Lessons learned from haiti
Basic facts:
- When: January 12th, 2010 at 4:53 PM
- Strength: 7 on the Richter scale
- Where: The epicenter was just 16 miles out of Haiti's largest and capital city of Port-au-Prince
- Impact: 300,000 people were killed and over three million people were left homeless.
Cell phone use after the disaster
- Cell phone networks were flooded by calls made by survivors desperate to hear from families and friends and calling for help.
- Some networks gave free credit to all of its customers during the disaster, causing networks to become further congested and preventing people from making calls. This caused further panic.
- Though it was clear that networks needed to be improved upon, SMS texts were first received and sent from relief organizations.
- Issues arose when networks permitted anyone claiming to be part of a relief organization access to SMS broadcasts. As a result, business actually used it to spread news of sales and individuals cruelly sent messages claiming that Red Cross would charge those in need for aid.
- SMS texts were tracked and used as data points in mapping out relief efforts.
Though the above video was also used in the discussion of digital humanitarianism, it is also relevant to the discussion on the important of Haiti. Paul Conneally explains that those impacted by the Haiti earthquake made use of SMS text messages, which allowed relief workers to better design their relief efforts through beneficiary communication. Many people are surprised by the fact that in one of the poorest countries, Conneally explains that 80% of the population has mobile phones. This allowed volunteers to map out effected areas and effectively respond to the disaster. Those impacted by the disaster were no longer voiceless individuals, but instead people with the power to help themselves and those around them through providing relief workers with information. Conneally also speaks of "digital volunteers", who helped compile data collected from SMS text messages and develop the first method of crisis mapping through crowd sourcing.
Citations:
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, "Haiti case study." Accessed December 15, 2013. http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/beneficiary-communications/haiti-case-study/.
Mason, Linda. Huff Post, "Can Cell Phones Rescue Haiti?." Last modified January 12, 2011. Accessed December 12, 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-mason/can-cell-phones-rescue-ha_b_807908.html.
The Week, "Haiti disaster: The essential facts." Last modified January 15, 2010. Accessed December 5, 2013. http://theweek.com/article/index/105201/haiti-disaster-the-essential-facts.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, "Haiti case study." Accessed December 15, 2013. http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/beneficiary-communications/haiti-case-study/.
Mason, Linda. Huff Post, "Can Cell Phones Rescue Haiti?." Last modified January 12, 2011. Accessed December 12, 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-mason/can-cell-phones-rescue-ha_b_807908.html.
The Week, "Haiti disaster: The essential facts." Last modified January 15, 2010. Accessed December 5, 2013. http://theweek.com/article/index/105201/haiti-disaster-the-essential-facts.