Talk on Sahana by SSF CEO Mark Prutsalis to St. John's University Computer Science Students on April 3, 2012, Queens, NY.

1. Making Chaos Manageable
“No innovation matters more
than that which saves lives”
Avelino J. Cruz, Jr., Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines
on the use of Sahana following disastrous mudslides in 2005

2. Disaster Trends
World’s urban population will reach 6.4 billion by 2050 (that’s
70% of the world’s projected population of 9.2 billion)
- United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects, 2007
 World’s population and economic centers are concentrated in “vulnerable cities near earthquake faults,
on river deltas or along tropical coasts.”
- the Economist, January 14, 2012
Growing vulnerability to to an increased incidence of costly
disasters
 By 2050 the city populations exposed to tropical cyclones or earthquakes will more than double, rising
from 11% to 16% of the world’s population.
- United Nations & World Bank, Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: The Economics of Effective Prevention, 2010
 By 2070, seven of the ten greatest urban concentrations of economic assets that are exposed to
coastal flooding will be in the developing world (vs. none in 2005). Assets exposed to flooding will rise
from 5% of the world GDP to 9%.
- OECD, Ranking Port Cities with High Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Extremes : Exposure Estimates, 2007
Global annual disaster spending will triple to $185 billion
by 2100
- United Nations & World Bank, Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: The Economics of Effective Prevention, 2010
 Spending on urban infrastructure to approach $350 trillion over next 30 years.
- Booz & Co., Reinventing the City to Combat Climate Change, 2010
 2011 was costliest year ever for disasters (earthquakes in Japan & Zealand, flooding in China, Australia
& Thailand, tornadoes in US).
 Five of ten costliest disasters have occurred in last five years.
 20% of aid is now spent responding to disasters ; only 0.7% is spent on mitigation.
 President Obama declared record 99 disaster declarations in 2011.
- the Economist, January 14, 2012
March 21, 2012 DISASTER ROUNDTABLE 2

3. Disasters are
A Growth Industry
There is both Opportunity
And Responsibility

4. What is a Disaster?
“A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a
society, causing widespread human, material or
environmental losses which exceeds the ability of the
affected society to cope using only its own resources”
- Source: UNDP
“Any Event or Circumstance (happening with or without
warning) that causes or threatens death or injury, disruption
to the community on such a scale that the effects cannot be
dealt with by the emergency services, local authorities and
other organizations as part of their normal day to day
activities”
- UK Home Office

