While a growing conversation is happening around Open Data as a driver for development and accountability, little, if any, is being said about the role of open data in humanitarian emergencies. While we ask governments to open all their data as a duty towards their citizens, humanitarian organizations seems to be pretty much left outside. Is there a need for open data in the humanitarian community space? What would it look like? Are transparency and accountability strictly linked to the healthy recovery of communities in emergencies? This talk will look at some of those questions and try to propose some solutions, drawing from the long-standing experience that Internews has in media and communication with communities during emergencies.
2. What’s Open Data?
“Open data is data that can be freely used,
reused and redistributed by anyone –
subject only, at most, to the requirement to
attribute and sharealike.”
OpenDefinition.org
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3. Availability and Access: the data must be available as a whole and at
no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably by
downloading over the internet. The data must also be available in a
convenient and modifiable form.
Reuse and Redistribution: the data must be provided under terms
that permit reuse and redistribution including the intermixing with other
datasets. The data must be machine-readable.
Universal Participation: everyone must be able to use, reuse and
redistribute – there should be no discrimination against fields of
endeavour or against persons or groups. For example, ‘noncommercial’ restrictions that would prevent ‘commercial’ use, or
restrictions of use for certain purposes (e.g. only in education), are not
allowed.
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5. Information is Power!
1. People affected by unfolding tragedy need more than physical
necessities: They need information.
2. Timely and accurate information for disaster affected people, as
well as effective communication between populations and aid providers
are still omitted during humanitarian responses
3. Information can help to save lives, reduce suffering and enable
people in the midst of a disaster to take an active role in their own
survival and recovery
4. If we pretend to know and to be an active part in our government
decision making processes, we need also to DEMAND the same
transparency and participation for affected communities during
disasters.
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19. 1.When the entire infrastructure
collapse, people get back to the
basics: human interactions and …
Radio and news paper.
1.Building resilient communications
infrastructure and restoring
connectivity should be at the heart of
disaster management planning.
2.Verification and fact checking has
been the job of journalists for years.
Social Media and Internet is not
different.
2.As new humanitarian responders
such as the private sector and
volunteer technical communities
increase, these groups and their tool
should be more integrated within
formal disaster management and
response structures.
21. Moving Forward
• Security, Privacy and Protection
• Creating new processes and new
ways to work with the new actors in
this space
22. Moving Forward
• Security, Privacy and Protection
• Creating new processes and new
ways to work with the new actors in
this space
• Research, investigate, questions
your assumptions
23. Moving Forward
• Security, Privacy and Protection
• Creating new processes and new
ways to work with the new actors in
this space
• Research, investigate, questions
your assumptions
• Listen!
Results say that large numbers of displaced Somalis don’t have the information they need to access basic aid: More than 70 percent of newly-arrived refugees say they lack information on how to register for aid and similar numbers say they need information on how to locate missing family members. High figures are also recorded for lack of information on how to access health care how to access shelter, how to communicate with family outside the camps and more.
Our latest project
Impact of disasters and the needs of affected communities are key elements in ensuring the best possible response. However, little to no systematic attention has been given to the information and communication needs of disaster-affected communities.
In August 2011, Internews led a communication and information needs assessment conducted with Radio Ergo/International Media Support (IMS), Star FM of Kenya and with support from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). This assessment aimed at understanding the information needs of refugees in Dadaab and exploring ways to improve the flow of communication between refugees, aid agencies, and host communities.