http://theshiftmob.com/

On this site, the needs are called “shifts” and they are not necessarily charity-based. A community member posts a need for a shift and other community members respond by applying for the shift. Shift workers do not receive monetary compensation.

With thanks to Michael Keizer for explaining the difference between crowd sourcing and open source.
.-= Valerie Booth´s last blog ..Hank Asher’s New Blog =-.

Here is a link to a post by Hank Asher about Haiti.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hank-asher/saving-lives-in-haiti-gen_b_433950.html

He’s colorful to say the least and extremely effective.
.-= Valerie Booth´s last blog ..Children of the Promise Bring Babies to US for Medical Care =-.

http://www.sahana.lk/

In an odd sense, philanthropy is open source disaster relief. People and corporations with resources and abilities to GIVE, create or make happen the products or services required for relief, at will.

The response to the Red Cross text-to-donate campaign is evidence that philanthropy as open-source disaster relief works without any need for recognition (i.e., on whitehouse.gov).

The fact that business owners have stepped forward with money, services and commodities (at no charge and without prompting) suggests we already have an open source model for disaster relief. Hank Asher is one such person. He basically offered up his private jet to fly relief missions back and forth to Haiti and contributed 50 satellite phones to the relief effort.

At the end of the day, he is paying for fuel, pilot services, medical equipment, phones, maintenance on the aircraft and Lord knows what else as part of these relief missions. Those are real costs (remember, open source is not free). The pilots have families to support. The fuel is sold by a concession at an airport; they have to pay their people, maintain their equipment to regulated standards. The phone supplier incurred a cost for the phones… it just goes on!

Where government “intervention” is concerned, I think we have to be realistic about our expectations for open source.

People with hearts know what the right thing to do is. The evidence is right in front of us. They’re already there for Haiti in body and spirit – and they are still giving.

Michael Keizer wrote a very relevant article about disaster logistics at http://michaelkeizer.com/humourless/2010/logistics-questions-around-the-haiti-earthquake/. I went there to relieve my initial frustration at not being able to do more than donate. I learned that aid efforts are actually VERY coordinated.

Now, I check LogCluster (http://www.logcluster.org) daily and Haiti.com (http://www.haiti.com) throughout the day.
.-= Valerie Booth´s last blog ..Hank Asher: Philanthropist on the Ground in Haiti =-.

A closed approach is good with a good architect. Opening things up would still require someone who is beyond experienced in disaster recovery, no doubt. I just figure that instead of asking for just money, we could ask the public directly for what we need. It’s a more direct approach.

For better or worse, relief operations do require coordination. As just one example, if food arrives with no facilities to store it and no means of distributing it, it will sit there, blocking shipments of medical supplies. Only so much can come into and be distributed out of any airport, and Port au Prince’s cramped single runway is no exception. With fuel supplies limited and roads blocked by debris, that airport could — and very nearly did — get so jammed with planes and supplies that there would be no room to operate. And it would take just one collision on take-off or landing to shut the whole airport down for an indeterminate period. There is only one other airport with a paved runway in Haiti, and it’s more than 100 miles to the north in Cap Haitien. Where I live, that’s about a two-hour drive. But neither of the two roads linking Cap Haitien to Port au Prince is the straight, level, six-lane interstate we take for granted. Indeed, for significant stretches, it doesn’t even look like these roads are paved. Oh, and that second airport? Its single runway is only 4900 feet long — not 9900 feet like the one in Port au Prince. In other words, a C-5 transport would have barely enough room to land, and probably couldn’t take off again.

You mention that a UPS could help “coordinate some of the shipping to a Haiti port.” Well, there are only two seaports in Haiti, and the earthquake destroyed the wharves, pier, cranes, and approach roads at the bigger of the two (Port au Prince). The second, smaller port is, again, Cap Haitien. It is a container port, but lacks the large cranes that were lost at Port au Prince. And then there’s the matter of those roads.

Even ferrying goods around the area by helicopter has been problematic. In the areas damaged by the earthquake, the safest place to be until the aftershocks stop is out in the open — so the survivors are massed in the only places where helicopters can land. When the helicopter can’t actually land, it takes longer to offload whatever supplies it has brought in.

Yes, open source has many strengths. But open source is not a panacea. To avoid adding to this disaster, all parties would have to first come to the table, agree on priorities, define roles, and then work out a plan. Hmmm, that sounds like what people do when they form governments. So maybe the best thing, as people lie trapped under rubble or free but without food, water, or any way to treat their injuries, is to just cut to the chase and use the governments we’ve already formed.

And then later we can see how we did and come up with a better plan for the next crisis.

Closed system response wants to be controlled, hierarchical and bureaucratic, by the book, and slow. Competition is about control and power, not on solutions. Best and worst have little meaning as energy is wasted and resources scattered inefficiently.

The corollary to this would be a strong leader stepping up, taking control and exercising vested powers, directing resources and specifically targeting the problem. This we’ve yet to see.