5. Aftermath of Disasters
The trauma caused by waiting to
be found or find the next of kin
Coordinating all aid groups and
helping them to operate
effectively as one
Managing the multitude of
requests from the affected region
and matching them effectively to
the pledges of assistance
Tracking the location of all
temporary shelters, camps, etc.
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6. Tasks Facing Responders
Search and Rescue Tracing Missing
Evacuation Persons
Setting up Shelters Trauma Counseling
Effective Distribution Assuring Security of
of Aid Affected Areas
Management of Donor Protecting Children
and Donations Rehabilitation
Life Saving decisions need to be made fast!
The best decisions are the most informed ones
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7. How Can Technology Help?
Scalable management of information
No stacks of forms and files to manage
Efficient distribution of information
Accessibility of information on demand
Automatic collation and calculation
No delay for assessments and calculations
Live situational awareness
Reports are updated live as data is entered
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8. Sahana Software Foundation
The Sahana Software Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization dedicated to the mission of saving lives by
providing information management solutions that enable
organizations and communities to better prepare for and
respond to disasters.
We develop free and open source software and provide
services that help solve concrete problems and bring
efficiencies to disaster response coordination between
governments, aid organizations, civil society and disaster
survivors themselves.
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9. The Historic Trigger: 2004 Indian
Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami
At least 226,000 dead
Up to 5 million people
lost their homes, or
access to food and
water
1 million people left
without a means to
make a living
At least $7.5 billion in
the cost of damages
“Facts and Figures: Asian Tsunami Disaster”
New Scientist, 20 January 2005
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10. Sahana first deployed for
Sri Lanka tsunami response
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11. Core Capabilities:Track Nouns
Organization & Volunteer
Registry
Understanding 4W: “Who What
Where When”: Maintains data
(contacts, services) of groups,
organizations, staff, and
volunteers responding to the
disaster
Missing Persons /
Disaster Victims Registry
Helps track and find missing
and found, deceased, injured
and displaced people and
families
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12. Core Capabilities:Track Needs
Request and Resource
Management
Manages requests,
assessments and reports and
helps match commitments for
support, donations, aid and
supplies through to fulfillment
Geospatial Analysis
Provides situational awareness
of all important locations to the
disaster response, such as
shelters, hospitals,
warehouses, incident reports,
and assessments.
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13. Sahana Software Projects
Eden (Python/web2py)– Agasti (PHP)
Emergency Development Vesuvius – provides Lost
Environment Person Finder & Hospital
Supported by a number of Triage Management (NLM)
stakeholders, including IFRC, Kilauea – provides shelter
ADPC, APBV, LA EMD, the registration (CUNY/OEM)
HELIOS Foundation and others.
Mayon – provides Emergency
Flexible rapid application Resource Management and
development platform with a Scenario Planning for large
rich feature set municipalities (CUNY/OEM)
Designed for humanitarian Standards & Interoperability
organizations and agencies
engaged in disaster relief. Promotes adoption of open
data standards and
interoperability between
humanitarian FOSS projects.
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14. Technology and Features
Environments
Linux, Windows, OSX
PortableApps, VMWare
Cloud / EC2
Translation & Localization
Pootle, Character Sets
Right-to-left scripting
Open Data Standards
KML, WMS, GeoRSS, WPS
EDXL, CAP, JSON, XML
Mobile Accessibility
J2ME, HTML 5, Xforms
