How an Android Phone and Facebook Helped Route Haiti Rescuers

One intrepid Android fan is extolling the virtues of the open smartphone platform that helped him to route SOS messages in the recent Haiti disaster. "Well, when you are in such a situation, you don't really think about going to Facebook, but it happens that I have a Facebook widget on my Android home screen that regularly displays status updates from my friends. All of a sudden, an SOS message appeared on my home screen as a status update of a friend on my network. Not all smartphones allow you to customize your home screen, let alone letting you put widgets on it. So, I texted Steven about it. As Steven had already been working with the US State Department on Internet development activities in Haiti, he quickly called a senior staff member at the State Department and asked how to get help to the people requesting it from Haiti. State Department personnel requested a short description and a physical street address or GPS coordinates. Via email and text messaging, I was able to relay this information from Port-au-Prince to Steven in Oregon, who relayed it to the State Department in Washington DC, and it was quickly forwarded to the US military at the Port-au-Prince airport and dispatched to the search-and-rescue (SAR) teams being assembled. So the data went from my Android phone to Oregon to Washington DC and then back to the US military command center at the Port-au-Prince airport. I was at first a little skeptical about their reaction: there was so much destruction; they probably already had their hands full. Unexpectedly, they replied back saying: 'We found them, and they are alive! Keep it coming.'"

Comments

Internet saves

[Gri3v3r]

First time,Facebook was proved useful...Hope more can get help like that.What a disaster really...

Re:Internet saves

[F34nor]

Technically Haiti is referred to as the "fourth-world" in political science because it is so bad that they think it will never get better. Read Collapse by Jared Diamond about what deforestation does to a civilization.

Re:Internet saves

[iamhassi]

"First time,Facebook was proved useful...."

Wrong

But just like that story, if they have access to facebook why not just call the police?

Please, not this SHIT again

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the now obligatory web 2.0 platform saves the day story. The last one was twitter I believe.

Re:Communications is a human right.

[obarthelemy]

maybe i'm being whoooshed, but doesn't "communication for everyone, everywhere" sound rather socialist ? Not that i'm against it... right wing would be "communication for whomever can pay for it, wherever it's profitable", wouldn't it ?

A more general solution

[atfrase]

This is an amazing story, and everyone involved deserves all honor and appreciation for their life-saving efforts.

Nonetheless, it raises the question: how can we leverage technology to achieve this kind of effect without requiring a friend-of-a-friend with a direct line to the US State Department?

There were no doubt many other people trapped by the quake who didn't have such fortuitous Facebook connections, and many of them probably weren't found in time. Is there a way to deploy some kind of SMS-based 911 infrastructure in situations like this, even on foreign cellular networks? Could we even deploy our own mobile cellular base stations for this purpose, if the local cell network is too badly damaged? Other ideas?

Re:A more general solution

[TubeSteak]

Could we even deploy our own mobile cellular base stations for this purpose, if the local cell network is too badly damaged?

Portable cell towers are regularly brought in wherever large crowds are expected to gather.
It's basically a trailer/truck with a generator, cell antenna, and microwave/satellite/wired link to the telco.
The problem of course, is prepositioning such hardware in locations where it is within reach of the disaster area.
Then you have to get it where it's needed, which isn't so simple in the aftermath of a quake.

FanBoid?

[L3370]

--"Via email and text messaging, I was able to relay this information from Port-au-Prince to Steven in Oregon, who relayed it to the State Department in Washington DC, and it was quickly forwarded to the US military at the Port-au-Prince airport and dispatched to the search-and-rescue (SAR) teams being assembled. "

Great, but just about any smartphone can do this, even most of the closed smartphone platforms, nothing special. Is it just me that thinks Android fans are becoming as preachy as the apple fanboys?

FanBoids.

Re:FanBoid?

[noidentity]

FanDroids

There, fixed that for you.

You missed the unique part

[Mr2001]

Great, but just about any smartphone can do this, even most of the closed smartphone platforms, nothing special.

The part you quoted, yes, but not the part that kicked the whole thing off: he noticed someone's Facebook status update on his home screen widget. If he had to open an app to get Facebook updates, he wouldn't have seen it, because he had better things to do than browse Facebook.

I don't know about all the other smartphone platforms, but I'm pretty sure this is something the iPhone can't do. It doesn't have widgets; its home screen only shows app icons. You can get push notifications for certain events, but friends' status updates aren't among them, and you likely wouldn't want to get a message for every status update anyway.

No tech to see here...move along..

[Savior_on_a_Stick]

If the guy in Haiti had access to update his Fbook status, and was able to send and receive sms - why didn't he just contact the State Department directly?

This story isn't about technology, it's about personal access.

Guy in Haiti didn't have it - so he sends the equivalent of a smoke signal, and is lucky enough that someone notices it and does have access.

This all sounds really contrived, and I'm not impressed.