1. Harnessing Volunteer Technology
Communities to Drive Capacity
and Innovation in Crisis Response
and Global Development Heather Blanchard
Noel Dickover
Andrew Turner
Founders, CrisisCommons & CrisisCamp
August 31, 2010
2. From Idea to Community
The Beginning Immediate Results
• Met at 2009 Transparency Camp • First Ignite Session at the World Bank;
Beginning of Interest in Building VTC
• Proposed the idea at Gov 2.0 Camp Collaboration Capacity
• 90 days later 200 people participated • August - USAID Afghanistan Election
from MIT Media Labs, GWU, Google, Monitoring
Yahoo, Microsoft, UN Foundation,
Sunlight Foundation, Apps for • August - NPS/NDU Camp Roberts
Democracy, Homeland Security, DoD,
World Bank, Development Seed, • October - CrisisCamp Philadelphia
GeoCommons, Open Street Map,
Sahana, Ushahidi, CrisisMappers
• November - Google, Yahoo! & Microsoft
dedicated to work together to form an
informal partnership Random Hacks of
Kindness and its first hackathon
3. CrisisCamp Haiti
• 50 Events, 10 Countries,
90 Days, Estimated 2,000
volunteers
• Hundreds of thousands of
dollars of volunteer labor
• New communities emerged
or were connected
( i.e. New Haiti Project)
• Subsequent community
response to Chile, Oil Spill,
Nashville and Pakistan Floods
4. What Worked
• Ability leverage social media and
networks turn out a call to action for
volunteers of all talents, including
programmers
• Ability to host open forum for
collaboration, connect networks,
matrix resources
• Free Conference Call Line, Wiki,
IRC, Google Groups, Eventbrite,
Google Docs
• Mutual Assistance
• Rally surge capacity for existing
projects, OSM, Ushahidi, CrisisWiki
5. Results - Tradui App
Language Translation
• Absence of translation to
Kreyol in any form
• Language from existing text and
diaspora
• Developed in 2 days
• In Marketplace within 24 hours
of submission to the Apple and
Android stores
• Machine Translation
6. Results - Inveneo
Problem Solving
• Inveneo sought problem solving
to hack cheap Wi-Fi routers
• 8 Firmware Hackers Were
Available at CrisisCamp DC
• Hack created within 3 hours;
Tested and Deployed to Port au
Prince within 48 hours
• Connected SOS Children and
IFRC at distances of 9km/6km
7. Results - OpenStreetMap
Surge Capacity
• Port au Prince did not have a
street level map
• Imagery was released by the UN
• CrisisCamp created training tools
for volunteers to map
• Within days OSM was downloaded
to SAR, UN OCHA and UNICEF
teams
• At the request of the Haitian
Government, World Bank
Delivered Map Data
8. Challenges
• Poorly defined requirements/problem definitions;
Duplication of existing capacity
• Volunteer project matching, interest
• Project management, sustainable project
leadership
• Documentation of code, requirements, projects,
status; Little usability, privacy, security or code
licensing
• Disconnection from what is needed on the
ground; CROs too busy to work with untested
community
• CROs don’t know what they want/need
• Volunteer fatigue, Surge lasting only four weeks
• Lack of metrics, performance standards
9. Evolution of the
Environment
• August 2009: Camp Roberts Engages VTCs for its Bi-Annual Demonstration
• August 2009: U.S. AID Adoption of Crowdsourcing information for Afghanistan Elections
• October 2009: Homeland Security Secretary and FEMA Admin. Craig Fugate Visit Facebook;
TechNet Dedicates to Working With Industry to Engage in Crisis Response
• October 2009: CrisisMappers Host First Conference
• October 2009: Temple University Center for Disability Preparedness hosts 2nd CrisisCamp
• November 2009: Random Hacks of Kindness Hackathon; FEMA Admin. Craig Fugate Keynotes
• January 2010: UN OCHA Uses “Unverified Data” (OSM) to Lead SAR
• February 2010: McKinsey Conducts VTC Study for the World Bank
• February 2010: Government of Haiti Requests OpenStreetMap Data
• June 2010: FEMA Hires Director of Digital Strategy
• June 2010: U.S. DoD Hosts QuickNets event for open source crowdsourcing apps for
situational awareness
• June 2010: White House Calls For Public to Help Oil Spill Via CrisisCommons
• July 2010: World Bank Launches Innovation Center to include VTC Liaison
• July 2010: FEMA Hosts CrisisCommons; Requests Input from the Commons
• August 2010: American Red Cross Hosts First Crisis Data Summit
• August 2010: UK Guardian Launches Multi-Media and Crowdsourcing Team
10. Observations
Crisis Response Orgs
• Gap in formalized engagement; Little
capacity to work with unaffiliated external
parties during a crisis
• Little Understanding of Technology; CIO
Vendor Based Relationship
• Competition with other CROs for
donations and mission
• Resource-based Business Continuity
Limitations
• Innovation Limited Based on Technology as
an Overhead Expense
• Affiliation, Accountability, Trust Paramount
11. Observations
Volunteer Technology
Communities
• Lack of Understanding of Incident
Management/Needs
• Surge Capacity; Absence of formal
integration with CROs
• Project Management and Resource
Needs
• Conflict of Interest;Vendor
Opportunities with CROs;
Competition Geo-Can
• Finite Capacity; CNN Effect; Liability
12. Observations
•
Private Sector
