My name is Stephen Lee, and I am an independent consultant with a focus at the intersection of sustainable development, technology, and entrepreneurship. I spent the last several years as the operations director of AIDG, an international NGO supporting clean tech entrepreneurs in Guatemala and Haiti.  Prior to that, I was a proud member of the Techsoup Global team! Currently, I'm building a new organization, called the Alterna Foundation, to support locally-driven innovation and entrepreneurship in underserved communities throughout the world.

My priorities include learning how best to mobilize resources around accelerating community-based innovation, and what the role of technology is, not just as a resource in itself, but also as a tool in developing the ecosystem.

I know that many of us are struggling with doing things online that are educational AND interesting. I love so called "serious games" for that purpose, but of course they take a long time to produce and are anything but cheap. Which is why I'd like to share an example with you.

A camera team that was working with the Red Cross while I was in Haiti just created a serious game that allows players to take on the role of a journalist, aidworker or survivor and I think it's really impressive. 

In two recent earthquake relief deployments to Haiti, HELP provided solar powered satellite communications and situational awareness for search and rescue teams, mobile medical clinics, emergency telemedicine, and for other non-governmental relief agency response.

Blackbaud recently announced their new Index of Charitable Giving, a fundraising index that reports revenue trends of 1400 nonprofit organizations on a monthly basis. The tool is valuable for fundraisers and organizations interested in keep an eye on the global pulse of of monetary giving.

The Haiti Effect

Also published on the TechSoup Blog and AshokaTech.

I wrote a blog post a few months ago about Fab Lab, a network of community-operated workshops springing up all over the world. I was excited about Fab-Fi, Fab Lab's name for the simple directional antennas they're using to build a mesh wireless network all over Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Based on experiences in Samoa and Haiti, I’m trying to come up with best practice for how to organize tweeting staff in a disaster context so that there is a maximum benefit for the organization.

I have identified four different approaches:

- The organizational approach
- The personal approach
- The CNN approach
- The List approach

read more about the advantages and disadvantages that I see in each approach on Social Media 4 Good:
http://sm4good.com/2010/02/15/twitter-disasters-organize-staff/

First for the fun: a new machinima and live mixed video by Drax that features the TechSoup Community team behind the scenes working on the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwAZ1-BstjE

And for the how and why of what we're doing in this community:
The people of TechSoup have been deeply saddened by the recent devastation in Haiti. We have been so inspired and impressed with the many ways folks are using mobile and other technologies to help with disaster relief. Together we have blogged about some of these relief efforts from the great folks at Ushahidi and the Extraordinaries as well as those of our donor partners.

To say that the last week was “intense” would be an understatement. From the minute the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement pulled out all stops to help the people on the ground.

Communications is only a small part of that response and social media an even smaller part. Nevertheless – here are my observations:

http://sm4good.com/2010/01/24/haiti-earthquake-social-media-response/

Since the earthquake struck one week ago, there have been a number of technology organizations (from Google to Ushahidi to Frontline SMS Medic), working around the clock with the State Department on a coordinated effort, that uses technology to support the relief efforts in Haiti. The Extraordinaries is one part of this larger initiative.

Visit the Haiti support page here.