Saturday, January 1, 2011

mit to haiti



tackling large problems across the world - how school should be no?
skill indexing, what would we do if this happened here..
what can we do in the medium term with this skill data
often times ngo's bring in their own people instead of hiring local haitians, simply because communication/process is hard - so they set out a system to make it easier for ngo's to find locales to help.
biggest block was literacy.. so used voice.
humanize job searching. get some life experience
this is free and open source..
no money made - any one can reuse however they like

trying to get haitian national jobs, esp from those hidden
in building this database, they see who's getting jobs, become more equitable in sharing jobs.


Konbit, a response to the Haitian earthquake, is a service that helps communities rebuild themselves after a crisis by indexing the skillsets of local residents, allowing NGOs to find and employ them. Haitians, their diaspora, and the international community can volunteer their skills via phone, SMS, or web. Skills can then be searched in real-time and location by NGOs such as CHF International, Partners-in-Health, and others. Konbit is possible due to key partners, such as the UN Development Program, the US State Department, the Clinton Foundation, and Digicel. Konbit won the grand prize ($8,000) at the 2010 MIT IDEAS competition. It is being created in collaboration with Greg Elliott.

bravo mit
bravo Aaron Zinman  (and his defuse - about online discussions) and Greg Elliott

greg's band having fun  and for real and his synch step - amazing

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