We had the honour to share the CrisisCommons /CrisisCamp story at the :
2010 Provincial Emergency Conference
Canadian Red Cross
November 10, 2010
Heather Leson, Brian Chick, Melanie Gorka and David Black
The Conference: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=32347&tid=067
1. CrisisCommons:
New/Social Media and Emergencies
Brian Chick, David Black, Heather Leson and Melanie Gorka
Canadian Red Cross,
Provincial Emergency Management Conference (Ontario)
November 10, 2010
3. Our New Volunteers
• Intro to Social Media, Disaster
Response and You
• How Does Crisis Commons Operate
• In’s and out’s of the Tools and Apps
• Pro’s and Con’s - Looking to the
future
4. Evolution
1995 Kobe earthquake – limited ability
2001 9/11 – Listservs, What’s going on?
2004 – Indian Ocean Tsunami – Blogs, Sahana,
2005 – Hurricane Katrina –People Finder, Wiki,
Twitter
2008 – Hurricane Gustav – Mapping, 500 ppl in 48
hrs
2009 – CrisisCommons created
2010 – Haiti, Chile, China quakes, Gulf Oil Spill,
Pakistan Floods, Crisis Commons Global
Congress
12. Volunteer Technical Communities (VTCs)
Who are the VTCs?
• Sahana Foundation
• Ushahidi, Swift River and Crowdmap
• OpenStreetMap
• Frontline SMS
• Crisismappers
• Random Hacks of Kindness
• CrisisCommons
• Geeks without Bounds
• And many more
13. CrisisCommons/CrisisCamps
• What is a hackathon, camp, or unconference?
• Brief History
• Gov 2.0/Transparency Camp March 2009
• CrisisCamp DC June 2009
• What had CrisisCommons done in 2010:
• CrisisCamps Haiti
• CrisisCamp Chile
• Gulf Oil Spill
• Pakistan Floods
• CrisisCamp Day
14. Collaboration Examples
• Governmental
• World Bank,UN, UN OCHA, US government and more
• Non-Governmental Organizations
• American Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross (John Saunders),
Plan Canada, Healing Hands and more
• Private Sector
• Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and more
• Academic
• Carnegie Mellon, University of Toronto, University of
Colorado, Tufts
16. 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
17.
18. Computer Art: ASCII to Halo Reach
CrisisCommons and other volunteer technical communities
are modelling a new type of volunteer.
28. What are the obstacles,
opportunities?
How can the NGOs and
CROs most effectively
use thousands of hours
of spare brainpower?
Craig Fugate, Administrator FEMA
CrisisCongress, July 2010
29. Organizations + Crowd: Pros
• Technically skilled volunteers
• Efficient people willing to lend a hand
• Quicker access to important information
• More efficient data available and aggregated
to Emergency Managers
Random Hacks of Kindness
Sydney Australia
June 2010
30. Organizations + Crowd: Cons
• Unknown volunteers
• Crowd as a liability
• Necessary skills going to waste training
volunteers
• “By introducing the crowd, then, most
organizations react with fear. We’re
deliberately reintroducing ‘chaos’ into their
orderly systems, the chaos they work so hard
at keeping out.” Jon Gosier www.blog.ushahidi.org
31. Crisis Commons Moving Forward: How We Convene in Crisis Response
Sloane Presentation, September 2010
32. How Can the Crowd Help
• Emergency Response Systems:
• Crowd Sourcing can help NGO’s and CRO’s to
improve their emergency response systems
using social media and volunteers.
• Preparedness:
• The crowdsourcing and open data movements
are growing and can help in disaster
preparedness including public awareness.
• Organizations can provide trained and trusted
volunteers ready to be deployed in a disaster.