JavaRosa, OCR, NetBooks
XO Laptops
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15. Deployments
Disaster Response Deployments Preparedness Deployments
Wildfires in Chile – 2012 WFP & Government of the Philippines – 2012
Hurricane Irene in New York – 2011 Los Angeles Emer Mgmt Dept – 2011
Tornado in Joplin, Missouri - 2011 CERT, Chicago, Illinois – 2011
Sendai Earthquake & Tsunami in Japan – 2011
Earthquake in Turkey – 2011 IFRC, Asia Pacific – 2010
Christchurch Earthquake in New Zealand - Helios Foundation – 2011
2011 APBV (Bombeiros) in Portugal - 2011
Flooding in Colombia – 2011 Philippines Red Cross in the Philippines – 2010
Flooding in Venezuela – 2010 SahanaTaiwan (Institute for Information
Flooding in Pakistan – 2010 Industry, Academia Sinica) in Taiwan – 2010
Hurricane in Veracruz, Mexico – 2010 Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Bangkok,
Earthquake in Chile – 2010 Thailand – 2010
Earthquake in Haiti – 2010
Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar – 2008 Natl Dis Relief Services Ctr, Sri Lanka – 2010
Chengdu-Sitzuan Earthquake, China – 2008 US National Library of Medicine – 2009
Bihar Floods, India – 2008 Bethesda Hosp Emerg Prep Partnrship – 2009
Ica Earthquake, Peru – 2007 Nati Coord Ag for Dis Mgmt in Indonesia – 2009
Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh – 2007 Natl Dis Coord Council in the Philippines – 2009
Yogjakarta Earthquake, Indonesia – 2006 LirneAsia in Sri Lanka - 2008
Landslides in the Philippines– 2005
Kashmir Earthquake in Pakistan – 2005 Sarvodaya (NGO), Sri Lanka – 2008
Indian Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami in Sri NYC Office of Emergency Management – 2007
Lanka – 2004
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16. City of New York
Shelter Management
Sahana Mayon – Scenario
Management Defines:
Scenarios
Resource Types
Facility Groups
Staff Requirements
Staff Pools and Shifts
Sahana Kilauea
Family and Individual Registration
at Shelters
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17. US National Library of Medicine
People Locator Project
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18. US National Library of Medicine
People Locator Project
Sahana Vesuvius
Event Manager
Report a Person
Web or Email
Edit Full Person Record
Search for a Person
PFIF Interoperability with
Google Person Finder
TriagePic
ReUnite iPhone App
LIVE SITE at
HTTP://PL.NLM.NIH.GOV
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19. Sahana Eden
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20. Sahana Eden
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21. Sahana Eden
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22. Haiti Earthquake & The
“New Information Environment”
New information and communication technologies, new information providers, and new
international communities of interest emerged during the Haiti earthquake response
that will forever change how humanitarian information is collected, shared, and
managed. Humanitarian responders used social networking media, mobile phone text
messaging, open source software applications, and commercial satellite imagery more than
ever before. Outside of the established international humanitarian community, volunteers and
participatory reporters from the affected population became new sources of data and
information. Humanitarian organizations, host governments, and the donor community
will all need to adapt to this new information environment.
US Department of State Humanitarian Information Unit, White Paper: Haiti Earthquake:
Breaking New Ground in the Humanitarian Information Landscape, July 2010
New partners are offering faster, more effective means of analyzing an ever-increasing
volume and velocity of data. The challenge ahead is how to create an effective interface
between these resources, and create an eco-system where each actor understands its role. It
will not be easy. Volunteer and technical communities (V&TCs) like OpenStreetMap,
Sahana and CrisisMappers approach problems in ways that challenge the status quo.
UN Foundation, Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian
Emergencies, 2011

