Tools and Processes in Digital Humanitarianism

Svend-Jonas Schelhorn svendjonas@standbytaskforce.com @shornjonas Geographer, Crisis Mapper SBTF Coordinator

http://nbcnews.tumblr.com/post/45350724876

http://nbcnews.tumblr.com/post/45350724876

Hurricane Sandy 2012

20 Million

Tweets

42 Crowdmaps

What is Crisis Mapping?

• Gathering, display and analysis of data during a crisis

• Crowdsourcing and Crowdmapping

• Contributing information from remote or from the site of the crisis

• Crisis Mapping has the potential to increase situational awareness

Information

Overload

• Large amount of data

streams

• Make sense of

unstructured data

• Assess credibility and

quality of information

Information

Dearth

• Lack of spatial and

temporal coverage

• Low integration into

decision-making

processes and tools

• Mismatch between needs

and offers

Challenges

Tools

Tools for Crisis Mapping

• Tools for (Social) Media Monitoring

• Tools to Coordinate and Organize

• Mapping Tools

Social Media Monitoring

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Tools for Crisis Mapping

Tools for Crisis Mapping

The Mother of all Crisis Mapping Tools: Ushahidi

Tools for Crisis Mapping

Mapping: Open Street Maps, HOT and the Humanitarian Data Layer

Tools for Crisis Mapping

Crowdsourced Satellite Imagery Analysis

Tools for Crisis Mapping

Micro Mapping

Tools for Crisis Mapping

Tools for Crisis Mapping

Challenges and Gaps • Interoperability

• Security

• Formats

• Handling

• Design

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work

Digital Humanitarian Volunteers „Professional“ Humanitarians

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Processes and Approaches of Collaboration -

Affected Local Communities

Digital Humanitarian Volunteers „Professional“ Humanitarians

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - The Traditional Way -

Affected Local Communities

Request

Response

Increased Situational Awareness => Added Value in Response

Digital Humanitarian Volunteers „Professional“ Humanitarians

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Recent Approach I – (Uttharakand-Floods, India-Cyclone „Phailin“)

Affected Local Communities

Offer Help

Increased Situational Awareness => Added Value

Digital Humanitarian Volunteers „Professional“ Humanitarians

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Recent Approach II – I N C L U S I O N (Sudan Floods`?)

Affected Local Communities

Joint Engagement

Digital Humanitarian Volunteers „Professional“ Humanitarians

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Recent Approach II – (Sudan Floods`?)

Affected Local Communities

Joint Engagement

Approach

Digital Humanitarian Volunteers „Professional“ Humanitarians

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Recent Approach II – I N C L U S I O N (Sudan Floods`?)

Affected Local Communities

Joint Engagement

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Challenges -

Digital Humanitarian Volunteers „Professional“ Humanitarians

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Challenges in Collaboration and Cooperation -

Different Background = Different Realities = Different Perceptions = Different Language

Digital Humanitarian Volunteers „Professional“ Humanitarians

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Challenges -

HEY! And what is the IMPACT?????

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Approaches to solve the issues -

Training of Future Crisis Mappers

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Training of Future Humanitarians -

University Course on Crisis Mapping and Volunteered Geographic Information • Assignments for Students to learn about Conceptual Background • Life Webinars with Practicioners

• Crisis Mapping Training to learn the Tools

The Role of Digital Volunteers in Humanitarian Work - Training of Future Humanitarians -

University Course on Crisis Mapping and Volunteered Geographic Information • Assignments for Students to learn about Conceptual Background • Life Webinars with Practicioners

• Crisis Mapping Training to learn the Tools

INTERESTED? LETS TEAM UP!

Wrapping Up…

• Digital Humanitarianism is a dynamic field

• Crisis Mapping holds huge potential for Humanitarian Work

• Crisis Mapping fills an important niche in Humanitarian Work

• Barriers between Communities and Stakeholders still exist

• Crisis Mapping happens in a Socio-technological environment

Crisis Mapping

Problems to be addressed

• How to engage citizens to contribute with valuable information Disaster Risk Management?

• How to integrate and fuse data from heterogeneous sources into an integrated knowledge base?

• How to make the data useful to support decision-making in the field?

We didnt talk about…

• Liability

• Sensitive Information

• The Verification Issue

• Volunteer Protection

• More Tools…

• More Initiatives…

We didnt talk about…

• Liability

• Sensitive Information

• The Verification Issue

• Volunteer Protection

• More Tools…

• More Initiatives…

THANK YOU