Motherboard

  • All
  • Film + Video
  • Music
  • Art + Design
  • Gaming
  • Environment + The Body
  • Wonderful
  • Write a post
  • Sounding Boards

Welcome to Motherboard

Collapse

Motherboard is a celebration of the diversity and eclecticism of the culture that surrounds technology. Rather than squinting at technology through the lens of gizmos and gadgetry, Motherboard explores the ways it influences and affects music, art, design, film, gaming, sports, issues surrounding the environment, and everything else we find important.

So consider the floor open for group participation. It's simple: Get involved in an existing discussion, post your own related videos, write posts, comment, anything… you're now part of the Motherboard.

Learn more about Motherboard

New to Motherboard?

Then let us get you situated! Before you know it, you’ll be:

  • Writing, editing, and posting all your wildest technological musings
  • Commenting on stories and helping to push the conversation forward
  • Creating a personalized page and chatting with other users
  • And a whole lot more…
  • Join now
  • Login

After Quake, Haiti Gets Tech Support

Posted by Sean_Yeaton on Friday, Jan 15, 2010

  • Send to a friend
  • Save this post
  • Multimedia-hd_view_beta_large
  • Next
  • Prev

A terrifying week in Haiti has inspired innovative new ways to help hundreds of thousands of people in need of help after a devastating magnitude-7 earthquake leveled much of Port-au-Prince Tuesday.

Satellites have finally got something better to do than help me try to get a Google Street View of a capybara and are being used to help rescuers locate where need for aid is greatest in the devastated capital.

The quake heavily disrupted Haiti’s standard communication link so satellite operations world-wide are helping in the effort- GeoEye, DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1 and QuickBird. France’s Spot-5, Japan’s ALOS, The European Space Agency’s ERS-2 and Envisat, and Canada’s RadarSat-2 -are helping lead rescuers to the worst-hit places as well as determine the best places to set up headquarters.

Once on the ground, establishing telecommunications is key and the French nonprofit Telecoms Sans Frontiers (Telecommunications Without Borders) is on it by sending two teams of to Haiti to help facilitate communications to people trying to get in touch with family and relatives.

The group’s U.S. representative, Paul Margie, said a three-person team based in Nicaragua was en route to Santo Domingo, the capital of Haiti’s neighbor, the Dominican Republic. Another six-person team from France was also on the way.

Margie said it is a fairly large deployment for the group, which also sent out multiple teams after a series of typhoons hit the Philippines last year.

Although things in Haiti are still, today, unimaginably chaotic and shit-yourself scary, it’s nice to be able to applaud the efforts of people taking action to help others.

  • Rating:
  • rate 1
  • rate 2
  • rate 3
  • rate 4
  • rate 5
  • (2 ratings)4

Filed under:

  • Beyond the Internet
  • It's the Earth!
  • Wonderful
  • Environment + The Body
  • Haiti
  • Satellites
  • Help
  • Earthquake
  • Technology-to-the-Rescue

  • Send to a friend
  • Save this post

You must be a member to comment on Sean_Yeaton’s post.

Login or register here

  • Set_egyptian_god_small

    AmunRubirosa about 1 month ago

    I wonder why corporate profiteering off of Haiti's disaster in the service of "Let no crisis go to waste" isn't being reported on... hmmmm...

  • Doctor-manhattan-watchmen_small

    The_Good_Doc about 1 month ago

    It seems like everyday there is another use for satellite images. Someone found an ancient civilization on Google Maps the other day and now this.

  • A11_h_40_5878_small

    Another about 1 month ago

    If I had more time and was more tech-savvy, I'd put together a master list of all the Haiti scams popping up everywhere. These people need to be f#cked with as much as humanly and legally (and maybe illegally) as possible. Anyone up for this?

Comments 1 - 3 of 3

RSS

About the author

Photo-4_medium

Sean_Yeaton

hello, shit!
Brooklyn, United States
Member since 2010

Writer Musician Artist 23 BK NY

  • More on Sean_Yeaton
  • View all Sean_Yeaton's posts

Sounding Board Leaders

  • Notfunnylolca128421599090708750_theme_leader
  • Tumblr_kyl4guhxmf1qbn86go1_500_theme_leader
  • Default_avatar_small
  • Picture_3_theme_leader
  • Bild_13_theme_leader
  • Default_avatar_small
  • Graham-the-yellow-labrador-retriever-dog-375x500_theme_leader
  • Format_logo_theme_leader

In the Discussions:

  • Beyond the Internet
  • It's the Earth!

A Sounding Board leader is someone who is driving the conversation forward in any given Discussion.

The first step to becoming a Sounding Board leader is to post the best content.

Post something

  • About MB
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Help
  • Legal

Site by AREA 17

© 2009 Vice
All rights reserved

Related posts

  • (video)

    Video: One Machine To Power Them All: The Bloom Box

    By Motherboard
    • Save this post
  • @motherboard I'm Writing From Space LOL

    by Smelloman
    • Save this post
  • Tracking Trash Like the CIA

    by pastalex
    • Save this post
  • Immortal Jellyfish Everywhere

    by tim666
    • Save this post
  • New! Portable Black Holes

    by jackie
    • Save this post
  • Enjoy This Berlin Wall Story!

    by M_Blake_Montandon
    • Save this post
  • Foxiest of Foxes

    by cacophobia
    • Save this post
  • Zombie Technology: What Came Back From the Dead In the 2000s

    by Michael_Byrne
    • Save this post
  • Interview with a NASA Guy

    by viceland
    • Save this post
  • Websites To Avoid If You're Planning on Dying

    by Anna_Jane_Grossman
    • Save this post
    • Most Popular
    • Very Popular
    • Popular
    • Popular this Week
    • Most Recent
  • Motherboard
  • Contests
  • Viceland
  • VBS
  • Hey stranger
  • Join now
  • About MB
  • Login
  • Search Motherboard

Motherboard loading…

End of transmission. Go to homepage