Haiti Earthquake Relief: 10 Ways You Can Help Today

Day in and day out, the agents of Fame Foundry practice and preach the ways that technology, the Web and social media can help businesses survive in an ever-changing and highly competitive marketplace. Today, however, our hearts are with the victims of the earthquake in Haiti, and our focus has turned to the ways these same tools offer opportunities for all of us to come to the aid of the thousands of Haitians affected by this disaster. Within hours of the earthquake, nonprofits, charities and corporations sprang into action, establishing emergency relief funds to collect contributions online and via text message. Following is a list of trusted organizations that are using the power of the Internet and social media to drive an immediate response in the aftermath of devastation.

American Red Cross

Help the American Red Cross and its team of responders as they provide a wide range of support to victims, including food, water, field hospitals, transportation and sanitation services. Donate online and designate your gift to Haiti Relief and Development. You can also give $10 by texting "HAITI" to 90999, and your contribution will be added to your next phone bill. The Red Cross has already raised more than $10 million via mobile donations. In addition, you can make a donation through iTunes. Set denominations range from $5 to $200, which will be charged directly to your iTunes account, with 100 percent of proceeds going to the Red Cross.

CARE

CARE has established the Haiti Emergency Response Fund, with a goal of raising $10 million to support a multi-year response effort that will provide both immediate relief and long-term rehabilitation. You can help by making a donation on the CARE website or via Google's Support Disaster Relief in Haiti page using Google checkout.

Direct Relief International

Direct Relief is airlifting medications and medical supplies to Haiti, including antibiotics, sterilization products, bandages and other items needed to treat the injured. Help them by contributing online and selecting Emergency Relief – Haiti Earthquake or by texting GIVE10 to 20222 to make a one-time $10 donation.

Doctors Without Borders

Doctors Without Borders has mobilized a large emergency response in Haiti to provide surgery and basic care to as many victims as possible. Support their efforts by making a donation online.

Oxfam America

Oxfam is responding in areas hardest hit by the disaster with water, shelter, sanitation and public health services. Make a one-time $10 donation to Oxfam's Haiti Earthquake Response Fund by texting OXFAM to 25383, or visit their website to make a contribution of any amount.

Samaritan's Purse

Samaritan's Purse is sending cargo planes daily to Haiti carrying personnel, equipment, medicine, water filtration systems and other critically-needed relief supplies such as blankets, hygiene kits and materials for temporary shelter. Support their efforts by donating online.

UNICEF

UNICEF is deploying food, clean water, medical and sanitation supplies and temporary shelter to Jacmel and Port-au-Prince. They will also help protect children that have been separated from their families. You can help by making a donation on the UNICEF website or via Google's Support Disaster Relief in Haiti page using Google checkout.

World Vision

Donations to World Vision's Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund will help the organization rush emergency supplies, such as food, clean water, blankets, tents and more, to survivors of the catastrophe.

Yele Haiti

Yele Haiti is a grassroots organization founded by musician Wyclef Jean. Text YELE to 501501 to send $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund. You can also make a donation of any amount online.

Donate today.

Fame Foundry encourages you to take few minutes of your time and donate today. Making a financial contribution is the best way to help in the wake of disaster. Cash can be transferred quickly, allowing relief organizations to obtain exactly what is needed while making the most efficient use of resources such as transportation, manpower and warehouse space that are scarce in times of crisis. Every contribution – no matter the amount – counts when need is greatest. As an added benefit to you, any cash donation made to the Haiti relief effort through February 28, 2010, is eligible for deduction on your 2009 tax return, thanks to special legislation passed by Congress. As always, be careful of solicitations you receive via e-mail, phone, Facebook and Twitter. When you are ready to make your contribution, it is always safest to do so directly through the charity’s authorized website. If you have concerns about any charitable organization, you can visit Charity Navigator or the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance to view ratings and evaluations.

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We the Media

Even before the first iPhone 4 left stores, and even as customers were enduring all manner of conditions while waiting in line for a chance to get their hands on Apple’s latest mobile phenomenon, the Web was already ablaze with reports about a possible design flaw in the wrap-around antenna that interferes with reception.

The story begins on the afternoon of June 23, when Fame Foundry started a discussion thread on the MacRumors community forum about a problem we encountered straight out of the box. Among the lucky 600,000 to successfully pre-order the highly sought-after device on June 15, we shot and posted this video to demonstrate the issue we had discovered:

In just over 24 hours since, the conversation in the discussion thread has continued across 46 pages, as other users have chimed in with their own theories, reviews, experiments and videos.

More significantly, the story of the apparent operating glitch has taken on a life of its own, leaping from the obscure fanboy territory of the MacRumors forum and ascending to the upper echelons of media.

The first to pick it up were tech blogs like Gizmodo, Mashable and Engadget. Soon after mainstream outlets including The Street, MSNBC and CNN followed suit. By the afternoon of June 24, Fame Foundry was fielding phone calls from reporters from national media organizations, all tracing back to the original YouTube video, which has received more than 400,000 views at the time of this posting.

The launch of the iPhone 4 has been a remarkable case study in the nature of today’s media and the ways and speed at which information spreads.

When photos and videos of a still-in-development iPhone 4 were published on Gizmodo, the story of how the device escaped the grasp of Apple’s famously impenetrable security and landed in the hands of a tech blogger became a much bigger story than the gadget’s shiny new design.

