Social media, crisis mapping and the new frontier in disaster response | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional

Social media, crisis mapping and the new frontier in disaster response | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional: Social media, crisis mapping and the new frontier in disaster response

During a crisis the large amounts of data produced can be overwhelming to analyse. Microtasking could help solve that problem by harnessing the power of the crowd

Record smashing swimmer Diana Nyad to swim laps for two days in Herald Square

Record smashing swimmer Diana Nyad to swim laps for two days in Herald Square: Swimming 110 miles from Cuba to Florida was apparently just a warm-up.

Beginning Tuesdayat 8:30 a.m., swimmer Diana Nyad will be swimming for 48 hours straight in a pool set up in Herald Square to support Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts while raising money for AmeriCares, the global health and disaster relief organization.

Report urges extreme weather superfund in wake of Sandy

Report urges extreme weather superfund in wake of Sandy: Escalating costs from weather disasters like superstorm Sandy and the recent Colorado floods show the need for a new national disaster relief and preparation fund, paid for with new revenue including a levy on atmospheric carbon emissions, according to a new report by the New Jersey-based nonprofit group U.S. Strong.

Wireless Developer Network

Wireless Developer Network: A unique SMS-driven fundraiser, has been launched in Russia under the banner “All Together”. The goal of the campaign is to raise funds for families hit by the floods in the Russian Far East. This event proved to be the biggest non-profit campaigns in Europe – more than 9.5 million people took part in it which allowed to raise more than US $ 23 million, and a considerable part of it was raised through SMS. The technical side of the fundraiser was handled by i-Free.