Jelly friend and Barcamp Chicago founder Jason Rexelius is heading down to Haiti to support relief efforts there. Along with Todd Huffman, they will be working to support inSTEDD.org as well as to deploy a project that will allow Haitians to use commodity cell phone technology to gather information and intelligence for relief agencies on the ground as well as the press abroad.
The project will allow ordinary Haitians to report on road blockages, gang activities, looting, distribution of supplies and availability of food and water. This information will be fed directly into the information systems of the big relief organizations to enable them to direct their efforts.
They are raising $10,000 and gather as many Android-based smartphones (with camera and GPS capability) as possible. Toward that end, Jason and Todd are hosting a fundraising event on Wednesday, Jan 27th from 5:30-7:30PM at English Bar & Restaurant in River North.
They will have the 2nd floor and Jason will talk in more detail about what they’re doing and collect and contributions and donations – cash, checks, phones, etc. All donations over $250 are tax-deductible since InSTEDD is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
You can also provide donations via 2 other methods:
- Via PayPal/GoogleCheckout at http://instedd.org/donate There is no way to specify the project on this page and so email Jason@hostedlabs.com the name of the donating entity and the amount so those funds are earmarked for this project.
- Via check, payable to:
inSTEDD
480 S. California Ave, Suite 104
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Add on the comment of check “TODD-JASON-HAITI” and email jason@hostedlabs.com so he can tell them how much to expect.