By this time, we all know what happened in Chile this weekend. Chileans love "futbol" (the picture on the left is from Colo-Colo, the most popular soccer team in the South American country). I met many chilenos when I lived in Miami. We used to play soccer for hours, young and old, in the same field. Chile is a great example for other South american countries. After years of a military dictatorship, it transformed itself to a prosperous and stable country, without firing one bullet. I had already booked a trip to Chile for this summer when I learned about the earthquake on Saturday. I'm still going because the country will be ok by then, I believe. Of course, Chile will need help. There are new campaigns to raise money using texts. These campaigns are very simple, you just need to text a key word and a donation is charged to your account. Could this be the start of a new model to gather donations? It proved very successful with Haiti, but I don't think it will be as impressive with Chile. One of the reasons is that you won't see as much damage (even though the earthquake was more powerful) in Chile. We will have to wait and see how the people respond. I'm afraid that if we keep seeing the same tactic applied to the latest tragedy people may get tired of it. With those questions aside, it's great to see technology working for a good cause.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Chile, Chilenos, and Texting
By this time, we all know what happened in Chile this weekend. Chileans love "futbol" (the picture on the left is from Colo-Colo, the most popular soccer team in the South American country). I met many chilenos when I lived in Miami. We used to play soccer for hours, young and old, in the same field. Chile is a great example for other South american countries. After years of a military dictatorship, it transformed itself to a prosperous and stable country, without firing one bullet. I had already booked a trip to Chile for this summer when I learned about the earthquake on Saturday. I'm still going because the country will be ok by then, I believe. Of course, Chile will need help. There are new campaigns to raise money using texts. These campaigns are very simple, you just need to text a key word and a donation is charged to your account. Could this be the start of a new model to gather donations? It proved very successful with Haiti, but I don't think it will be as impressive with Chile. One of the reasons is that you won't see as much damage (even though the earthquake was more powerful) in Chile. We will have to wait and see how the people respond. I'm afraid that if we keep seeing the same tactic applied to the latest tragedy people may get tired of it. With those questions aside, it's great to see technology working for a good cause.
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Well said!
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