Publication date:
2010-06-01
Summary:
Can web-based, wiki-style collaboration complement on-the-ground aid delivery? What benefits and challenges emerge when a "here comes everybody" approach is applied to a disaster zone?
When natural disasters strike, people from around the world are inspired to assist, but are often constrained by distance, time, and the skills required to help. But, with greater availability of robust web-enabled Information and Communication Technology (ICT), these barriers to participation may be cracking. Technology is creating opportunities for a concerned public to participate more directly. Aspects of the relief efforts to the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti offers glimpses of how disaster response may be changing in this globalized Internet Age. But, do we understand how these seemingly novel actions came to be? Did they make a difference?
