The Hacker Foundation has created a site to act as a clearinghouse of information about survivors of disasters. From the press release:

“THF is releasing the SLA backend to anyone who requests it & opening our survivor data to the public,” said Emerson Tan, Director of Packetstorm Security. “As more of the world gets connected via the Internet, we believe the SLA project has global potential to be used in tracking IDPs, thwarting the child slave-trading of orphans from such disasters, and assisting aid agencies & NGOs responding to humanitarian efforts similar to those in the Darfur region of Sudan.”

You have to admire the people who did this. Lord love the Web and webizens like these. But are international aid agencies and governments really going to entrust this data — who’s missing, who’s been confirmed dead or alive — to The Hacker Foundation? Of course, it doesn’t have to be a universal list for it to be useful. And maybe the UN will take advantage of the software and host it. Maybe some local governments will use it in particular disasters. But I have trouble believing that this particular incarnation is going to take off. I hope I’m wrong, because the world could use such a service. Am I missing something? (Thanks to Greg Cavanagh for the link.)

Categories: Uncategorized dw