Ever since CrisisCamp this past weekend, I’ve been thinking about experimenting with ways that matrix codes like this one could be used to track important data in Haiti. Download the free ScanLife app for the iPhone and point the iphone at this particular code. It should pull up details from the Sahana database for a hospital in Haiti, including its current capacity and supply levels.
So my question: would putting matrix codes on the outside walls of important relief sites in Haiti - or on their roofs, given all the satellite imagery that’s taking place right now - serve a useful purpose? If you didn’t have a printer in the field, you could distribute large laminated sheets with subtle lines on it that would help you fill in the right blocks, either with black marker or with little black squares you’d fix onto it. Or you could print them out before going down to Haiti and distribute them in the field to hospitals, schools, tent cities, etc.
Must brainstorm this further. Stupid idea? Or could it actually be useful? Please let me know what you think.
