Merrick Schaefer - contact, schedule, web sites, friends

My Web Sites

• Merrick's Climbing Pictures
  -- Photos from years of trips climbing in some of the most beautiful places in the world.
• Merrick's Climbing Areas
  -- An interactive map detailing all of the areas around the world I have climbed at using google maps technology.
• Places and People
  -- A photo blog of places I have been and people I have met on my international travels.
• White Sands
  -- Photos from a day of floating and flying through White Sands Nation Park in New Mexico.
• Russia 2005
  -- Pictures from two weeks of travel in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia with close friends from high school.

My Schedule

My Friends

• Aaron Black
  -- Aaron Black is a great climber and awesome professional photographer and filmmaker who travels around the world.
• Aaron Green
  -- Aaron Green is an old friend and a web developer in Idaho.
• Adam Old
  -- Adam Old makes art and thinks and represents at skepticlysm.
• Alice Lin
  -- Alice Lin went to RISD, her site is ki-ki.net and she designs things.
• Andrei Ghetie
  -- Andrei Ghetie wants to climb more.
• Andrew Tam
  -- Andrew Tam likes to travel more than you do.
• Angela Tam
  -- Angela Tam is trying to spy on the Australians.
• Eric Schoenfeld
  -- Eric Schoenfeld knows more about food than you and likes travel and maps.
• Erin Schulte
  -- Erin Schulte actually writes for a living and sometimes sneaks away to climb.
• Gabe Leung
  -- Gabe Leung climbs and writes.
• Gabe Rhoads
  -- Gabe Rhoads is not just tall but dark and handsome as well. He also hosts an awesome movie night on a roof deck in Spanish Harlem.
• Kai Staats
  -- Kai Staats is the CEO of Terrasoft but wishes he were just an adventurer and climber, read about it here.
• Maria Cristina Gallegos
  -- Maria Cristina Gallegos has lived almost everywhere and traveled the few places she hasn't lived.
• Mark Miller
  -- Mark Miller not only climbs but skiis and plays bike polo as well.
• Marni Deutsch
  -- Marni Deutsch chronicles her adventures in the New York Metro Area.
• Matt and Amy Tackett
  -- Matt and Amy live in the best climbing area in the world and work there too!!!
• Miguel Casanova
  -- Miguel Casanova climbs and drinks, and is proud of it.
• Mike Schmit
  -- When Mike Schmitt is not bothered to do work in his MD/PHD program he is climbing.
• Sean Bruna
  -- Sean Bruna is a mega motivated anthropologist.
• Toli and Christine Lerios
  -- Toli and Christine explore the world.
• Tom Grundy
  -- Tom Grundy never stops climbing.
• Wes Allen
  -- Wes Allen rarely stops climbing and takes lots of photos, mostly of climbing.

Recent Presentations/Blogs

• Project Mwana - Zambia & Malawi blog
  -- A blog I manage and regularly contribute to detailing the story, lessons learned and context of a large mHealth project I lead in Zambia.
• United Nations Global Pulse: Pulse Camp 1.0 - New York, NY, USA December 1-3, 2010
  -- I facilitated a working group brainstorming on the role of software developers in developing nations contributing real-time information to the Global Pulse system.
• Can You Help Me Now? Mobile Phones and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan - Washington DC, USA June 24th, 2010
  -- I presented on a panel on how mobile phones could be used to improve and extend government services in the Afghani context.
• Qcon International Software Development Conference - London, UK March 11th, 2010
  -- Jeff Wishnie and I spoke about the development of ICT4D and how open source software development presents opportunities for individuals to contribute to international development and relief efforts.
• The O'Reilly Gov 2.0 Online Conference - O'Reilly Virtual Conference Dec 10th, 2009
  -- I spoke about UNICEF's 'use of RapidSMS' to improve health services for mal-nourished children in Malawi.
• Innovations in Mobile Data Collection in the Middle East - Amman, Jordan Dec 8th, 2009
  -- I spoke about UNICEF's 'use of RapidSMS' to improve health services for mal-nourished children in Malawi.
• 2009 Thoughtworks Awayday - Chicago, IL, USA Nov 15th, 2009
  -- I keynoted the conference speaking about UNICEF embracing innovation and used RapidSMS' to improve health services as an example.
• 2009 Connected Health Symposium - Boston, MA, USA Oct 21st, 2009
  -- I spoke on a panel about UNICEF's 'use of RapidSMS' to improve health services.
• Gov2.0 Expo - Washington, DC, USA Sept 8th, 2009
  -- I spoke on a panel about UNICEF's 'use of RapidSMS' to improve health services for mal-nourished children in Malawi.
• McKinsey & Co. Application Development Day - New York, NY, USA August 12, 2009
  -- Katherine Maher and I spoke about UNICEF 'embracing innovation' to improve the lives of mothers and children globally.
• South By Southwest (SXSW) - Austin, TX, USA March 17, 2009
  -- I spoke on a panel about UNICEF's 'experience and strategy with the mobile web' in improving social development tactics and processes.
• MiniBarCampKampala - Kampala, Uganda Oct 23, 2008
  -- Mark Johnston and I spoke about UNICEF's 'Mobile Hacking Toolkit' and 'RapidSMS system', at a barcamp focused on the intersection of innovation and mobile phones in Africa.
• Dorkbot - NYC, USA Oct 1, 2008
  -- Seth Herr and I spoke about UNICEF's 'Bee', a solar powered computer that allows communication, connectivity and data access in field conditions where such technologies are often difficult or impossible to use.
• WikiMania 2008 - Alexandria, Egypt July 17-19, 2008
  -- I spoke about UNICEF's pioneering work in improving MediaWiki's user interface, based off of usability research on African youth that we conducted in Tanzania.
• W3C Workshop 2008 - Sao Paulo, Brazil June 2-3, 2008
  -- Evan Wheeler and I spoke about UNICEF's 'RapidSMS system'and the problems of multi-modal communication systems at the W3C Workshop on the Role of Mobile technologies in fostering Social Development.
• Fourth Web4Dev Conference - Nairobi, Kenya Nov 28-30, 2007
  -- Chris Fabian and I spoke about UNICEF's 'RapidSMS system', the strengths of open source software in international development, and the impact such software could have on education.
• Global Forum on Youth and ICTD - Geneva, Switzerland Sept 24-26, 2007
  -- I participated in a panel focusing on how information communcation technology changed the educational experience for youth in different regions of the world.

Other Links

• 
  -- There is no data on the web industry. Lets change that.
• Red River Climbing
  -- A BBS where I spend a lot of time chatting about climbing at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky.
• A List Apart
  -- A great design resource with weekly articles and tons of information on standards based design.
• Zeldman.com
  -- Go here once a day and keep the development doldrums away.
• Savage Love
  -- Not only a columnist, but a philosopher. Soak in Dan's wisdom by reading all the columns you missed.
• Red River Outdoors, the premiere Canoe and Climbing Guide service in Kentucky
  -- My friends Matt and Amy run the best climbing guiding service and chill breakfast place in the Red River Gorge, and Eastern Kentucky The South The USA The World
• Yay Hooray!
  -- A design BBS with plenty of Chicago folk on it.
• Fight SpamBots!
  -- Fight the good fight. Link to the harvester killer!
• climbXmedia
  -- The best multimedia climbing site on the web is dead. and we mourn for it.