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On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, an earthquake struck off the coast of Haiti, causing major damage and loss of life in Haiti, a country of 9 million people. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) called it the strongest earthquake in this area since 1770. The epicenter of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit 10 miles west of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince and its 2 million inhabitants. Other parts of Haiti apparently have not suffered the extent of damage that Port-au-Prince has, where loss of human life and infrastructure devastation is expected to be very high.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is undertaking a variety of efforts, in conjunction with our Federal partners and international agencies, to aid Haiti in its recovery. We are doing so now and our commitment is for the longer-term. Chairman Julius Genachowski and the entire agency convey our sympathies and ongoing concerns to the people of Haiti for the loss of life and destruction in the country. In a statement the day after the earthquake, Chairman Genachowski offered that “Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti during this terrible tragedy.” The FCC also is taking specific actions to help, including:

• Issuing a press release by the FCC Media Bureau on procedures for noncommercial educational stations to follow in order to waive the Commission’s rules for fundraising appeals to support relief efforts;

• Reaching out to the U.S. Agency for International Development on Haitian relief and restoration efforts as it relates to telecommunications;

   

• Contacting regulatory counterparts in Haiti expressing FCC’s condolences and concern and offering immediate and longer-term assistance;

This week and next marks the inaugural live video streams for Reboot.FCC.gov.  No matter where in the world you are, you’ll be able to tune in and watch as it happens: a Media Ownership Workshop on Financial and Markeplace Issues (tomorrow, 9:00 A.M. ET - Agenda); an Open Internet Workshop on Innovation, Investment, and the Open Internet (this Wednesday, 4:30 P.M. ET – Agenda); a further Open Internet Workshop on Consumers, Transparency, and the Open Internet (January 19, 1:00 P.M. ET); and the next Open Commission Meeting (January 20, 10:00 A.M. ET).  . 

Each event will be streamed live at FCC.gov/live and moving forward, you can keep an eye on the FCC Calendar to better track further events that are scheduled.  Tune in and join the discussion. 

The FCC website was launched in June 1995 and redesigned in June 1999. The most recent redesign, initiated in March 2000 and completed in September 2001, achieved a common look-and-feel across all static pages of the site by introducing a standard agency-wide template supported internally by a style guide, design standards, posting policies and other web resources.

Incremental Improvements and Expansion
Although there have not been subsequent redesigns, there have been additions and improvements to the site content and associated systems (if not the design) continuously over the years. Some of those improvements include the introduction of a Google-based search tool, new web servers, interactive complaint forms, items-on-circulation reporting, and greatly improved functionality for EDOCS, ECFS, DIRS, eSupport and many other systems.