49,995 records As of 9/5/2005 7:52 PM

A volunteer data entry operation of the Katrina PeopleFinder Project has entered information on 49,995 people listed in message boards like Craigslist in about 24 hours. With extraordinary contributions from nonprofits, companies, regular volunteers and key partners like Salesforce.com, we have only just begun.

All our data conforms to the PeopleFinder Interchange Format (PFIF), allowing it to be combined with other structured databases that convert their data to PFIF. Data on missing persons from around the web can be combined into a large, central, searchable repository.

Go here for a link to the PFIF http://192.122.183.218/wiki/index.php/PeopleFinderTech

The next step is to add data to the central repository from structured databases like the Red Cross. They can help by transforming their data into something conforming with the PFIF spec. Their records can then be combined with ours allowing people to search for missing persons listed accross the web. Earthlink is the first organization to implement their database according to the PFIF specification. Great work guys.

The Katrina PeopleFinder Project is a distributed, community effort led by dozens of amazing volunteers and made possible by hundreds of people giving their time. Thank you all.