SXSW responds to Japan disasters in real-time

UPDATE March 22, 2011 With the SXSW festivals winding down, $100,000 has been raised by this effort. Congratulations to all involved.

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UPDATE March 13, 2011 sxsw4japan.org was started by Leigh Durst (@livepath), RobWu (@robjwu) and Deb Ng (@debng) in the SXSW blogger lounge. It was not an effort of the organizers of the SXSW festival. So far, over $12,000 has been raised.

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I'm at the South-by-Southwest festival in Austin Texas now having fun, going to parties, meeting people, and I am giving two talks.

SXSW is all about community, so it is great that we’ve come together to support the people of Japan with a real-time .ORG site at sxsw4japan.org and @sxsw4japan Twitter feed to raise funds. As of this writing, nearly $10,000 has been raised.

This is all about real-time!

The disaster happened yesterday. The site went live the same day. And within about 24 hours, nearly the entire fundraising goal has been reached.

A CNET article talks up my friend Hugh Forrest, SXSW interactive director, as he kicked off the campaign. (I went to college with Hugh). "Can the SXSW community raise $10,000 for Japan in 4 days? Of course we can," the sxsw4japan site urges attendees. "We at SXSW Interactive can make a difference. We can raise funds for the American Red Cross to provide disaster relief in Japan. Donate now to the American Red Cross or create a fundraising page to raise support."

I'm constantly amazed by the power of real-time. What can it do for you?

NOTE: Some of you may know that mu wife Yukari Watanabe Scott is Japanese and that I lived in Japan for seven years. All our friends and family are safe.

Comments

[wilson]

This is great, sxsw rocks, and I gotta say nice move on Google as well for putting up the resources page for people in Japan.

[Tomoyuki Koshi (from Tokyo, Japan)]

I'd like to thank all the people who support the people of Japan with a real-time. We really appreciate it.

[Leigh Durst]

Hey David. #sxswcares (www.sxswcares.org and www.sxsw4japan.org) were started by Leigh Durst (@livepath), RobWu (@robjwu) and Deb Ng (@debng) in the blogger lounge. I'm not sure who Hugh is but he hasn't reached out to us. We don't really care who gets the credit but will be making some announcements tomorrow and would love to have Hugh contact us. Feel free to DM me on Twitter or have Hugh get in touch with us. Here's the genesis of this, in a nutshell http://www.sxsw4japan.org/ Thanks for promoting this. We love your work and appreciate everyone promoting this cause! BTW, as of 1 am we are at $12k and shooting for $25k. ;-) Can't aim too high.

[Leigh Durst]

Hit send and said "DUH". I'm sorry David it's late and lots of nights with no sleep. Of course we do know who Hugh is (brain cramp!) and I heard the announcement over the line in the blogger lounge (putting 2+2 together)... just haven't connected YET! Stoked about driving more success together. Thanks again.

[David Meerman Scott]

Hey Leigh

Sorry that I did not know who was behind this.

I heard about it at my talk yesterday then I did a Google search for "sxsw AND japan" and the CNET story came up. That story quoted Hugh and led to the page. I wanted to get something out quickly so I ran with it. Maybe you should have an "about" section? Or maybe in my haste I missed it.

Keep up the great work. David

[Jacques]

Leigh and David.

I'm a student at the Harvard Kennedy school studying disaster relief and recovery. I can get some of my professors who are the foremost experts in the field to call in for a panel. Let me know if this is something you want to do. Thanks.

[Fazal Mayar]

great stuff. This is what makes the world a better place, a better community trying to help each others. Great act by sxsw to raise funds.

[carolhunt]

Hi.. i am carol hunt.
I disagree with the comment made by some web developers that all the good domain names are taken. Search engine optimization, or seo, does not depend heavily on the www name you select. For my clients just starting out the decision choosing small business website names has never been an issue.
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[Leigh Durst]

Hey David - sorry I'm late to the punch. Thank you so much for your post. I am working closely with Hugh and Kevin now. They are amazing. We even have the mayor's office involved and have raised 63k (not including a $5k grant from Pepsi that is pending) as of tonight. We are doing a giant fundraiser for sxswcares at the big concerts on Friday and Saturday night as well as some band outreach. I'm excited to see the outcome of this.

Hugh asked me to assemble a quick panel on our efforts during Keller's spot on the future of Journalism. Not many sohwed up... but the ones who did had such a passion to help Japan. At the end, a documentary filmmaker from Japan named Yasushi approached me. He thanked us for our work and told me this: "I came to SXSW to find out what it was all about. Now, I KNOW." This was perhaps one of the greatest compliments I've ever received.

Thanks for spreading the word. I'd hug you if I could. - Leigh

[David Meerman Scott]

Leigh - Great work. I'm back home now, but will be talking this effort up at my speaking gigs in NYC, Orlando, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, & Vancouver -- all within the next three weeks.

[Virtual Data Room]

Congrats for this big amount that was raised. sxsw has done a great job. I think this is the time to think about humanity instead of enemy countries or things like that. We all are brothers and Japanese are in trouble at the moment. Being a human everyone of us must help them in some way. This time can come to anywhere if GOD wills.

[sleep]

It warms my heart to find these organizations that wholeheartedly offer help to Japan. I hope we all continue to help every country in need.