SuperForest loves loves loves Haiti Rewired!
Haiti Rewired is a collaborative community focused on tech and infrastructure solutions for Haiti. It’s open to anyone, and the ideas are flowing like water, all downstream towards a smarter, more flexible, and more accommodating system of living for all Haitians.
Here are the five main goals according to the Haiti Rewired Mission Statement
1. Collaboration. The events unfolding in Haiti bring together an unusual coalition: non-governmental organizations, the military, international organizations, state actors. To avoid waste, duplication of effort and confusion, they will have to break down cultural and institutional barriers, and start sharing everything: imagery, sensor data, on-the-ground intel. Old models of classification and need-to-know must be dumped.
2. Transparency. Haitians are rightly disillusioned with aid: promises unfulfilled by donors, corruption and graft by officials, a general lack of accountability when it comes to aid. While there may always be inefficiency, waste and corruption must be tackled. It might not sound like the most important element of the recovery, but we need data-based metrics. Funding will be tracked; aid will be measured; disclosure shall be the rule.
3. Innovation. Solutions for Haiti’s problems will have to blend time-tested ideas with new ways of doing things that have been enabled by technology. Transparency and collaboration have become radically easier with new communication and networking technologies. On the other hand, these same tools can fail us during major disasters. How can we incorporate and build new technological systems for Haiti that are both efficient and resilient?
4. Design. Rebuilding Haiti will be a test in the politics of architecture. How can planners, urbanists, architects, construction companies and local authorities come together to design a better Port-au-Prince on the rubble of the earthquake?
5. DIY. The old model of The Development Set — highly paid expat consultants who jet around from crisis to crisis — needs to be jettisoned. This could be rebuilding on the cheap and that could be a good thing. Empowering local communities, avoiding Beltway banditry and giving communities control of their own affairs might generate real results. Can smarter, locally rooted ideas provide immediate shelter for thousands in need and lay the foundation for the city’s seismic, social and economic future?
Three Easy Ways to Get Involved:
1. Add a Blog Post. We want to hear your thoughts about the future of Haiti. If you’re here, we figure you want to share them. Here’s how to do it. After you’ve signed up, it just takes these two clicks:
2. Add a Forum Discussion. Got a question about Haiti, this project, crisis response or infrastructure? Just post a question in the Forum. There are a lot of people with specialized expertise here on the site and many of them are actively engaged answering questions.
3. Post a Status Update. If you’re on the ground or pressed for time, you can always post a quick, Twitter-like status update from your Member Page.
Join Haiti Rewired!
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