Gaps in incident response policy; expectations
• Response usually from the business development arm
rather than corporate social responsibility;Varied levels of
C-Suite support, usually from “local” sales team
• Economic opportunity in disasters, CROs are customers;
Govt Contracts/Mission Assignments; Temporary use of
tools in disasters by CROs lead to business development
• Competition; Western Approach
• Every company has technology expertise, global reach
• Ability to allocate and move resources quickly
• World class pool of developer talent; Innovation,
Consumer Insights; R&D Investment
• Capability to deliver in-kind development services; no
natural lead in the sector
• Intellectual property challenges; Liability of volunteers
13. Feedback from CROs
• Need cultivate long-term relationships with
people we can work with all the time
• Wants volunteers to understand the process
and to work with us
• Want to tap innovation of the Community for
Ideas, prototypes
• Want to know what’s out there without being
sold a product
• Want to know how they can support the growth
of volunteer technology communities at the local
level
• Want to know how to connect to volunteer
technology communities within the their current
capability/capacity
14. Potential
• Independent, bi-directional, non-partisan
connector and honest broker
• Bridge ecosystem; matrix resources CRO VTCs and the CrisisCrowd
• Translate requirements of CROs to the crisis
crowd; Encourage the public to CRO
requirements
• Real-time ability to harness highly skilled labor;
Matrix development; Crisis Turk
• Provide international forum for crisis data
standards development, data sharing
• Engage private sector’s CSR capacity for long-
term needs Diversified Global Network
• Research; Crisis Data Library; Tech ERT Teams;
Operations Centers
15. Our Vision
A Commons Approach
• Build a capacity that isn’t in competition during crisis
• Direct research projects based on lessons learned from prior disasters in
areas such as human behavior, mapping, data and language
• Encourage, seed and grow systems innovation through an technology
incubation program
• Convene competitive partners to encourage relationships, knowledge sharing
and collaboration
• Provide project management for VTC and Innovation Lab projects
• Support VTC communities by supporting gatherings, sharing tools and
resources
• Hosting open space for community use
16. Why a Commons
Approach?
• Independent, trusted actor in a competitive space
• Long-term relationships, capacity to deliver and maintain
projects
• Ability to develop non-market solutions; Support, seed and
grow grassroots engagement and innovation
• Ability to provide objective, research based technical
requirements, guidance, standards development
• Matrix shared resources for public good
• Bridge scarcity during disasters with “strings-free” technical
surge assistance to VTCs and CROs
17. Our Competition
• World Bank, IFRC/Red Cross could create their
own in-house capacity, but perhaps would not
bridge across the CRO community
• Google could harness the power of their own
development community and search
• Random Hacks of Kindness could deliver similar
mission, although is challenging to create a
legal partnership among three competitors
• FEMA could fund the development of a public-
private partnership as directed by the NetGuard
legislation within the Homeland Security Act of
2002 to support technology volunteers to assist
during disasters; this would only serve the United
States
18. What We Propose
Connecting the Ecosystem; Supporting VTCs/Innovation
CrisisCommons
VTC Tools;
Behavior
Community Proactive, Non-Market
Development Researched Based Mapping VTC
Academic
Private Sector Proactive, Non-Market Data
Resource Pool From Incubation CRO Loaned
Language
Crisis After Action Reactive, Partnership Executives
Lessons Learned Based Academia
Volunteers
Innovation Challenge Reactive, Multiple Incubator Private Sector
CRO Prototype
Community Projects Lab Council Fellows
19. 2011
Laying the Foundation
• Facilitate development of the
Commons Council with four stakeholder
workgroups
• Develop formal relationships and buy- Requirement Requirement
in with the CROs,VTCs, private sector and Development Development
academic communities
Location/ Stakeholder
• Facilitate requirements to build the Partner Buy-In
Commons lab to include consumer, Web Tools Selection
academic and private sector R&D Gatherings
approaches; Develop innovation approach/
methodology
Community Lab Council
• Convene the VTC Community; Host the
Second Annual International CrisisCongress
Incremental Approach
20. 2012
Developing Infrastructure
CrisisCommons
VTC Tools;
Behavior
Community Proactive, Non-Market
Development Researched Based Mapping VTC
Academic
Private Sector Proactive, Non-Market Data
Resource Pool From Incubation CRO Loaned
Language
Crisis After Action Reactive, Partnership Executives
Lessons Learned Based Academia
Volunteers
Innovation Challenge Reactive, Multiple Incubator Private Sector
CRO Prototype
Community Projects Lab Council Fellows
21. 2012+ Blue Sky
Silicon Valley - Washington DC - Geneva - South America - Sydney
Global Presence
