PLEASE ADD to what's below to track progress.
We aim to connect with networks in Haiti; find the best sources of information; identify the most pressing new media/communication/community building and crisis alleviation needs now known. then we hope to begin a project(s) which involve locally IDed needs, local groups implementing or collaborating with the MIT working group(s).
From the (fab) Jan 20 screening of The Agronomist (Jean Dominique founded Radio Haiti), some Qs and ideas:
>>  how can we connect with local Haitian commty to assess needs here as well as there? Boston and Miami are biggest diaspora.
>>  how can we empower/connect with Haitian groups already working, and do the most active NGOs have relationships with peasant groups like farmers who revered Jean Dominique and Radio Haiti so highly?
EX: what about peasant groups who worked with Radio Haiti, self organized protests of military govt and theft of rice yields in the past?
>>  can we move the MIT effort into the Haitian community somehow? What is Mark's work with them?
>>  how do we find out which are active and strong community activists in Haiti with cohesive groups?
>>  links to sources of Haitian info from Boris http://delicious.com/boriskizel/
 
FROM earlier today:
1)  Kate Stanton, newbie at US State Dept, reports raising  $25M  via cell phones virtually overnight. She wants to know how to spend that money most effectively: how to prioritize needs, how to find accountability measures, etc. USAID needs ADVICE! HOW could MIT help here? We have ideas not tested via Haitian networks of diaspora or on the ground groups, including the following --
2)  Radio station, CB to facilitate need/help messages, buy batches of handcranked radios @ $100/ea with 40 channels? Human voice has great power. Also, cultural events and poetry, storytelling, etc will be valuable in dealing with grief.
3)  there are 1800 OLPCXO computer units somewhere in Haiti which could be used with solar chargers by youth to assist/empower/educate service providers and activists in the crisis. Educate kids via OLPC projects? Give kids chance to develop their own ways of assessing needs? see waveplace.com.  Could take pix of deceased for ID purposes? Haitian kids are the very smartest kids Timothy has trained.  OLPC uses XO laptops to train teacher/mentors to use digital media for income generation - 3 pilots in Haiti
>>  http://www.haitichildren.com/  tells about an orphanage profiled on CNN today.
>>  Little Sis is a site that tracks rich and powerful players in Haitian political and military events.
>>  check out  "A Paradise Built in Hell" by Rebecca Solnit for lessons learned (or not)  in worldwide crises.