crisiscamp ireland opening presentation

Using technology in crisis management and disaster

relief

www.crisiscampireland.com #ccireland www.crisiscommons.org

Crisis Commons

Crisis Commons is a global network of volunteers who use creative problem solving and open technologies to help people and communities in times and

places of crisis.

Crisis Commons members organize response events called CrisisCamps.


How it started…

Crisis Commons was founded in June 2009 in Washington DC 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


Evolution

• 1995 Kobe earthquake – limited communications• 2001 9/11 – Listserv activity• 2004 – Indian Ocean Tsunami – Blogs, Sahana• 2004 - OpenStreetMap• 2005 – Hurricane Katrina –People Finder, Wiki• 2008 – Hurricane Gustav – Mapping, 500 ppl in 48 hrs• 2008 – Ushahidi • 2009 – CrisisCommons created


Haiti Earthquake

In January 2010 the Haiti earthquake provoked a massive volunteer movement and Crisiscamps were founded around the world


• January 23rd, 2010 – 1st CrisisCamp attended by approx 140 volunteers (one of the largest camps)

• Feb 13 during - 2nd Boston CrisisCamp approx 40 volunteers continued working on existing projects

• Projects: Haiti Voice Needs, Open Tweet Feed, Tweak the Tweet, UN RSS Feed and Aggregator, Ushahidi Automation Tools



Worldwide CrisisCamps

What does Crisis Camp do?

• Provides people, skills & time to improve existing (technological tools) used in crisis and development scenarios

This supports:

• Organisations who are already in the field (international NGOs, local organisations)

• Organisations who already operate in the space (mapping, telecomms etc)


Who volunteers?Technical - Software developers, web developers, web designers, user experience/user interface experts, geocoders, geo mappers, GIS experts, technologists, beta testers

New Media - Bloggers, videographers, podcasters, photographers, social media trainers, social media users, collaborators, crowdsourcers

Organizational - Organizers, open source community planners, project managers, emergency response planners, crisis communicators

Other - Researchers, lawyers, trainers, teachers, librarians, technical writers, event planners, translators, innovators, entrepreneurs, anyone with a laptop

What do they do?Code, test tools, translate, map, communicate, collaborate, brainstorm, research, analyze, report, create content, and document process


Crisiscamp London



•Governmental

•Non-Governmental Organizations

•Crisis Response Organizations

•Volunteer Technical Communities

•Private Sector

•AcademicCraig Fugate, Administrator FEMACrisisCongress, July 2010

Building Partnerships

“We saw the ability of digital natives and thenetworked world, using lightweight and easilyiterated tools, to do something rapidly that a

big organization or government would finddifficult, if not impossible, to do. The

question is: Can we get that same magic tohappen when people aren’t dying?”

Richard BolyDirector of eDiplomacy,

US State Department



Other Volunteer Technical Communities (VTCs)

• Ushahidi, Swift River and Crowdmap

• Sahana Foundation• OpenStreetMap• Frontline SMS• Crisismappers• Random Hacks of Kindness• Humanity Road• Geeks without Bounds • And many more

Types of Tasks

•Code and test tools.•Translate.•Map.•Communicate, collaborate, brainstorm.•Research, analyze, report.•Create content, and document process.


Lesson #1

There is a vast army of useful, intelligent, and motivated people

who can now be mobilized through internet technology...


What Crisis Camp has helped with

• Crisis responses: Quakes in Haiti, Chile, New Zealand, China, US Oil Spill, and floods in Pakistan.

• Crisis tools: Ushahidi, Open Street Map, Sahana, People Finder, Tweak the Tweet, translation and 50 other projects

• Crisis information: UNOCHA, CDAC


Worldwide CrisisCamps…


Iceland

Paris

Bogota Argentina

Austin

Brooklyn

CalgaryBoston

Chicago

Istanbul

Boulder/Denver

Los Angeles

Northern California

Miami

New York City

New Orleans

Pittsburgh

PortlandTorontoSeattle

Silicon Valley

Washington DC

Santa Barbara

Rochester

London

*Virtual working

Cambridge

Peru


Where does

Fit in all this?

• Charitable trust founded in response to Haiti Earthquake• Initial aim was to build “open” wifi networks for use by disaster response

workers, NGO, medical personal etc.• First team deployed to Haiti in April 2010• Has since shipped networking & IT equipment to an est. value of $280.000

to Haiti. • Since expanded into providing internet access & IT equipment to

hospitals, schools, clinics etc.• Also provides IT consultancy & support to other NGO’s working in Haiti.• Now expanding into other areas & services.• Operations run from Ireland by 3 trustees (with volunteers on the

ground).


What we’ve learned

• Technology is an invaluable tool in disaster preparedness & response.

• Information/Data is king.• Information/Data is available but not

accessible.• Civilian volunteers can make huge

contributions & have positive impact.


What CrisisCamp Ireland hopes to achieve

• Get people interested: strength is in numbers!• Stimulate grey matter: come up with new

ideas & approaches.• Establish a core of volunteers to work on

projects and assist in disaster response situation.


Comms & coordination

• Skype• Twitter (#ccireland. #crisiscamp, #smem)• IRC: irc://freenode/crisiscommons & irc://freenode/crisiscamp

• www.crisiscampireland.com• www.crisiscommons.org• http://wiki.crisiscommons.org• Email: [email protected]• Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/crisiscommons


http://www.crisiscampireland.com/

http://www.crisiscommons.org/

http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/

Resources

• http://www.CrisisMappers.net/ • http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/ • http://www.ushahidi.com/• http://wiki.sahanafoundation.org/• http://www.theextraordinaries.org/ • http://www.crisiswiki.org/ • http://www.rhok.org• http://www.aidinformationchallenge.org/• http://cdac-haiti.org/en/• http://reliefweb.org/
