city camp london

@bodaceacat http://blog.overcognition.com/

CrisisCampUK

where next for UK crisis crowdsourcing?


How Crisis Information works

• People create maps

• Person sends SMS to 3441

• Message goes to CrowdFlower

• Person translates and geolocates message

• Message goes to Ushahidi display

• Message gets to responders, public, aunts, Sahana etc.


CrisisCamp London


CrisisCampCambs


What CrisisCamp Ldn & Cambs built• Work parties for Haiti Earthquake• Expertise pool for first responders (UN, CDAC etc)• ‘Telephone exchange’ for Pakistan Floods

• Principles: – Community, not hierarchy– Champions, not controllers– Equality: working with, not for or above – Help, not hinder– Hard work, not talk– Safety awareness, not inaction– Efficiency, not chaos– Appropriate development : response mix– Anybody can join, everybody can help


Worldwide CrisisCamps


What’s an appropriate crisis to help?

• Information– Information deluge– Knowledge drought

• Infrastructure– Local infrastructure is overwhelmed– Information channels exist

• Stages– Mitigation– Preparedness– Response– Recovery– Sustainability


Why does this matter to London?

• Crisis can happen anywhere – even here– London terrorist attacks– Buncefield fire– Thames Barrier floods– Etc.

• London is especially well-placed to help– 100s of languages and cultures– Innovative spirit– Massive technical resources– Mature OpenSource communities

• And the UK isn’t crowdsource-prepared for crises


The Vision: effective crisis information ecosystems


What still needs to be done?

Strengthen UK crisis information connections

• Connect crisis information handling organisations

• Maintain UK group that can respond to both UK and global crises

• Maintain the OpenSource spirit

Prepare UK ‘crowd’ for crises

• Create pool of people used to operating crisis information tools

• UK crisis information vulnerabilities highlighted

• Improve OpenStreetMaps in crisis-prone areas

• Improve CrisisWiki entries for everywhere

Improve crisis information tools

• Handle crowd information without crowd processor overload

• Implement situation awareness and analysis techniques

• Implement crowd response tools?


What you can do to help

• Build applications

• Coordinate responses

• Process data

• Use crisis applications for other stuff


Who to Contact

Crowd Informers

• CrisisCommons

• Ushahidi / SwiftRiver

• Sahana

• OpenStreetMap

• Louisiana Bucket Brigade

• The Extraordinaries

• CrisisMappers.net

NGO/Local Coordinators

• UNOCHA - reliefweb

• CDAC

• Diaspora

Tool Developers

• RHOK

• Aid Information Challenge

• ICT4Peace

• Ushahidi

• OpenStreetMap

• Sahana

• CrisisCommons

• InSTEDD


Where to GoData entry and development:

• http://crisiscampldn.org/

• http://www.CrisisMappers.net/

• http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/

• http://www.ushahidi.com/join and http://u4u.ushahidi.com/

• http://wiki.sahanafoundation.org/doku.php

• http://www.theextraordinaries.org/

• http://www.crisiswiki.org/

Hackathons:

• http://www.rhok.org/ - hackathon looking for host cities December 4/5

• @tenbus_uk – Pakistan mapping party, 7-9pm, October 20th

• http://www.beyond-2010.com/ –Birmingham hackathon, October 20th

• http://www.aidinformationchallenge.org/

Professional bodies:• http://cdac-haiti.org/en/

• http://reliefweb.org/


Options for London crisis ‘crowd’

• Work with/for Washington CrisisCommons

• Help CDAC build a technology ‘wing’

• Create a new British community

• Help UNOCHA with apps and crowdsourcing

• Work with UK government

• Work with UK media

• Work with UK academia (e.g. U4U4Uk?)


user questions for pkfloods• Where can I find out who needs my help? • Where can I find people to help me deliver aid? • Where can I find out information? • How do I find out if I'm about to be flooded? • Who should I alert/give my information to? • Where can I find general information out about #pkfloods? • Where can I search for people? (I cannot find my grandmother/relative) • I have been 'found' - who should I alert/give my status to? • I need food/water/supplies, how can I tell people I need something? • I have food/water/supplies, how can I find out where there's a need? • I want to get to location x, where can I find out about the state of the roads? • I am observing/know the state of the roads, who should I alert/give my information to? • How can I find out where there are information blackspots/there is no telecomms

coverage? • I know where the telecoms/information blackspots are, who should I give my

alert/information to and how?


Use Cases for PkFloods


Pkfloods Use Cases


History2004 onwards: OpenStreetMap and other tools being used in US, UK...

Late 2004: Sahana developed in Sri Lanka after Indian Ocean Tsunami. Then used in Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia...

2008: Ushahidi developed in Kenya to map citizen journalist reports of violence after Kenyan elections. Then used in South Africa, DR Congo, Gaza, India, Pakistan…

June 2009: CrisisCommons founded in Washington DC after a tweetup by a group of technologists and communications professionals who wanted to use their skills to help prepare for and react to crisis situations – both at home and around the world

2009: CDAC formed after a discussion in a bar...

Oct 2009: CrisisMappers network formed


Points to take away

• It’s not “us and them” anymore, it’s “us and us”

• You can help - or hinder - from anywhere. Your choice:• Getting right information to right people at right time saves lives• Overwhelming people with information doesn’t

• Sometimes your tech skills can help people you’ll never meet, immediately and in ways you couldn’t imagine

• Sometimes it takes longer, but it’s no less valuable

• The UK should be part of the crisis crowdsourcing movement

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