Heather Blanchard, Co Founder of CrisisCamp and CrisisCommons presents to the European community the history of CrisisCamp and the concept of developing a global CrisisCommons

1. Harnessing Volunteer Technology Communities to Build
Capacity in Crisis Response and Global Development
September 30, 2010
Presented by
Heather Blanchard
Co Founder
CrisisCamp & CrisisCommons
heather@crisiscommons.org

2. Acronyms
• VTC:Volunteer technology communities
• CRO: Crisis response organizations (incl.
govts for the discussion of this
presentation)

3. Goal
• Feedback
• European Perspective
• Challenges of a Western Approach
• Connecting to European-based VTCs,
CROs
• Data privacy, security

4. Video

5. CrisisCommons
• Convener of communities across
competition and organizational
challenges
• Leverages collaborative systems, open
environments
• Translates needs from CROs to the
VTCs and the public
• Provides technical assistance and
opportunity for creative problem solving Diversified Global Network
• Catalyst for a new knowledge base
based on captured lessons learned
• Leverages partnerships and networks

6. From Idea to Community
Evolution of an Idea Catalyst for Partnerships
• January 2009 - Transparency Camp • June - First Ignite Session at the World
Bank; Interest in Building Capacity
• March 2009 - Gov 2.0 Camp
• August - USAID Afghanistan Election
• June 2009 - CrisisCamp DC Monitoring
• Participants: MIT Media Labs, GWU, • September - Google, Yahoo and
Google,Yahoo, Microsoft, UN Microsoft form informal partnership
Foundation, Sunlight Foundation, Apps called Random Hacks of Kindness
for Democracy, Homeland Security,
DoD, World Bank, Development Seed, • October - CrisisCamp Philadelphia
GeoCommons, Open Street Map,
Sahana, Ushahidi, CrisisMappers • November - Random Hacks of Kindness
hosts first Hackathon

7. 2000 2005 2009
Rise of Mobile 109.5M 207.9M 285.M
(US Figures, CTIA) 38% 69% 91%
(SMS Not Recorded) (81 Billion SMS) (1.56 Trillion SMS)
Tools
Communities
Hurricane Ike Haiti Earthquake
Cyclone Nargis Chile Earthquake
Mumbai Attacks
Events 9/11 FL Hurricanes
Indian OceanTsunami
Oil Spill
Pakistan Floods
Kenyan Elections
Katrina
VA Tech Shooting
Iranian Election Protests
Crisis-Related
Volunteer
Technology
Communities
98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

8. CrisisCamp Haiti Columbia
• Call to action; global footprint
• Low barrier to entry; replicable
• Recognized by CROs and VTCs
• 50 events, 10 countries United Kingdom
• 1,500+ highly skilled volunteers
• Focus on mapping, missing
persons, language and search Canada
France

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Sloan
Investment
• Convening of the First
International CrisisCongress
• Convening of stakeholder
roundtables
• Expert engagement
• Development and validation
of the problem definition
• Full time support

15. CrisisCamp Feedback

16. What We Learned
• Pervasive competition within all
stakeholder groups
• Vendor based technology
relationships
• Inadequate technology infrastructure
and digital literacy
• Lack of formal coordination role
• Need for long term relationships,
and project management
• Little understanding of technology
ecosystem; tools

17. 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

18. What is Needed?
• Objective technical assistance,
support for creative problem solving
• Long term support for CrisisCamp and
VTCs, including project management
• Amplification of grassroots innovation,
collaborative systems
• Translation of needs; development of
lessons learned and research-based
approaches
• Stewardship of the new knowledge base,
translate into research opportunities
• Formal partnerships and resources
• Legal protection; Security and Privacy

19. Potential Competition
Key Competition Capability: One to Many
Requirement CrisisCrowd

20. Our Role
We Leverage Expertise, Communities and Resources
VTCs
CROs CrisisCommons The Public
Affiliated Affiliated Responder Un-Affiliated Response
Response Connectivity to Resources Spontaneous Effort
Source of Affiliated Requirements New Efforts
Leverage Under Utilized; Unknown Resources Unknown Resources
Research Based Approach; Recognized Knowledge Base
Academia
Private Sector
Under-Leveraged Resources

21. What We Propose
Community Projects Lab Council Fellows
Connecting and Leveraging the Ecosystem to Build Capacity
Through a Commons-Based Approach

22. Research Based
Approach
• Multi-disciplinary research agenda Behavior
• Research gaps, real time crisis analysis Mapping
Data
• International technical standards, best Language
practices, standards of care
• Open tools and data sets Incubator
• New knowledge base; unique insights
Lab

23. Timing is Right
• CROs have asked for our help
• New acceptance of collaborative tools
• Growing VTC communities, predictable
Crisis Crowd
• Public has capability, desire to assist
• Capability to matrix private sector and
academia resources

24. Path Ahead for 2011
• Transform goodwill to formal
relationships
• Facilitate needs from
stakeholders to inform
development of CrisisCommons
• Facilitate research agenda
• Continued support of
CrisisCamp; ongoing crises
• Evaluate and report on the
continuing evolution of the
ecosystem