Crisis Commons Helps the Tech-Savvy Lend a Hand in Haiti - NYTimes.com

"[V]olunteers are gathering in cities around the world to help bolster relief groups and government first responders in a new way: by building free open-source technology tools that can help aid relief and recovery in Haiti. “We’ve figured out a way to bring the average citizen, literally around the world, to come and help in a crisis,” says Noel Dickover, co-founder of Crisis Commons (crisiscommons.org), which is organizing the effort. Just 48 hours after news of the quake, Crisis Commons organized five events nationwide to begin work on several technology projects. Among them, Haiti OpenStreetMap (bit.ly/67MDM9), now one of the most complete digital maps of Haiti’s roads, hospitals, triage centers and refugee camps. Another project is the We Have, We Need Exchange (wehaveweneed.org), a site where nonprofits working in Haiti can post needs and requests and find donors...."