Brief, big lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav

A lot in a few words?

-- from Katrina you learn that you need a good platform, a culture of trust, then get out of the way

-- twitter and blogging, good at getting the word out

-- need for good sites which bring together grassroots and other resources

-- government people are working with sites in a loose (so far) partnership with grassroots efforts; need more

... and another storm's on the way

Comments

[DR]

Evening Craig:

Any chance that you would be interested to speak at the Calgary Marketing Association (non-profit organization), Calgary, Alberta Canada in relation to your success with Craig list, how you started and the critical factors to your success. To highlighte the key factors to successful websiter marketing & design & unteractive marketing?

[Barbara]

Good thoughts - I think that in both cases (esp. Katrina) there are individuals who just want to go down there and help, and the net facilitates that...it was all over the CL hurricane/Katrina forum. Often you hear on the news that people only want skilled workers or trained volunteers, but then later you hear that people who just showed up were greatly welcomed. So sites that can bring these people together are REALLY valuable. Even insofar as recruiting help to take plywood off large windows (or put it up) (I remember this all to well from my time in FL).
--Barbara/3rd

[Jimmie]

Craig,

I deffinitely agree that we need more good sites that bring together grassroots and I would add, the world. I am trying to start a free website right now that is nothing like craigslist, but has some very similar principles. It aims for language learning and towards language learners.

I know this is a shot in the dark, but I would really appreciate your time if you had even 5 min. to talk about my new site. Thanks for your consideration.

And continued best of luck with your site. I use it every day.