23. The New Disaster Information
Environment
Government & Emergency Services relief capacity has
been exceeded or crippled
To meet response requirements, the boundary of the
effort extends to external groups (NGOs, civil society,
foreign aid, UN agencies)
Core Decision Makers need to consult a wider group and
gather information from nontraditional “uninitiated”
sources for better Situational Awareness
CROWDSOURCING & SOCIAL MEDIA
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24. Best Practices: Open Standards and
Information Sharing Agreements/MOUs
Standards Organizations
Missing Persons Community
of Interest 2012
Safe and Well
EDXL-
EDXL-
TEC
TEC
PFIF
PFIF
Travax
Haiti Hospital Data
(Proposed) 2010
Google
EDXL- Resource
Sahana HAVE
Finder
March 21, 2012 DISASTER ROUNDTABLE 24

25. Leveraging New Technologies
How do you understand in 140 characters:
 Source, credibility, verification, validation, location,
prioritization, categorization, causation, responsibility
Challenge: appropriately integrate publicly available
information with trusted systems.
March 21, 2012 DISASTER ROUNDTABLE 25

26. Sahana Partners & Stakeholders
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27. Unique Development Model:
Virtuous Circle of Contributions
Traditional Open Source Development Model
Branch for Org B
TRUNK
Branch for Org A
Can result in multiple branches, each needing
support and expertise to maintain
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28. Unique Development Model:
Virtuous Circle of Contributions
Sahana Open Source Development Model:
Org B Branch
TRUNK
Org A Branch
Features & fixes developed by one organization are
available to all future Sahana users
Enabled by Sahana Software Foundation's 501(c)(3)
status & supported by:Software Grant Agreements &
Contributor License Agreements
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29. The Sahana Community
A unique global voluntary
team of developers and
experts:
Emergency Managers
Relief Workers
Experienced FOSS
Developers
ICT Specialists
Researchers Global collaboration for the
Humanitarian Activists global public good
Medical and Public Health
Professionals
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30. Getting Involved with
the Sahana Community
Our Vision is to build and sustain a global open and
collaborative community of contributors to information and
communications technologies for disaster management. To
this end, we support:
Google Summer of Code / Google Code-In
RHoK / GWOB Hackathons
Grace Hopper Celebration Open Source Day and Codeathon
H-FOSS Project & ISCRAM Partnership
SahanaCamps
GET INVOLVED TODAY!
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31. Google Summer of Code
Google funds paid summer internships to work on open source software.
Sahana Software Foundation has been a mentoring organization for every year of
this program – dating to 2006
Student application deadline is this Friday. For more information, visit:
http://www.google-melange.com
http://sahanafoundation.org
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32. Join us for SahanaCamp NYC
SahanaCamp NYC is being held from May 22-25 at the
Salvation Army Headquarters (14th St) in NYC.
SahanaCamp NYC will provide:
understanding of how Sahana Software can help manage
information before, during and after disasters
a practical technical workshop to provide instruction in how
Sahana Software can be deployed within and across
organizations
The SahanaCamp Program is designed to:
quick-start deployments of Sahana software
build a local support community for local or national emergency
and disaster response organizations
This is the 6th SahanaCamp – following Los Angeles, Portugal,
Taiwan, Vietnam and India
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33. Local and Global Needs
US Charitable Organizations (NGOs)
“I would like to thank you for the amazing database that you have created...I would like to ask you about the
possibility of partnering with the organization that I volunteer with, a US-based, 501 (c )3 non-profit
organization that provides hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world... Currently,
we are working in Leogane, Haiti and Cagayan de Oro, Philippines. We are in need of updating our databases
so that they are more efficient and would love to use Sahana.”
“Hello and thank you so much for your hard work and the products that we are beginning to enjoy. I have
loaded the software and like it, however we need some additional functionality. Where would we turn with
almost no budget to begin a adaptation to this software. If we are looking for a programmer to donate his time
what skills would be needed? Thank you for your courtesies in these matters and for the great software which
we are going to try to use for the first time here in Harrisburg IL.”
“I would like to talk with someone about disaster volunteer management software and how we work with you.
We are a registered 501c3 and know of Sahana through Golden Phoenix”
“We provide disaster support mostly with communication, logistics, and planning support for rural communities.
We are interested in using the Eden software to assist us and our allied partners. If you could assist us with
determining technical need and some guidance that would be much appreciated.
Local CERT Chapter
“I'm the webmaster for a volunteer organization known as CERT. We are looking for an asset /personnel
management program, that will track all our vehicles and equipment, our volunteers and their
trainings/certifications/and events they were deployed to. I've played with your Eden demo and am amazed. ”
National Red Cross Society
“I’m currently managing a software development project on behalf of the,,, Government and... Red Cross. Our project
is to replace the software base of National Registration and Inquiry System (NRIS ). NRIS is our national voluntary
registration system for displaced people during disasters.
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34. Disaster Support Requests
Typhoon Sendong (Philippines)
“I am studying masters of information technology right now and one of my project is to deploy Sahana software to
a relocation site here in Cagayan de Oro which recently devastated by the typhoon "Washi " or "Sendong " here in
the Philippines... Thank you so much for your organization. Looking forward for your reply.”
Dexter, Michigan (tornado)
“I am writing from Dexter, MI where we are dealing with the aftermath of a tornado. I am chair of a public safety
committee and have been tasked with trying to find a solution for connecting people and organizations that want
to help/donate to those who need assistance. It seems your program might be a great fit. I need to get this up and
running asap. Any advice and help would be greatly appreciated.”
Harrisburg, Illinois (tornado)
“I am currently looking towards setting up the Sahana Eden software in response to our tornado catastrophe last
month. I need some guidance in my efforts. We realize Sahana Eden is one of the best programs to aid in the
current disaster and future calamities.”
These Support Requests have all
come in to SSF since March 1, 2012
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35. Resources
Wiki:
http://wiki.sahanafoundation.org
http://eden.sahanafoundation.org
Sahana Eden Essential Guide
http://en.flossmanuals.net/sahana-eden/
Mailing Lists & IRC
http://sahanafoundation.org/community
#sahana, #sahana-eden #sahana-agasti on Freenode
(irc.freenode.net)
SahanaCamps
http://sahanafoundation.org/programs/sahanacamp/
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36. Free and Open Source Software Projects
Freedom to use, analyze, modify and re-distribute
Available for everybody at no cost
Open for research and development
Collaboratively developed by a Global community
Mark Prutsalis
President & CEO, Sahana Software Foundation
http://SahanaFoundation.org
Mark@SahanaFoundation.org
@SahanaFOSS #Sahana
http://www.slideshare.net/SahanaFOSS
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