History is in the making. The earthquake's devastation in Haiti has unleashed unprecedented levels of corporate philanthropy and resulted in technology used in ways we have never seen before. The impact of this tragedy will be felt for years to come and it's not just because the economy is expected to cost Haiti's economy a hefty 15% of GDP, a sobering figure given that we are talking here about the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Haiti is a sign of important changes, giving rise to historic outpourings of corporate philanthropy. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that the level of donations has already vastly exceeded the amount raised for previous international catastrophes over the same number of days. So far, it's reached $150 million and it's early days yet. As On Philanthropy reports, we have seen Coca Cola and Google each donating $1 million, Microsoft announcing $1.25 million in cash and in-kind donations, plus employee-donation matching up to $12,000. Microsoft also says it's mobilizing an employee response team and providing technical support of NGOs operating on the ground. For an even more comprehensive list, go to the San Francisco Business Times. It reports that the US Chamber of Commerce says American companies have so far donated $16 million, and they're still pulling bodies out.

The disturbing part about all this is that the world seems to be ignoring other disasters. No one for example talks about one third of Africa's population being on the brink of starvation.

The other fascinating area has been the impact of technology. The Wall Street Journal reports that we have been seeing online and text message donations coming into their own and companies like Intel, Cisco and Microsoft helping support NetHope, an organization that works with 17 different relief groups to do things like set up the basic communications between agencies, and help coordinate reports and contact lists.

In a disaster like this where you have agencies from all over the world coming in and governments providing aid, that's no small feat.

The Huffington Post's technology and innovations editor Jose Antonio Vargas reports that a Wikipedia article titled "2010 Haiti earthquake" was created at around 8:30 a.m. EST on Jan. 13, just a few seconds after the 7 magnitude quake struck near Port-au-Prince. Four of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter are related to the earthquake, on Facebook there is a Haitian Earthquake Relief site that at the time I was writing this already had close to 30,000 fans.

There's also a ticker on top of every page on YouTube that links to disaster relief via Oxfam and Google has set up a disaster relief page telling people how they can help.

According to this report, online maps, wikis, mobile phone donations and websites are all now providing the latest tools to help restore some order in Haiti.

As with the donations from the corporate world, we have never seen anything like this before.

Now, if only all of that technology and generosity could be used to address the rest of the world's problems.