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Daily Archives: January 17, 2010

Texting Charitable Contributions to Haiti Overwhelms Telecoms

WSJ: “In a texting donation, a person types a so-called short-code such as 90999 and then types in “HAITI” to donate a preset amount of $10. The cellphone user then gets a text back asking that they confirm the donation. After a confirmation, the person receives a text saying, “Thanks! $10 charged to your phone bill for Red Cross Int’l Relief.” But no money moves until a person pays their cellphone bill to cover the pledge. The money then is routed through a carrier that aggregates the donations before dispatching them to one of the foundations. Those then move the money to agencies such as the Red Cross. Meantime, officials warned that hundreds of charities that may not be equipped to help often try to raise money and others are simply fraudulent scams. The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned Americans to ignore unsolicited emails and to be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims.”

  • See also Haiti Earthquake: FTC Warns Consumers to Give Wisely
  • Obama White House E-mail Archiving Plan Revealed

    Follow up to previous postings on Follow up to previous postings on missing White House emails during Bush administrations, from the National Security Archive: “Pursuant to a settlement reached between the National Security Archive and the White House Executive Office of the President (EOP), the White House today issued a letter describing critical aspects of… Continue Reading

    DoD Policy and Responsibilities for Critical Infrastructure

    DOD Directive 3020.40, DoD Policy and Responsibilities for Critical Infrastructure, January 14, 2010 “It is DoD policy that: a. Coordination on the risk management of defense critical infrastructure (DCI) shall be accomplished with other Federal departments and agencies; State, local, regional, territorial, and tribal entities; the private sector; and foreign countries, as appropriate….” Continue Reading

    Google and Others Provide Haiti Crisis Response Maps and Person Finder

    Person Finder: Haiti Earthquake, embeddable application: What is your situation? / I’m looking for someone / I have information about someone. See also: Open Street Map Project’s Haiti Earthquake Map Free access to Haiti Earthquake imagery through DigitalGlobe’s Crisis Event Service Haiti 2010 Sahana Disaster Response Portal [all via Brady Forrest] and Haiti Earthquake Recovery… Continue Reading

    A Perfect Storm Brewing: Budget Cuts Threaten Library Services at Time of Increased Demand

    A Perfect Storm Brewing: Budget Cuts Threaten Library Services at Time of Increased Demand, January 2010. “Today’s public libraries are vital community technology hubs that millions of Americans rely on for their first and often only choice for Internet access. Despite increased demand for library computers, however, libraries typically have not seen a corresponding increase… Continue Reading

    IRS e-file: It’s Safe; It’s Easy; It’s Time

    News release: “IRS e-file, the popular electronic tax return delivery service used by two-thirds of the nation’s taxpayers, opened for business January 15 and marks 20 years of safely and securely transmitting nearly 800 million individual federal tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service debuted e-file nationally in 1990, delivering 4.2 million tax returns. Last year,… Continue Reading

    EPA Proposes Standards to Protect Florida’s Waters

    News release: “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing water quality standards to protect people’s health, aquatic life and the long term recreational uses of Florida’s waters, which are a critical part of the state’s economy. In 2009, EPA entered into a consent decree with the Florida Wildlife Federation to propose limits to this… Continue Reading