Walk a Mile...

As aid money continues to flow in to Haiti driven by new media such as text messaging and social media, it is evident that technology presents a unique opportunity to scale care. We can instantly donate, learn and act without having to leave our cubicle. Plus, we can monitor the implementation of that aid and see the results of the donations to minimize corruption and maximize results.

Additionally, with the cost of publishing at zero, anyone can publish their thoughts (as long as they can get around attempts at government censorship). Whether from a cell phone or a computer, people on the groundcan quickly and with limited technological knowledge, share their world. This gives outsiders such as donors, politicians and just curious readers the chance to have an alternative to mainstream media, which often is government controlled.

However, with the ability to share first person narratives from the grassroots level, there is an overwhelming wall of noise that is hard to sift through. For this reason new sites like xxx are providing an important service that filters the noise. As these new technologies continue to develop, entrepreneurs can empower these eyewitness reporters by sharing and promoting their accounts. It’s when this sharing happens that true change can occur. As seen in China after the xxx earthquake or in Iran during the revolution, technology is forcing government accountability and drawing the spotlight of the international community to events that might otherwise be ignored or missed by the average, concerned global citizen. The possibility and responsibility is upon techies to find ways to use this information to connect content producer with content consumer and to help use technology to close economic disparity gaps instead of widening them.