Coverage of Samasource's work in Haiti
As the efforts to rebuild Haiti transition from emergency support to longer-term economic recovery and development, and just before the UNDP convenes a donor conference to address the crisis, I thought I'd share a few thoughts from recent talks and readings. Read more ...
March 29, 2010
Students Use Texting Technology to Save Thousands in the Aftermath of the Haitian Earthquake
Conducive Chronicle
In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, thousands of volunteers from around the world rushed to the small island nation to lend their support to the relief efforts. The team at the Fletcher School at Tufts University is still doing everything they can to help. They are working with the Haitian Government, the Haitian Diaspora, and local Civil Society Groups who are using the Ushahidi platform to aid in the post-disaster reconstruction and development efforts. They are working with Samasource and Crowdflower to create jobs for the people of Haiti by hiring them as translators. Read more ...
Tech-minded volunteers quickly pitched in with a variety of communication and data services in the days following the Haiti earthquake. One company -- crowdsourcing platform CrowdFlower -- repurposed its service as a text-message translation tool to aid Mission 4636. CrowdFlower founder and CEO Lukas Biewald shares his story in this guest post. Read more ...
An hour's drive from Haiti's earthquake-ravaged capital of Port-au-Prince hums a cyber café, decked with dozens of new netbooks, intermittent Internet connectivity and hope. Read more ...
February 19, 2010
In Haiti’s Hour of Need, Texting “4636” Became a Lifeline
Christopher Connell, US Government
Washington — Within hours of the earthquake that crushed Port-au-Prince January 12, Haitians in peril could send text messages for help over cell phones to a newly created emergency response number, 4636. It was the rough equivalent of the 911 emergency response number in the United States — and literally was set up overnight. Read more ...
January 28, 2010
How a tweet brought makeshift 911 services to life in Haiti
Kim-Mai Cutler, Venture Beat
Two San Francisco-based startups, Crowdflower and Samasource, came on-board to help find volunteers to translate and categorize the messages. Both are in the “ Mechanical Turk” space — they farm out simple, rote tasks that computing can’t solve to thousands of people at a time. (Crowdflower is a venture-backed startup, while Samasource is a non-profit that gives this work to refugees and people in the poorest parts of the world, including Haiti.) Read more ...
Leila Chirayath Janah explains how her organization is helping to translate text messages from earthquake victims in Haiti so relief workers can better understand the conditions there. Her aim is to eventually give this translation work to Haitians, so they can jumpstart their recovery with jobs. Read more ...
January 19, 2010
Ushahidi: Citizen Reporting and the Haitian Relief Effort
Clark Boyd, Discovery News
With local cell service down and little chance of getting text messages out of Haiti, the Ushahidi team started by taking mapping information coming in from mainstream media outlets, and via Twitter (see hashtags #haiti and #haitiquake). They also created an email address where citizens could submit reports, or news of missing persons (haiti@ushahidi.com). Finally, and most critically, they reached out to Haiti's largest cell provider, DigiCel, to create a text message short code where citizens in Haiti could send an SMS about their location, and their needs. DigiCel allowed Ushahidi to use the short code 4636 (INFO). Read more ...
My organization, Samasource, is now working with FrontlineSMS, Ushahidi, and CrowdFlower to use CrowdFlower's platform to translate emergency text messages coming out of Haiti, which improves response times by aid workers on the ground. The exciting thing about this partnership? Very soon, Haitians in Mirebalais -- rather than expats in the US -- will be earning money for performing these translations Read more ...
January 17, 2010
Samasource and CrowdFlower in Haiti: Rebuilding After a Crisis
Leila Janah, Samasource
Together with the all-star team at Inveneo, we hope to work with 1,000 Jobs to maintain internet connectivity in Mirebalais and provide microwork opportunities to people who have lost their livelihoods. For more on what Samasource is doing in response to the crisis, please visit our blog, or follow us on Twitter @samasource. Please donate to support this effort. Read more ...
