Katrina People Finder Voluteer page:

Look, if you can make a post on (e:strip), you can help with the Katrina People Finder Volunteer effort. The goal of the project is to consolidate postings on disparate disucssion forums all over the web into a single database of people affected by the hurricane. This project is working to standardize the data people post on these discussion boards so that it can be integrated with the FEMA and Red Cross databases.

Im a real skeptic at heart, but I think this is a good way to be effective from the Internet. Aside from giving cash to one of the aid agencies involved in relief efforts, this is probably the best thing you can do from your computer. Go to the Katrina People Finder Volunteer homepage and follow the directions to claim and start converting a chunk of discussion group postings. The project is based on a Wiki, so all you have to do is sign up for an account and then mark an assignment as CLAIMED.

Once you've claimed your chunk of raw data, you'll have to read through the posts, often left by obviously frantic loved ones, and dilligently enter data about people -- missing, found and otherwise. Without the efforts of loads of individuals converting this stuff into a standardized database, lots of folks will be left wondering about their loved ones until who knows when. Being able to match people up with friends and family is probably one of the best things relief agencies can do to get people started rebuilding their lives. And I'm not even mentioning the various utilities of just making a record of known people affected by the hurricane -- who knows when or if access to public records is going to be restored. And companies like Dell and SUN are setting up computer banks in relief shelters this week to allow survivors Internet access.

I just did a page full of entries in an hour. I plan to do more as I get time. Give up a couple hours of web browsing to help out and we can insure that there will be a functional data supply when the computer banks go live.



I'm looking at you, (e:DCoffee) and (e:Jason) and (e:Paul) and (e:MetalPeter) and (e:UncutSaniflush)