Relief 2.0

Relief 2.0 -- Big in Japan Mission

Relief 2.0 is going to Japan to use Social Media for Relief Efforts and run the last mile.

Relief 2.0 -- Using Social Media for Relief.

What is Relief 2.0

Relief 2.0 is the practice of running the last mile in the field through independent field units supported by mobile technologies and social networks, connecting resources, stakeholders, needs, organizations, volunteers and survivors in an efficient, effective and timely manner, filling the gaps created by bureaucracy and slow response from top-down hierarchies.

It is the result of field experience, the relentless pursuit of committed volunteers to be effective and respond to the requests of disaster survivors and the humane sympathy and empathy of global volunteers who remotely support their operation using mobile phones, community radio, the Internet and social media and networks.

In Relief 2.0 we deploy multidisciplinary and mixed small independent units of locals and foreigners, empowered to assess each situation and make decisions on their own, constantly connected and supported by mobile technologies and a distributed network of contacts which monitors and follows their activities and requests via mobile phones, SMS, twitter feed, blogs and social networks and relays any need they have to others who can in turn relay to others until the needs are fulfilled by someone in a broad network of volunteers, stakeholders and concerned institutions.

As opposed to top-down, rigid chains of command and action, these units form a distributed open network where each member has connections in multiple directions and is willing to hook up to other networks. When confronted with a a problem, each unit solves it with self initiative without waiting to be told what to do, and when unable to do so, relays the need and enables others to help.

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Relief 2.0 is founded by Carlos

About Carlos Miranda Levy

He is a Social Entrepreneur in Residence, National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre.

Digital Vision Fellow, Stanford University

Founder of Educar.org, BibliotecasVirtuales.com, SocInfo.com and CIVILA.com

Social Entrepreneur, Technology, Innovation and Social Media and Development Consultant.

Developer of educational, cultural and development initiatives with high impact across Latin America and the world, focused on latin american culture and development opportunities. Currently traveling across America to work with local communities on education, ICT, environment, culture and open source workshops and practical experiences.

I don´t know much about a lot of stuff. I know some interesting things about a few things, mainly because I have been lucky to work next to a lot of people who know a lot of stuff.

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Currently Social Entrepreneur in Residence at the National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre, 2004-2005 Digital Vision Fellow at Stanford University, 2004 Google Developing World Scholarship recipient, acknowledged on 2000 by CNN as one of Latin America's top 20 most influential people on the Internet.

I have extensive field experience and given conferences and workhops in over 15 countries covering Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, USA and Asia, in the fields of human development, public policy, education, technology, social entrepreneurship, social media and networks, creativity, innovation, and open and collaborative content since 1996. My consulting work includes ICT Public Policies, National ICT Strategies and National Education Portals funded by United Nations, World Bank, IADB and local governments in 10 countries.

My Current Work as Social Entrepreneur in Residence at the National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre.

- Relief 2.0: how to effectively run the last mile and deliver relief efforts using mobile technologies, social networks and engaging local stakeholders when disaster strikes with efficiency and accountability. Visual model available at: http://www.socinfo.com/relief20/ecosystem

- Social Gaming for Social Good: how to leverage the penetration of social media and games to engage a larger audience with social issues and have a real life positive impact of their time spent playing. As in linking FarmVille to Real Farms. Visual model available at: http://www.socinfo.com/social-gaming/social-change/ecosystem

- Local Innovation and Global Entrepreneurship: A model for leveraging the competitive advantage of local factors to succeed in global markets.

- Entrepreneurs 2.0: A global collaborative network of Entrepreneurs to promote social innovation, entrepreneurial solutions to the challenges of the world and to support entrepreneurs in the developing world not limited to the exclusive conventional circles and hubs of entrepreneurship centres and universities.

My On-Line Projects: The CIVILA - Virtual Cities Network

The CIVILA - Virtual Cities - Network I founded back in 1996 engages over 4 million people throughout the world sharing and accessing content and ideas, mostly on education, literature and culture. ( traffic data: http://short.civila.com/traffic )

The main two projects are Educar.org, an education portal and network of teachers and students, and BibliotecasVirtuales.com, a lively literary community of readers and writers, with 2 million and 1.5 million active users every month, respectively ( http://short.educar.org/traffic & http://short.educar.org/map / http://short.bibliotecasvirtuales.com/traffic & http://short.bibliotecasvirtuales.com/map ).

Another project worthy of consideration is NavidadLatina.com, our Christmas site, which engages around 5 million users during the Christmas season. The rest are local sites such as RedArgentina.com, RedColombiana.com, RedMexicana.com, etc. (meaning Argentinean network, Colombian network, etc.)

My Role as Innovation Events Facilitator

- TEDx:
o I have co-hosted TEDxSantoDomingo on 2009 and 2010 (Dominican Republic).
o I was part of the organizing team of TEDxNUS 2010 (Singapore).
o I am coordinating TEDxKRP (as in Kent Ridge Park) to showcase local innovation and global entrepreneurship initiatives in Singapore and around the world next February.

- GSIF: I am also part of the organizing committee of the Global Social Innovation Forum 2010 to take place on December 2010 in Singapore.

- Entrepreneurial Events at Stanford University: I have actively collaborated with the Society for Entrepreneurship in Latin America (SELA) and the Social Entrepreneurship Showcase taking place on campus at Stanford.

Our Haiti Relief 2.0 Experience ( http://www.socinfo.com/haiti/ ): A week after the Haiti Earthquake, we started a 4 weeks stretch of 12 missions coordinated entirely through social networks (Twitter, Facebook and mobile phones), word of mouth and face to face engagement of local stakeholders, donors and institutions, eventually receiving support of famous Hollywood actors as Vin Diesel and Paul Walker and supporting the work of Universities such as Harvard and Stanford when most resources were being held or moving slowly because of bureaucratic procedures. The results were presented on a seminar we did at Stanford University ( http://www.socinfo.com/haiti/relief ), also organized via social networks. Our current Relief 2.0 ( http://www.socinfo.com/relief20/ )model being developed at the National University of Singapore in collaboration with Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab builds upon this and other experiences.