Japan Earthquake - Donation Options

Today, CASBAA (the Cable and Satellite Association of Asia) sent me an email (with the heart above), pointing to a list of charities helping people recover from the Japanese earthquake (東北関東大震災).

Here's a selection of those charities: Habitat for Humanity, Oxfam, Red Cross, Save the Children, Unicef and World Vision. The Associated Press has a full list here.

Japan's national broadcaster, NHK, recommends making bank transfers to the Japan Red Cross (日本赤十字社) or the Central Community Chest (中央共同募金会). NHK also provides a list of links other useful resources.

Groupon Japan - Earthquake fundraiser

To support survivors of the recent earthquake and tsunami, Groupon Japan is tapping into it's user base to raise funds for the Japanese Red Cross. For every purchase of 200 yen via their website, they will donate 400 yen. According to Asiajin, they've already raised 3.8 million yen (US$46,000 or so).



Asiajin also has a post with extracts of coverage from the Japanese web.

Japan Earthquake - Ustream coverage

Japanese broadcaster, NHK, has turned to Ustream to further spread it's live coverage of the aftermath of the recent earthquake off the coast of Sendai. I managed to catch the Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, talking to the nation just now on this channel.
Watch the live video feed on uStream (in Japanese) or the embed below:



The fiercely independent journalist, Iwakami Yasumi (Twitter: @iwakamiyasumi), is also in the area finding out more about the repercussions of the explosion at Fukushima 1 nuclear plant. Watch his ustream channel below:



Google has set up a crisis response website linking to all kinds of useful information and promoting it's "person finder" service by spreading the widget below. Notice the choice of languages: Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.



Google is also offering maps of safe shelters around different cities in Japan. This one is for Tokyo:


より大きな地図で 東京都内避難場所 を表示

An alternative version of the news coverage is also available on Global Voices.

Tonight: Lucky draw prizes from Groupon and Adobe

We've got some fun and educational prizes lined up for the lucky draw at tonight's Web Wednesday networking event (6:30pm - 9:30pm at Volar in LKF).

So don't forget to drop your namecard in the bowl at the door (sorry, we gave up on the SMS contest a while back!) and you could be the lucky winner of one of the following:

1st Prize: 7 days of Groupon HK coupons (the main deal as they have three per day). Blog about your experiences and you get another 3 days of coupons free.

2nd Prize: Art Jamming session for 10 people (I've done this, a great laugh!)

3rd Prize: Lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel with Danny Yeung, CEO and founder of Hong Kong's hottest internet start-up!

4th Prize: Adobe Acrobat X Pro software (approx. HK$4,000)

Adobe is also generously offering each winner a set of tickets to their upcoming event, "Refresh Roadshow" on 9th March at Cliftons in Central. You can also sign up here.

Unified under Facebook

Woke up this morning with my son pulling on my ear and an invite to sign up for Facebook Messages, their new integrated offering. Not sure which hurt more!


So far, I like the automatic filtering of messages into those from friends (called "Messages") and uninvited stuff (called "Other"). Signed up for their email address but not sure how I'm going to have the time to manage yet another webmail account. Guess the swollen ear will go down eventually too!

Funny thing was that an ad for gmail popped up when I searched on Google!

Facebook rules!

Ever wondered what people spend their time doing on Facebook? This nifty little video shares the numbers. When will they share the psychographics?

Groupon Hong Kong: Discounted Road to Riches

Calling all budding internet entrepreneurs!

Originated in China, the group buying（团购）phenomenon has taken the world by storm. After just three years in business, the dominant global player, Groupon, recently raised US$950M for a valuation of $4.7bn!

On Wednesday 2nd March, I'll be interviewing Danny Yeung, the co-founder and CEO of uBuyiBuy, which he set up in March 2010 and sold to to Groupon nine months later for a princely sum.... Such rapid success has led Danny to become the inspiration for many a local start-up. Now he wants to share his experiences with you.

The event will start at 6:30pm and wind up around 9:30pm, with the talk/interview starting at 7:15pm. Sign up on Facebook or this blog.

As per usual, there's a HK$100 entrance fee, including one complimentary drink and the chance to win lucky draw prizes, including free coupons from Groupon HK.

Our lovely assistant, Vivian, will issue receipts if you need one. (For students, you can get in for HK$50 without free booze). Thereafter, all standard drinks will be charged at special happy hour prices. 10% of entrance fees will be donated to Oxfam Hong Kong.

Looking forward to meeting many new faces. Let's see if we can beat last month's record of 290 digerati!