4 Social Media Efforts to Aid the Gulf Coast

Geoff Livingston co-founded Zoetica to focus on cause-related work, and released an award-winning book on new media Now is Gone in 2007.

The far-reaching Gulf oil spill tragedy has left many people feeling powerless to help out. But beyond the official Deep Horizon response, pockets of non-profits and people are starting to use social media tools to organize grassroots activities throughout the Gulf region. Here’s a quick look at four tools and efforts geared towards delivering aid and cleaning up crude oil in local coastal areas.

1. Oil Reporter Apps

The Oil Reporter open data initiative was recently launched by Crisis Commons to enable people to help with the recovery effort by using real-time checkins to report what they’re seeing on the ground. Users can upload photos and videos to report oil, harmed wildlife sightings, and much more.

Data collected utilizing the Oil Reporter mobile applications will be managed by San Diego State University’s Visualization Center. Dr. Eric Frost will lead a team to provide visualization tools and products based on the Oil Reporter data. Further, local organizations can reuse the open Oil Reporter source code and enable their local volunteers to report with a custom app. The app is available for iPhone and Android platforms.

2. Greater New Orleans Foundation Helps Local Fisherman

The Greater New Orleans Foundation has turned its website into a virtual command center to activate citizens in its 13 parishes. From YouTube videos and blogs to Twitter and Facebook, the Foundation is using social media to tell stories and support its Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund.

Fund dollars are used to help Louisiana’s displaced commercial fisherman. In the coastal parishes of Louisiana most affected by the spill, there are over 6,400 licensed commercial fishers, many of whose families have been fishing for generations. Nearly one-third of U.S. seafood is harvested in Louisiana waters.

3. National Wildlife Federation Organizing Local Teams

In addition to a massive mobile and social media fundraising campaign to benefit the Gulf, the National Wildlife Federation is using social media to organize local and online volunteers. Interested parties can volunteer to spot wildlife in distress, work with the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana and clean up the coast, or use their social media properties to organize concerned online communities.

4. “Adopt a Beach” with Crisis Commons

In a second related effort, Crisis Commons is teaming again with the San Diego State University Visualization Center to launch the “Adopt a Beach” initiative. The organizations are processing high resolution images of all the local gulf beaches in an effort to provide any interested party the opportunity to help. Any concerned party with a computer can adopt a beach, and use the images to report crude oil on beaches as well beached birds and marine wildlife.

The reported data will be made publicly available to any group organizing local clean-ups, from the official Deep Horizon response effort to local churches and citizens. Crisis Commons says the Adopt a Beach initiative will likely go live in the next couple of weeks.

More social good resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Monitor the Gulf Oil Spill Using Social Media
- 5 Ways Non-Profits Can Increase Engagement With YouTube
- How Open Data Applications are Improving Government
- HOW TO: Turn Slacktivists into Activists with Social Media
- How Does Twitter’s New Social Good Initiative Stack Up?

[Image Credit: NWFblogs]

Tags: gulf oil spill, List, Lists, social good, social media