There have been some interesting updates on the use of Twitter via mobile in disaster response this week, and we encourage you to read our full post on an interesting integration with The Red Cross, Voila, and Twitter's fast follow function in Haiti.

It is important to remember that mobile updates in disaster response not only serve to inform, but to provide direct aid as well. As in the Haiti earthquake and the floods in Pakistan, crisis-mapping tools that collate data received via SMS and other means and then plot it on interactive maps take a key role in connecting victims sending mobile updates with rescue workers and aid organizations who can offer help. This week here at Twitter HQ, we were happy to speak with Jon Gosier, Director of Product for Ushahidi. Organizations like Ushahidi build interactive mapping tools that democratize information, increase transparency and lower the barriers for individuals to share their stories. In this video, Jon explains how crisis mapping works:

With the recent cholera outbreak in Haiti, HealthMap, an openly available public health intelligence system that brings together information from many sources (Tweets, SMS, Web updates, etc.), has brought together just such a map to report and support:

This is a guest post by Tom Yarnell and Ian Doran

 

The right to vote gives every young person a say in our democracy. The millennial, the largest in American history, proved itself energetic and optimistic in 2008. While the last two years have been challenging and many young people are battling feelings of skepticism and doubt, young people remain confident in their ability to affect change with 83% of young voters reporting they still believe their generation has the power to change our country.

One way to keep momentum going is by communicating with young people via social media networks. Rock the Vote and its celebrity partners have joined forces to  “Tweet the Vote” and ensure that these young people are registered and ready to vote in the upcoming midterm elections on November 2. From artists Maroon 5 (@maroon5), Tim McGraw (@TimMcGrawArtist), and Pink (@Pink) to influential blogger Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton), Rock the Vote has enlisted those stars who can reach a vast audience of eligible young voters through Twitter and direct them to a page where registering to vote takes fewer than five minutes.

Dozens of celebrities have tweeted Rock the Vote’s message, telling hundreds of thousands of young people: “Time is running out to register to vote. Register w/@rockthevote now and#votefearlessly on Nov. 2 http://bit.ly/dyOQzn."

Some artists have even added their own spin to the campaign. Comedian Dane Cook (@danecook), for example, told his followers: “If you don’t vote someone else speaks for you. Register to vote w/ @rockthevote then #votefearlessly http://bit.ly/bicnwM”

As voter registration deadlines pass and the effort to get out the vote begins, it is essential that we continue reaching out to the generation that will shape this country’s future. Not matter how big our following, we can all start simply by tweeting the vote.

 

 

 

 

For nearly a year now, Twitter has been working closely with Room to Read, a fantastic non-profit that extends literacy and educational opportunities worldwide. Tomorrow, September 8 is Literacy Day, and in commemoration we have created a great microsite on Twitter (through our Hope140.org hub for causes).

The coolest part of the site is a fantastic widget we built that scrambles a tweet to make it illegible. Send the illegible to your followers, they'll wonder what it says, and they'll click back to our literacy microsite to find out. Result? Awareness spread about an important cause.

Cool, no?

Here's how it works:

You go to our literacy microsite and tweet this message to your followers:

 

They click on the link to come back to our literacy microsite. They then see that the scrambled tweet really means this:

 

charity: water has just launched their new September campaign to bring clean water to the Bayaka people of the Central African Republic. Make sure to check out what the campaign is all about, and then use your voice on Twitter to help spread the word: