PersonFinder for those seeking information, or who have information, about Haitian victims of the recent earthquake. http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/



During the April 2007 shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech, news outlets reported on, and relied upon, the way students made extensive use of Facebook to communicate with one another about the event. Schoolmates updated one another about the whereabouts of friends, class cancellation, victims and death toll (though inaccuracies abounded). CNN began reading students’ posts on the air, instantly giving us a first-hand human response to the unfolding nightmare. Those of us who hadn’t yet taken advantage of Facebook’s public invitation in late September 2006 suddenly became well aware of the potential impact this technology had on those issues that deeply affected our lives.

 

But social media was not specifically developed to communicate during tragedies. In fact, if Wikipedia is correct, Marc Zuckerberg invented Facebook to get his mind off a girl that dumped him that night (obviously I can’t speak for Mr. Zuckerberg, but I’d be willing to bet it worked).

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“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”—President Barack Obama.



Listen, you know mobile technology is important when the then president-elect, despite both resistance from the Secret Service and the collective coronary failure of a whole pack of attorneys, patently refuses to relinquish his smartphone upon entering office. 

 

As The New York Times recently reported, mobile applications are even becoming available on feature phones (“regular old cell phones”), though smartphones are heavily gaining in market share. In fact, the sales of traditional feature phones are flat, while smartphones posted double-digit growth in Q3 2009. 

Currently Apple’s iPhone is the most popular mobile smartphone in use in the US, capturing 4% of the total mobile phone market share. However, 2009 marked a true dogfight for the “Best in New Sales” moniker...

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You’ve heard it a million times—“there’s an app for that.” In fact, iPhone’s slogan has become so ubiquitous that it’s eclipsed “that’s what she said” as the hip sardonic punch line. As in, “Caught the swine flu on your birthday? There’s an app for that.”

Go ahead and make your own at www.appft.com

Apple would have you believe that there’s an app for everything under the sun (and if not, you have a great joke). In fact, their website actually boasts “Apps for Everything” in print. Everything.

But, and I hope you’re sitting, what if there really isn’t an app for that?

The fact of the matter is that the App Store and its counterparts can offer you mobile applications...

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