Channel 4 News Team

When a Doctors Without Borders cargo plane full of medicine was blocked from landing at the congested Port-au-Prince airport, the group sent out a tweet about the blockage.Twitter users then began to bombard the U.S. Air Force's Twitter account with demands that the plane be let in.

We're working it right now. More to follow

Larisa Epatko

Kate Starbird, a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, studies the use of Twitter during crises.

But by the third day, they decided to go ahead and launch a Twitter initiative several months in the making, called "Tweak the Tweet". The objective is to repurpose tweets with a syntax, or language structure, in order to streamline the process of connecting people with specific needs in emergency situations with those who can provide it.

Interactive maps and SMS (Short Message Service) texts helped guide search-and-rescue teams and find people in need of critical supplies, as the Caribbean nation became a real-world laboratory for new communication tools.

“The Haitian experience strongly suggests that digital media and information technology can significantly improve relief efforts with the right on-the-ground coordination,” said Mayur Patel, Knight Foundation’s director of strategic assessment and assistant to the president. “Better integrating these tools into recovery efforts can help save lives in coming crises.”

Reports of trapped people and medical emergencies collected by text were plotted on an online map then used by relief workers.

International aid workers are scrambling to rebuild communications in Haiti following the devastating January 12 earthquake, while people outside the country are using high-tech means to raise money for relief.

The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) said Thursday it was immediately deploying 40 satellite terminals for basic communications, along with 60 other terminals with satellite broadband capability.

rganizations, are bringing in new equipment to reconnect citizens and aid workers with the rest of the world.

Haiti Earthquake Facts and Figures

IMpact of the 12 January earthquake 7.0 Magnitude Quake struck near Port au Prince 3,500,000 people were affected by the quake 220,000 people estimated to have died 300,000+ people were injured Over 188,383 houses were badly damaged and 105,000 were destroyed by the earthquake (293,383 in total), 1.5m people became homeless After the quake there were 19 million cubic metres of rubble and debris in Port au Prince – enough to fill a line of shipping containers stretching end to end from London to Beirut. 4,000 schools were damaged or destroyed 25% of civil servants in Port au Prince died 60% of Government and administrative buildings, 80% of schools in Port-au-Prince and 60% of schools in the South and West Departments were destroyed or damaged Over 600,000 people left their home area in Port-au-Prince and mostly stayed with host families At its peak, one and a half million people were living in camps including over 100,000 at critical risk from storms and flooding Unrelated to the earthquake but causing aid response challenges was the outbreak of cholera in October 2010. By July 2011 5,899 had died as a result of the outbreak, and 216,000 were infected

Twitter Helps in Haiti Quake Coverage, Aid

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Twitter has proven to be an important tool for fundraising and relief efforts to help the disaster’s victims.

According to Twitter.com, five of the most popular topics posted Thursday on the mini-blogging site were related to Haiti, where the death toll from a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck on Tuesday might have surpassed 100,000.

Social media illustrates devastation in Haiti in real time

First satellite map of Haiti earthquake A major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on 12 January, causing major casualties and damage. The quake was followed by several aftershocks with magnitudes over 5.0.

Such a powerful earthquake can make current maps suddenly out of date, causing additional challenges to rescue workers on the ground. Earth observation satellite images can help rescue efforts by providing updated views of how the landscape and the infrastructure have been affected.

Social Media & the Haiti Disaster: Thumbs Up for Twitter

Speaking of the many requests she received via Twitter for help with specific situations in Haiti in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake there, Curry added:

WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department has joined the social-media movement and for the first time is reading Twitter posts, blogs and Internet forums to learn instantly about conditions in Haiti and send alerts to government agencies in the country. The department's Haiti Social Media Disaster Monitoring Initiative is designed to get information more quickly to people involved in recovery efforts by tracking up to 60 Internet sites including Google Blog Search, The Huffington Post and Twitter, according to a department report.

Twitter data accurately tracked Haiti cholera outbreak

The informal information source, Twitter, was yielding data that would have been a quicker way of detecting and tracking the deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti than traditional methods, according to a study. The study found that online social media and news feeds were faster than, and broadly as accurate as, the official records at detecting the start and early progress of the epidemic, which hit Haiti after the earthquake in January 2010 and has killed more than 6,500 people.

Twitter and Facebook users respond to Haiti crisis

An appeal to help victims of the Haiti earthquake is breaking all records, fuelled by the power of social media.Type "Haiti" into Twitter, Facebook or Youtube and you soon encounter a message from @redcross sent at 05:38 GMT on Jan 13. In less than 48 hours, the American Red Cross had received more than $35m in donations - including $8m directly from texts. "This breaks all world records for a mobile giving campaign," says their spokeswoman, Gloria Huang. "It's been incredible. People have donated more to Haiti than to Hurricane Katrina or the tsunami in Asia. "And Twitter has played an extremely significant part."

Social Media was the first to tell the story Despite being the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti’s Internet connected devices were key implements in telling the rest of the globe about the emerging crisis. Twitter Twitter was a key tool for distributing images and information from Haiti — just as it has been in a number of other crises across the globe. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that images sent via Twitpic and other Twitter-based photo services were hitting the Internet long before news agencies produced anything similar. And as Haitian officials were giving their reports on what happened, eyewitness accounts from Haitians in messages of 140 characters or less were already widespread. People were given further insight when the Los Angeles Times published a list of Twitter users believed to be tweeting from Haiti.

Social Media Gets First Haiti Earthquake Pictures

Once again, social media has provided information on a huge breaking story before the news networks are able to provide full coverage. The Haiti earthquake has made news but if you’ve been looking for photos of the destruction, you needed to be hanging out on social media to find them. Within a few hours of the earthquake, photos were appearing on TwitPic, uploaded by those who were in Haiti during the earthquake.

Social media has proven time and again to be faster than the news and search engines, from Michael Jackson’s death to the Haiti earthquake and while it might not be quite as reliable as CNN, social networks are now what people are starting to look to for the latest in breaking news.

Social Media Coverage of the Haiti Earthquake

Social media key in Haiti earthquake coverage Technology played a key role in early coverage of the earthquake in Haiti.

With telephone service toppled due to the earthquake, those on the ground turned to Skype to speak with the media, aid organizations, or to communicate with loved ones overseas. A Connecticut-based missionary organization that works in Haiti used Skype to communicate with their people there to get a sense of the devastation…. What’s not clear, however, is whether Haitians are using these technologies to communicate and help each other. From what I’ve seen so far, the use of tools like Twitter and Facebook are more helpful for delivering news about Haiti to the outside world instead of aiding those directly affected by the crisis–a recurring theme that we’ve already seen play out in places like Iran and India.

How Social Networks and Mobile Tech Helped in Haiti

Social Media Aid the Haiti Relief Effort

GTS Exhibits Geospatial Photo Technology Used in Haiti at the 2012 International Disaster Conference and Expo