San Diego, USA: Thomas and about 45 other self-described "techies and geo-geeks" and other volunteers met at USC to collaborate on ways to use computers to design improved maps of battered Port-au-Prince neighborhoods, concoct better family-locater services for quake victims and speed more accurate and timely relief information from more closely coordinated data feeds   Visit site

Washington, D.C., USA: Relief organizations largely say that right now, money donations are needed more than additional aid volunteers.

“It’s a bit of a tough one for impromptu volunteers to enter into the fold,” says Richard Muffley, spokesman for the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI) in Washington. Unsolicited volunteers may not have the needed training from aid organizations and will still need to be fed and housed once in a disaster zone, he says. “Cash is truly the most economical and efficient way of making a contribution.”

But Mr. Muffley and other aid organizations also say there are still opportunities to be hands-on with Haiti earthquake relief – which, they note, will continue long after the shock the quake triggered this week.

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