Thoughts From the Girl Next Door

haiti.ushahidi.com

Tradui was built by Intridea for Crisis Commons as part of Crisis Camp DC. Tradui, Creole for "translate", is an application for translating from Creole to English and English to Creole. The data for this application was extracted with permission from the HaitiSurf Creole to English Dictionary. All of the translation capabilities of Tradui are available offline.

Words cannot begin to describe the shock in the wake of this week's tragic events in Haiti. I know I am far from alone in feeling that way. What I can put into words at this time are my thoughts on how we can accelerate relief to those in need: By establishing a network by which humanitarian agencies in the region can communicate with each other and the outside world.

International aid workers are scrambling to rebuild communications in Haiti following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, while people outside the country are using high-tech means to raise money for relief.

On January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Join recovery efforts mobilizing around the world to assist earthquake victims. Your donation will help disaster victims rebuild their lives and their communities. Google will also donate $1 million to help organizations provide relief.

New and easier ways to contribute have helped propel donations for Haiti earthquake relief efforts despite a weak economy, according to officials at a number of aid organizations, some of whom marveled at the volume of donations tweeted and texted from cellphones.

London, England (CNN) — Social media aren't always perceived as an effective way to coordinate fundraising efforts or bring change: In some circles, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the rest are seen as the domain of armchair activists.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Online maps, mobile phone donations, wikis and a slew of websites are being deployed as telecoms firms, technology giants and startups set aside their rivalries and put the latest tools to work to help earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Imagine a way to explore and have fun with government data.

The winners of Sunlight Labs Apps for America 2 contest say that 'fun' was part of their winning formula.

The Alexandria-based Forum One just won the $10,000 first place prize at the O'Reilly Media's Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase with their DataMasher program.

One of the goals of the contest was to build a Web site or internet app that would make federal data more accessible and interesting.

Sandy Smith was the lead developer on the project and manages Forum One's software development team.

A leading technology analyst firm says that many social sciences roles will be needed to work with corporations in helping to better understand the Web behavior of customers, online communities, personal brands and the spectrum of social networking communication.

In a recent report "Social Science Meets Technology in Next-Generation Jobs," Gartner Vice President Kathy Harris discusses in some detail four areas of jobs needed in the near future. Though she never really uses the words "social networks" the implication is that most companies aren't really geared toward taking advantage of the impact of these online communities, and that the numbers will be too large to ignore, regardless of the business you are in.

I've categorized and compared 7 social media channels that are currently being used by both B2B and B2C brands. I've suggested which type of brand works best in each channel.

News organizations appear to be paying more and more attention to social media as a possible way of improving monetization of their Web sites. Sites like SFGate and The Huffington Post believe their efforts will pay off.

This post is a more practical viewpoint from my previous post on the rise of the so-called "social media guru." Unfortunately, there's no certification process so anyone with a Facebook page and Twitter account can call themselves a social media guru. This means it's been up to companies to fend for themselves when selecting a partner. Your social media strategy may be one of the most important elements in your overall marketing and communications plan, so you're probably taking it very seriously. Let these five questions help you navigate a rather squishy world.

BANGALORE, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Someday the Kodak moment may be called the "Facebook" or "Twitpic" moment, but old-school photo management services are fighting to stay in the picture.

People have been flocking to popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to share images with friends and family, ditching sites like Flickr, Snapfish, Photobucket, Shutterfly Inc (SFLY.O) and Picasa.

TODD BYERS was among more than 20,000 people running the San Francisco Marathon last month. Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, he might have blended in with the other runners, except for one glaring difference: he was barefoot.

We were excited to support Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge and even more excited to see the submissions. The public sector developer community never fails to impress. Congrats to the winners!

On May 21, 2009 the Administration launched data.gov to drive transparency and innovation by making federal data easily accessible. This was immediately followed by the Apps for America contest, challenging the American people to develop innovative solutions using data.gov. The contest was run by the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on "using the revolutionary power of the Internet to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens."

If you're a lobbyist / advocate, conspiracy theorist or Freakonomics fan, then you'll love DataMasher. The map-based mash up site just took the Sunlight Foundation's $10,000 grand prize in theApps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge. DataMasher offers users with no programming experience a chance to compare government data sets on a state-by-state basis. The tool is just one of the 3rd party mash ups using Data.gov's federal government information.

It’s time to vote again for federal office, though this time you get to choose your favorite new web application that makes government data useful.

While it was once regarded primarily as a private activity, innovation has increasingly become a process that encourages participation by an organization’s employees, prospects, customers and partners. This system of external or open innovation creates a community that looks very much like a social network. In fact, open innovation communities are simply a specific example of social networking.

hings fall apart; the center cannot hold. Facebook, the online social grid, could not command loyalty forever. If you ask around, as I did, you’ll find quitters. One person shut down her account because she disliked how nosy it made her. Another thought the scene had turned desperate. A third feared stalkers. A fourth believed his privacy was compromised. A fifth disappeared without a word.

She has overhauled Facebook and helped make it the most popular social network in cyberspace. Can she and her 25-year-old boss turn it into the Web's most lucrative data broker?

Best practices on Twitter are still developing, and everyone seems to have their own preferences and attitudes about right and wrong on the microblogging service. Standards vary widely depending upon whether one is using Twitter just to keep in touch with friends or is tweeting on behalf of their business or employer. Whatever your purpose, you may have some tweeting habits that encourage others to unfollow or semi-follow you.

Metro is struggling with overruns again, but this time the problem isn't train operators overshooting platforms. It's mysteriously incomplete tweets.

In March, Metro set up a Twitter account and configured software to tweet onto the popular social networking site all of the advisories about service disruptions already e-mailed to subscribers.

This is a bit of a shocker. Facebook, who has seemingly been in a race to emulate many of Twitter’s features, just announced that it’s launching the ability for Facebook Page admins to simultaneously update both their Page and Twitter.

IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.

Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Welcome to the World of Socialnomics

In continuing with my series of quick social media tips (check out 5 tips for LinkedIn and 5 tips for Facebook) I’m covering some tips for business use of Twitter here. I’ve actually written about some of these tips in great detail before in this free ebook – Twitter for Business, but this can act as a quick primer for folks who like their info snack sized like this.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. How are these forms of social media shaping world events and politics. With an eye on Iran, this week's Government IT Solutions Spotlight delves into the topic.

Along for the ride, Dr. Mark Drapeau, research fellow at the National Defense University.

How can we be expected to grow and create jobs, many executives wonder, when we are shrinking?

Despite a slight easing on the unemployment rate, a quarter million Americans lost their jobs last month, and job prospects for those out of work look bleak for the foreseeable future. Policymakers and citizens alike are concerned with how we can reduce the rate of unemployment—no easy feat when balanced with the need to slash expenses.