A presentation given at the Taiwan Sahana Development Forum in Taipei on July 30, 2010. The theme of the presentation was that a cluster approach should be taken to get the key organisations with interest in Sahana working together towards a common goal.

1. Proposing a Cluster Approach
for Sahana Development
in Taiwan
Gavin Treadgold
gavin@sahanafoundation.org
Director, Sahana Software Foundation
Taiwan Sahana Development Forum
Howard International House, Taipei, Taiwan
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 1

2. Development Models
Funded Internships
• SIDA, Google Summer of Code
Global volunteers
Commercial arrangements
• Respere, AidIQ, CUNY, SSF
Within an organisation
• US NLM
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 2

3. Development Models
Funding hard to come by for internships
GSOC projects excellent at prototyping, but can
take significant effort to convert into
production-ready code
Difficult to direct volunteer efforts to ‘boring
but essential’ tasks
Vendors usually work with single organisation
as client
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 3

4. Development Models
Current models don’t support complex
needs of multi-agency development e.g.
development by vendors often targeted at a
single organisation’s needs
We have not been as successful as we would
like in getting emergency managers – the
users – talking with developers
Would like to capture and document more end
user requirements
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 4

5. Development Models
These models have been
successful for their purpose,
but may not be suited to the
scale of interest in Taiwan
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 5

6. What is a Cluster?
A Cluster is a group of
organisations and individuals
working in a common or similar
activity to achieve shared outcomes
in a coordinated manner
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 6

7. Why a Cluster?
The cluster approach has been
successfully used for humanitarian
response and in emergency management,
and mirrors the coordinated approach of
comprehensive emergency management
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 7

8. Clusters are flexible
Clusters will be developed so that their
roles and membership best reflect the
function(s) of the organisations by working
together towards shared goals
Clusters offer a flexible and collaborative
approach, rather than being rigid and
bureaucratic
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 8

9. Benefits of a Cluster
Better preparedness
Coordinated action from many partners
Provide a single go-to entity in Taiwan for
Sahana
More members create more legitimacy
Becomes a group for driving standards and
interoperability
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 9

10. Why a Cluster?
A cluster is about getting the
best collaborative return on
Taiwan’s investment in Sahana
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 10

11. Next Steps?
Leadership – Which organisation(s)
should be the champion for Sahana in
Taiwan?
Document – Terms of Reference
• Defined goals, roles and responsibilities
• Processes
Membership – Invitation to parties that
would like to participate
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 11

12. Cluster Membership
Who is likely to participate?
• Government
• NGOs/NPOs
• Academia
• Industry
• Volunteers
Participation should be open and
inclusive
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 12

13. Next Steps
Identify gaps in capability and capacity
Address the gaps through action plans
Verify the actions have closed the gap
through exercises or real events
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 13

14. Coordination
As potentially the first cluster of this
size, we need to work out how the
Cluster interacts with the Sahana
Software Foundation and the pool of
global volunteer developers
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 14

15. Think Global, Act Local
Avoid duplication of effort
Collaborate with other potential clusters,
volunteer developers – to share the workload
globally
Use global Sahana infrastructure – code
repository, wiki and documentation, email and
IRC
Share gaps and requirements with the global
community
30 July 2010 http://www.SahanaFoundation.org 15

16. IAEM
The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), with
members in 58 countries, is a non-profit educational organisation
dedicated to saving lives and protecting property during emergencies
and disasters.
Our Vision
Our vision is that IAEM be recognised as the premier international
organisation of emergency management professionals.
Our Mission
Our mission is to advance the profession by promoting the principles of
emergency management; to serve our members by providing
information, networking and professional development opportunities;
and to advance the emergency management profession.
30 July 2010 http://www.iaem.com 16

17. IAEM Taiwan
IAEM Asia Council
Currently HQ’d in Singapore - active in China, Hong Kong,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand
http://www.iaem.com.sg
IAEM Taiwan National Representative:
Gu Twsen-Juh tjjf.gu@gmail.com
30 July 2010 http://www.iaem.com 17

18. IAEM Asia-Oceania
Resilience Conference
5th-6th October, 2010 in Singapore
Non-commercial conference, organised by IAEM
http://www.iaem.com.sg/Asia-Oceania-Resilience-2010.htm
Presentations on security, emergency
management, crisis management, business
continuity, risk management and disaster relief
30 July 2010 http://www.iaem.com 18