by Gloria Edmonson Nelson

Created on: January 23, 2010

Tech companies are assisting Haitians to help those involved in the recent earthquake in many ways; hopefully, Haiti's infrastructure will not be a detriment to "block" the contributions in getting to those who need help. The tech companies are doing an excellent job thus far. A listing of some of these companies are as follows: 

Google donated one million dollars to those organizations who rescued the victims who were trapped and also provided clean water, food, medical care, and shelter. They are donating their employee's skills.

They have worked with Geo Eye to update satellite imagery that is available through Google Earth and Google Maps. They have also produced orbital pictures of Port-au-Prince via Google Earth.

Map Maker data has been made available to U.N. organizations, and the team is working with the Map Your Community to encourage Map Maker users with on-the-ground knowledge to help update the map of Haiti with disaster response data.

Google has also inserted a Spotlight on YouTube's homepage and ticker designed to drive traffic to videos from Oxfam International and the American Red Cross.

Microsoft made an initial donation of $1.25 million and asked its employees to support relief organizations working in Haiti. They have also activated its Disaster Response Team, a dedicated group that plans how the company, people, and partners can be mobilized during issues such as this.

T-Mobile USA has waived any long-distance charges for international calls through January 31st and retroactive to January 12, 2010, the date of the earthquake. Customers will also be able to roam on T-Mobile's partner networks in Haiti free of charge through the end of January.

Apple has placed a "Haiti Earthquake Relief Donate Here" button on iTunes to raise money for Red Cross.

Salesforce.com has set up a special donation page on its Website for those who want to donate to Red Cross and World Vision.

Fortius One, along with CrisisCommons and Openstreet, has put together a news dashboard for aggregate data from volunteers and official services.

The Intel Foundation will match personal donations by employees up to $2,000 per employee.

AMD will match donations of time or money by employees up to $3,000 each.

Godaddy.com donated $500,000 to Hope for Haiti.

Symantec gave $50,000 to CARE. They will also match their employees up to $1,000 per worker.

Salesforce.com is matching public donations made via a special web site up to $100,000.

The United States Chamber of Commerce has a list of companies who are donating on its web site. Other companies are using their Home Pages to request donations to the Red Cross and other organizations.

REFERENCE:

Finchannel.com/news_flash/world/56100_tech_companies _donate_money_and_skill_sets_to_help_Haiti.html/

Eweek.com/c/search-engines/google-microsoft-other-te ch-companies (Author Nicholas Kolakowsk, "Haiti Gets Aid from Google, Microsoft, Other Tech Companies")

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