) are still without power (10 days now.) Many lost lives, homes, businesses, loved ones. Recovery takes a long time.

The Carl V. Bini Fund was set up in memory of one of the #FDNY's finest who was lost on September 11, 2001. Anthony De Rosa is a Reuters reporter and an avid Twitterer.

Money laundering and the election

When I wrote, in 2010, that the Citizens United decision would lead to money laundering by nonprofit social welfare organizations I really didn't expect it to be as obvious as this morning's headline on the San Francisco Chronicle:

 

(Photo from http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=CA_SFC)

If you can't read the text of that right hand column, above the fold story, here is the opening sentence, "California regulators said Monday that a conservative Arizona group hid the true source of an $11 million political donation in what they called the largest campaign money-laundering scheme in state history."

There's every kind of get out the vote effort under the sun today - check out "yourexcusesucks" and the "#ivoted" nudge campaign on Twitter for just two of them. Please, vote. The election will be over tonight.* The damage done to our civil society by this kind of money laundering and trust-incinerating will still need you tomorrow.






*Yes, I'm aware that both parties have lawyers at the ready and there's a chance we won't be done with the election tonight. I remember November and December, 2000. I'm trying to stay positive.

#tech, communities, #sandy

This is, (bad pun intended), a marathon.

1) Steven Clift of eDemocracy is working on a "tips" list for neighbors, disasters, and social media.

2) "First world" disaster recovery - cell phone charging is major activity. 

3) #DoSomething helps people everywhere think about disaster prep with #PantryPrep

4) Social media driven fundraising sites like fund.ly getting lots of use for #sandy recovery (I mentioned CrowdRise and CraigConnects earlier)

5) After @MikeBloomberg (wisely) canceled the NYC Marathon, folks quickly set up ways for racers who had already booked hotel rooms to donate them to those seeking shelter post-storm - race2recover was up within hours of the Mayor's announcement.

6) Interactive maps of Red Cross shelters, open gas stations, and pharmacies.

7) Incredible maps of FourSquare check-ins pre- and post-storm

8) Public agencies turned to Twitter in a big way - good story from CNN on the woman behind the @FDNY account. (HT @Darimonline)

9) Here's an open transit planner built by tech community (HT @Digiphile)

10) David Pogue offered some tips on keeping things charged up

11) The Chronicle of Philanthropy put out this list of company donations to storm relief efforts.

12) PBS IdeaLab posted this story on most innovative coverage of the storm

13) Courtesy of @NickBilton and @theWirecutter - necessary tech for an emergency

Best of luck and lots of support to the #hurricanehackers and others at #crisiscamps this weekend!



Here are the previous posts:
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/11/sandy-tech-communities-part-8.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/tech-communities-and-disaster-sandy.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/tech-communities-and-sandy-big-data.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/more-tech-and-sandy-part-5.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/tech-communities-and-sandy-part-4.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/community-foundations-and-sandy-part-3.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/technology-and-disasters-sandy-part-2.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/technology-and-natural-disasters-sandy.html

#Sandy, Tech, Communities - Part 8

This is the 8th post in this series. Here are some more resources

1) New York Tech MeetUp -#NYTM - is helping folks find electricity and coworking spaces. They've crowdmapped office space and bike access. (HT @ElizbthMllr, @Rasiej). They're coordinating through twitter with hashtag #sandycoworking

2) #NYTM is also organizing techie volunteers - here's the sign up form.

3) Here's a list of NY Tech community resources

4) It's amazing to me that any buses or subways are working in NY. That said, here's a (fake) version of what the NYC subway system would look like if it were mapped today. I got this on Twitter - don't know where it came from.

5) The biking community is out in force, helping people plan commutes and using bikes to charge phones. 

6) In a similar bike vein, #OccupyWallStreet folks were re-directing themselves into a bike messenger service -

7) More volunteer opportunities being coordinated by #OWS

(The examples from the bike communities and #OWS remind me of how important these kinds of flexible communities can be. Organized for one reason, the personal connections and commitments can be redirected in times of emergency)

8) #HurricaneHackers and others coordinating #CrisisCamps this weekend

9) Pay phones became useful again - ah, inrastructure. Perhaps someone will install handcranks in these and USB ports so folks can charge cell phones.....?

10) Duracell sent BIG battery trucks to Battery Park City. Here's a teapot that turns steam into electricity for phone charging (via Kickstarter). Assumes you still have gas running to your stove.



Here are the previous posts:
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/tech-communities-and-disaster-sandy.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/tech-communities-and-sandy-big-data.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/more-tech-and-sandy-part-5.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/tech-communities-and-sandy-part-4.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/community-foundations-and-sandy-part-3.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/technology-and-disasters-sandy-part-2.html
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2012/10/technology-and-natural-disasters-sandy.html