[Crossposted on TED Fellows Blog by Faisal Chohan, senior TED Fellow and Co-Founder | www.BrightSpyre.com & Cogilent Solutions.]
I am still a few miles away from one of the worst floods in the history of Pakistan. Still, I could not figure out the meaning of life and hope after losing your loved family, losing everything you built in your life in front of 30 feet high flood wave, where everything is completely devastated for millions of people. I do not know how to save hopes of people in current situation. But as a technology and social entrepreneur, I have read hundreds of case studies and talks that a SMS is a ray of hope and decided to setup SMS based incident reporting.
I want to bring first line of incident reporting live for millions of people in Pakistan. This requires technology, spreading the right word to millions, building team, Logistics, resources and coordinating all the incident reporting. The last week was spent on the technology front. So, after sleepless nights, power shortages, worst news written on faces everywhere, the effort continued. With the help of few friends, I got access to short code 3441 in Pakistan. Next the Crowdmap was launched at http://pakrelief.crowdmap.com. Then, the short code integration was done. And the technology milestone is achieved.
Then, I started carefully spreading the message to select forums and people about the SMS and incident reporting platform, people from all over the world are joining us that is bringing a hope on a SMS message. Team building is on way and spreading the message to millions of flood affected people is next big challenge. Remember, the mission is to save one hope by one SMS message at 3441.
The message to spread is simple. "Text your observations about the disaster and your location so we can put this on a map." People can report their observations by texting 3441 and starting their message with "FL".
One hope will be saved, if this message is properly understood, mapped by humanitarian agencies, people or anyone in the world looking to help flood affected populations in Pakistan. We need your help, please join our team (email us at pkfloods@brightspyre.com) and lets try to save one hope with one SMS message.
I am still a few miles away from one of the worst floods in the history of Pakistan. Still, I could not figure out the meaning of life and hope after losing your loved family, losing everything you built in your life in front of 30 feet high flood wave, where everything is completely devastated for millions of people. I do not know how to save hopes of people in current situation. But as a technology and social entrepreneur, I have read hundreds of case studies and talks that a SMS is a ray of hope and decided to setup SMS based incident reporting.
I want to bring first line of incident reporting live for millions of people in Pakistan. This requires technology, spreading the right word to millions, building team, Logistics, resources and coordinating all the incident reporting. The last week was spent on the technology front. So, after sleepless nights, power shortages, worst news written on faces everywhere, the effort continued. With the help of few friends, I got access to short code 3441 in Pakistan. Next the Crowdmap was launched at http://pakrelief.crowdmap.com. Then, the short code integration was done. And the technology milestone is achieved.
Then, I started carefully spreading the message to select forums and people about the SMS and incident reporting platform, people from all over the world are joining us that is bringing a hope on a SMS message. Team building is on way and spreading the message to millions of flood affected people is next big challenge. Remember, the mission is to save one hope by one SMS message at 3441.
The message to spread is simple. "Text your observations about the disaster and your location so we can put this on a map." People can report their observations by texting 3441 and starting their message with "FL".
One hope will be saved, if this message is properly understood, mapped by humanitarian agencies, people or anyone in the world looking to help flood affected populations in Pakistan. We need your help, please join our team (email us at pkfloods@brightspyre.com) and lets try to save one hope with one SMS message.