About 24 hours ago, I woke up and realized that the typhoon I'd been hearing snippets about during the DUMBO Festival was worst than the usual. I've been through typhoons, both in Manila and here (though here they're called hurricanes of course!), but as I clicked through various news sources, scanned Twitter and listened to stories from my aunt, I realized it was the worst to hit the city in some 40 years, as hundreds of thousands of people, already struggling, were displaced, with most of their possessions washed away. There are predictions of two more storms on the way that will complicate relief efforts.

As aid was needed this past weekend, I posted a call for help, and within 5 hours, we surpassed the goal of $500 I had set, and by the next day, $760 has been pledged via Kickstarter, and a couple hundred more is being given directly to me in cash today. And we still have another 24 hours to go before the Kickstarter push officially ends. I know $760 doesn't seem like a lot to us here in the U.S. (that's less than my latest lens cost me), but that's already more than the average annual income of half the country (at least according to Wikipedia).


This whole experience, right off the heels of my DUMBO Festival work, has me thinking about fundraising in the social media/mobile phone landscape in general. In what other world would it be possible to raise so much in so little time from such a broad community? Money has literallly come in from three continents, all done with a few retweets, reposts and Amazon.com logins. And my efforts are tiny compared to what others are doing online. Just look at this stunning Google map, which is both innovative and heartbreaking. How is it powered? Google spreadsheets. And how are those in the Philippines giving money? Text messaging, which remained operational despite roads and power going down.

We saw it in Mumbai, in Iran, and now in the Philippines--the world is getting just a little bit smaller and a little bit closer thanks to social media and mobile phone technologies, and this is undeniably a Good Thing. It's particularly pertinent with the latter, as so many social media users in the Philippines speak fluent English and use Twitter and Facebook, so there are fewer linguistic and technological hurdles to connecting individuals with individuals. No translation necessary.

When Mt. Pinatubo erupted, I had to rely on television, frantic, unreliable phone calls, and a letter that would arrive weeks later with assurances; and worse, given our limited resources at the time and limited ways to send money, we weren't able to send much more than good will. Now, I can text, tweet, Facebook and YouTube my way to news and, importantly, galvanize aid for a country that is almost literally on the other side of the world.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your support. People like you never cease to amaze me.

Labels: internet, manila, technology