Social media may not be the first means that springs to mind when an oil spill needs to be cleared up, but Trent Jordan has discovered a number of online tools that have been using social networking media to help in the effort to clean up the gulf coast.
Trent Jordan understands how social media can be harnessed to organize activity at a grassroots level. Various non-profit organizations and groups of interested people have made use of the Internet to help solve the problems caused by the Gulf oil spill.
These online tools show just how powerful social media and the Internet can be. Trent Jordan was very impressed by the efforts that have been made online to help the gulf coast.
The Oil Reporter application, created by Crisis Commons has been helping people to keep up-to-date with the crisis by providing them with real time data about what is happening on the ground. Users of the app are able to upload their own images and videos and to use it to report sightings of wildlife in need of help. The data that is gathered is also being used at the visualization center at San Diego State in order to create new visualization tools.
Crisis Commons has also been working with the San Diego university visualization center to organize the Adopt a Beach program. This initiative allows anyone with a computer to help process hi resolution images of the beaches in the area affected by the oil and to report any oil or distressed animals that are seen. The data that is gathered will be made available to people on the ground who are working to clean up the oil.
The website of the Greater New Orleans Foundation has been converted into a command center for the crisis. The site is being used to spread the word about the disaster, to help people in the area take an active role in coping with the problem, and to generate donations that will be used to help commercial fishers along the coast.
The National Wildlife Federation has been running a social media campaign to raise funds and to organize volunteers to help clean up the oil or to help with the online fundraising and administrative work.