[WSIS CS-Plenary] Webcast: How the Internet & New Media are Reshaping Tsunami Relief Efforts

[Andy Carvin]

Webcast: How the Internet & New Media are Reshaping Tsunami Relief Efforts

Wednesday,  January 12, 10:00 EST/ 15:00 GMT
http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/disaster-relief/

(please feel free to circulate this announcement)

You are cordially invited to participate in a live webcast hosted by the 
Digital Divide Network this Wednesday, January 12 at 10am EST (15:00 
GMT, 7:00 California time) on the role of the Internet  and new media in 
tsunami relief efforts. The webcast will examine how blogs, RSS feeds, 
SMS text messaging and other tools are being used in response to the 
tsunami, their strengths and limitations, and the role these 
technologies may play in future natural disasters.

Guest Speakers:

Dina Mehta, co-founder of tsunamihelp.blogspot.com, Mumbai, India

Dina Mehta is a qualitative researcher and ethnographer based in Mumbai. 
  In the hours following the tsunami, she and a group of South Asian 
bloggers created the Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog 
(http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com), the Internet's largest 
volunteer-driven portal for tsunami relief news and resources. For the 
last 16 years she has been a market researcher with a special interest 
in youth markets and in longitudinal ethnographic research and 
user-design studies.

Taran Rampersad, Internet activist and coordinator of Alert Retrieval 
Cache (ARC), Trinidad & Tobago

A former hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy, Taran Rampersad is an 
Internet activist and writer based in Trinidad & Tobago.  Taran serves 
as editor of the Linux Gazette and contributor to WorldChanging.com, 
among other blogs and online magazines . As part of the team of 
volunteers contributing to the tsunamihelp blog, Taran proposed the 
development of a tool that would allow SMS text messages from mobile 
phones to be routed to email lists and other SMS users, using key words 
to connect relief workers on the ground with sources of materials and 
supplies. This led to the development of Alert Retrieval Cache (ARC), 
which has been covered by the BBC and other media in the last week.

Moderator: Andy Carvin, Digital Divide Network

Andy Carvin is director of the Digital Divide Network 
(http://www.digitaldivide.net), the Internet's leading online community 
for news and information on the digital divide. In late December, Andy 
published Tsunami-Info.org, a news website that aggregates 
tsunami-related headlines from blogs and news wire feeds from around the 
world. On September 11, 2001, Andy created SEPT11INFO, the first online 
discussion group for sharing resources and information on the terrorist 
attacks that had occurred that morning. For the first 24 hours, the list 
processed emails at a rate of one new messages a minute, one of the 
highest-traffic discussion groups to date.

The webcast is free and open to the public. To participate, please visit 
http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/disaster-relief/ and click on the 
link "Virtual Meeting Room." You'll then be asked to enter your name; at 
this point, the website will download the e-conference tool onto your 
desktop. The process may take several minutes, so participants are 
advised to enter the virtual meeting room 15 minutes prior to the event. 
Users experiencing technical problems are encouraged to email 
help at learningtimes.net for assistance.



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Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://www.tsunami-info.org
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
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