Haiti and 21st Century Business Strategy

When I heard about this diverse cast of entrepreneurs coming together to help the people of Haiti, I knew I would have to post about it.  Immediately.   

Josh Nesbitt, a young Stanford medical student who focuses on using SMS technology to help the developing world, got the ball rolling with a tweet.  Venturebeat reports:

"He  sent a tweet out asking for help. A Cameroonian managing a startup incubator in Africa,  Jean Francis Ahanda, responded  mentioning that a contact,  Jean-Marc Castera, was headed to the command center of the Caribbean’s largest wireless carrier Digicel that day.

"Within three days, they had co-opted an SMS shortcode, 4636, that had been used for weather information in Haiti. They rushed to get several other partners like Ushahidi, which provides an open-source platform for tracking crisis communications, and Google on board. A non-profit that specializes in using technology for disaster relief, Instedd, built an emergency information system using the shortcode. On a very late Saturday night, a cobbled-together team of a half-dozen organizations or so launched ‘4636′ as an emergency number.

They started publicizing it on the ground in Haiti through radio stations. Haitians could text the number with messages about injuries, people trapped under rubble or reports of missing people.

Crowdflower and Samasource asked for people around the world fluent in Haitian-Creole to translate and prioritize emergency texts coming out of Haiti. So far, a few hundred have signed up. (See the map below.) Nesbit admits the privacy situation isn’t perfect, but the project helps people in dire need and their details disappear from public view once translated."

What is really striking for me is the speed of collaboration, the diversity of participants, and the development of new use cases for existing technology -- all to do good in this world.  Crises have a long history of spontaneously bringing collaborators together, but can this just as likely be a stunning example of a new way of doing business?  Umair Haque thinks so - and I tend to agree - that 21st Century business strategy will be fundamentally different. 

PS:

Some of you may have seen my earlier post on Crowdflower, CrowdFlower is Going to Be Big - they continue to be a shining example of what's possible when you combine a diverse and global workforce with smart technology and great leadership.  I had the chance to meet Luke and the team a couple of months back and was really impressed with the direction, drive and strategy.  Nice work, guys!

PPS:

I want to give kudos to Venturebeat for some sweet reporting on this remarkable collaboration.