Katrina PeopleFinder Project
Encyclopedia
The Katrina PeopleFinder Project was set up in early September, 2005 in response to the dozens of groups collecting "lost and safe" lists for people affected by Hurricane Katrina
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The project was conceived on Friday, September 2, and data entry was stopped with over 90,000 entries (when no new entries were apparent) by Tuesday, September 7. Dozens of technologists and thousands of volunteers had helped make it happen.
The Katrina PeopleFinder Project is an example of a nonprofit technology
initiative implemented entirely by volunteers. Over 4000 people donated their time as data entry crew members.
format used for exchanging information about individuals found or identified in the aftermath of a disaster. It was created quickly following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as part of the Katrina PeopleFinder Project, in September, 2005. PFIF is an example of a nonprofit technology
initiative implemented entirely by volunteers.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
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The project was conceived on Friday, September 2, and data entry was stopped with over 90,000 entries (when no new entries were apparent) by Tuesday, September 7. Dozens of technologists and thousands of volunteers had helped make it happen.
The Katrina PeopleFinder Project is an example of a nonprofit technology
Nonprofit technology
Nonprofit technology comprises information and communication technologies that support the goals of nonprofit, nongovernmental, third sector, grassroots, and other mission-based organizations...
initiative implemented entirely by volunteers. Over 4000 people donated their time as data entry crew members.
Motivation
As had happened in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, a multitude of sites had been independently gathering lists of survivors or missing-persons requests. This project set up a system for entering data according to a standard format (PeopleFinder Interchange Format, also known as PFIF), and reached out to the other sites gathering this information to encourage them to use the same database and avoid duplicating effort.People Finder Interchange Format
The People Finder Interchange Format (PFIF) is an XMLXML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
format used for exchanging information about individuals found or identified in the aftermath of a disaster. It was created quickly following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as part of the Katrina PeopleFinder Project, in September, 2005. PFIF is an example of a nonprofit technology
Nonprofit technology
Nonprofit technology comprises information and communication technologies that support the goals of nonprofit, nongovernmental, third sector, grassroots, and other mission-based organizations...
initiative implemented entirely by volunteers.