Standards are sexy. Reuniting families is sexier. PFIF is worth the time it takes to read it.
In use by the grassroots Katrina PeopleFinder project [Katrina help wiki | search for refugees here).
Standards are sexy. Reuniting families is sexier. PFIF is worth the time it takes to read it.
In use by the grassroots Katrina PeopleFinder project [Katrina help wiki | search for refugees here).
I imagine you’ve seen this post on tech & disaster recovery? if not, it’s worth reading as well.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2005/09/05/recovery-20-a-call-to-convene/
So, one of the questions is : whan is it useful to go off and save the
world with one’s friends, and when is it better to see what’s being
done by big players and encourage one of them to really do things
right?
I think the best way to dive into a problem is first to find a large
org that is trying to do the same thing internally, and then coordinate
the grassroots volunteer efforts with internal volunteer efforts driven
by an organizational attention to detail. There are real
advantages to sucha partnership; one of the canonical ailure
modes of a grassroots project is that it can’t just say “oh, let’s dip
into the slush fund and find $10k to help this scale another couple
orders of magnitude” without elaborate fundraising,
awareness-development, etc. Also that word has to spread through
the roots; and often doesn’t reach other parts of the grass in
time. On the other hand, large orgs that are planning to spend
money on such things don’t have the same access to manpower… they
often have free-marginal-cost PR machines, which is great for outreach
by not always to the roots.
Is this sacrilege? I hope not.