The launch of the iPhone 4 has been a remarkable case study in the nature of today’s media and the ways and speed at which information spreads.When the time arrived for the official announcement on June 7, Steve Jobs proved that the leaked photos had hardly stolen the device’s thunder, as he proudly introduced groundbreaking features such as video calling, 960-by-640 resolution display and high definition video recording. However, it is likewise worth noting that there were so many bloggers in attendance reporting live from the WWDC keynote event that a network overload brought Jobs’ product demonstration to a temporary standstill.

The hype surrounding iPhone 4 hit fever pitch on the first day of pre-orders. Apple racked up record-breaking sales, but this success story shared the headlines with the technical difficulties caused by the massive influx of traffic hitting their website, propelled largely by vocal frustrated customers who spent hours trying in vain to place their orders.

Returning to the events of the past two days, if a similar problem had occurred even just a few years ago, it would have taken much longer to come to light. In the absence of the instant connectivity of social media platforms and fan forums, users who encountered a reception issue might have assumed it was an isolated problem or that their particular device was defective, and Apple's customer service department would have been the only channel through which they could address their concerns.

By contrast, within hours of the first video being posted, there were legions of interconnected customers, bloggers and media outlets on the case, executing their own tests and drawing their own conclusions.

Interestingly, as of the time of this posting, the only response from Apple has come in an e-mail exchange between Steve Jobs and an iPhone 4 user (via MacRumors), in which Jobs describes the problem as a “Non issue. Just avoid holding it that way.”

Later, Jobs elaborated further on his position in a follow-up message:

Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

And so begins the next chapter in the iPhone 4 saga. Not surprisingly, this response is already showing up on blogs across the Internet, spreading just as quickly as the initial complaints.

Such is the nature of PR in today's 24-hour, on-demand information free-for-all. A single user-generated video becomes a viral sensation that far outshines the typical puff piece stories on how many people are eagerly waiting in line to buy the next great thing. Consumer backlash starts with a groundswell that becomes a tidal wave. A few brief sentences in an e-mail from one of the world’s most powerful CEOs stands in lieu of a carefully crafted press release as the company’s official statement. There is constant push and pull as corporate entities like Apple attempt to steer public sentiment in their favor – a delicate balancing act that requires juggling the mainstream press, the blogger nation and the average consumer with a Facebook or Twitter account.

As the course of events surrounding the iPhone 4 launch demonstrates, no one is safe when there is a potential reporter behind every keyboard and every camera phone – not even Apple with its notoriously loyal fan base.

More...

June 26

Test Shows iPhone Antenna Issue Impacts Voice Transmission Too [Gizmodo]

June 29

Leaked: Apple's Internal iPhone 4 Antenna Troubleshooting Procedures [Boy Genius Report]

June 30

First iPhone 4 Class Action Suit Filed Against Apple and AT&T [Gizmodo]

July 2

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4 [Apple]

Apple "Stunned" to Find iPhones Show Too Many Bars [AP]

Class Action Lawyers Predictably Unimpressed with Apple's Statement [TechCrunch]

July 5

Apple Waiving 10% Restocking Fee for Returned iPhones [IntoMobile]

July 6

AppleCare: The iPhone Update Won't Solve the Antenna Problem [Gizmodo]

The iPhone is Ruining My Life! [Aol Small Business]

July 7

iPhone 4 Complaints Mounting: A Rocky Rollout [CIO]

iPhone 4: Officially a Hot Mess [Inc.]

July 12

Apple Deleting Mentions of Consumer Reports' iPhone 4 Piece on Forums, Can't Delete Your Thoughts [Engadget]

PR Experts: iPhone 4 Hardware Recall Is "Inevitable" [Cult of Mac]

July 13

iPhone Antenna Outcry Escalates with Recall Demand [MSNBC]

July 14

What Apple Must Do to Stop the Bleeding [Mashable]

Microsoft Exec Mocks iPhone 4, Dubs it Apple's Vista [Computerworld]

Video: Does iOS 4.1 Fix the iPhone 4's Death Grip Antenna Issue? [TechCrunch]

Every Week Apple Doesn't Act on iPhone 4 Antenna Could Cost $200M [AppleInsider]

Report: Apple Holding Friday Press Conference on iPhone 4 [PC Magazine]

July 15

Apple Engineer Told Jobs iPhone Antenna Might Cut Calls [Bloomberg]

New York Senator Charles Schumer Writes Open Letter to Steve Jobs [Boy Genius Report]

iPhone 4 Signal Issue Can Be Fixed With a Software Update? [MacRumors]

July 16

Live from Apple's iPhone 4 Phone Conference [Engadget]

Apple's "Antennagate" Mea Culpa – Free Case Until September 30 [ZDNet]

A Defiant Steve Jobs Confronts "Antennagate" [The Wall Street Journal]

Jobs Calls Bloomberg Antenna Article a "Total Crock" [MacNN]

July 17

Apple's Claims About Other Phones – There's a Response For That [The Wall Street Journal]

July 18

iPhone Defense Prompts New Debate [The Wall Street Journal]

July 19

"Antennagate" Reactions: RIM, Nokia, Taiwanese Animation [MacRumors]

HTC, Samsung Rebut Apple's Smartphone Claims [The Wall Street Journal]

Steve Jobs's Disastrous iPhone 4 Press Conference [Harvard Business Review]

 

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