In the wake of the destruction carved through the region by the April 27 tornadoes, two Lee University graduates have developed a website concept to link government, nonprofit and church volunteer groups immediately after a disaster and provide information about needs in hard-hit communities.
“It’s an information-sharing platform at the core, an organizational tool to drive action,” Taylor Jones said.
Jones and Eric Brown – co-partners who last year founded a website design, branding and networking company called Whiteboard Network – developed the idea in the first few days after more than a dozen tornadoes pummeled the tri-state area.
Volunteers, government agencies and supplies poured into communities, but frequently different volunteer groups were not interacting with one another and had difficulty connecting to victims with the greatest needs.
Brown and Jones began hearing from friends and mentors who suggested disaster relief workers needed better ways to connect and to find out about who needed what and where. They also looked for a way to harness the power of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter.