ISCRAM Summer School lecture Prof. Ralph Morelli

Free and Open

Mobile Technologies

Crisis Response

Ralph Morelli

Trinity College, Hartford, CT

ralph.morelli@trincoll.edu

http://www.hfoss.org

Slide: 5 ISCRAM—Summer Seminar Tilburg University, August 24, 2009

The H-FOSS Summer Institute

Motivation

• David Patterson (ACM) Nov. 2005, (post Katrina):

Let’s help our neighbors!

• David Patterson (ACM) Mar. 2006:

Join the open-source movement!

• Our Question:

Will students building software for the

community help revitalize computing

education?

NSF/CPATH Grant

• CPATH: Revitalizing Undergraduate Computing

Education.

• Trinity, Connecticut College, Wesleyan.

• Getting students involved in building open

source software to help society through:

– Video conference courses.

– Summer internship program 2008/9.

– National and regional workshops for faculty.

– HFOSS Chapter program.

– HFOSS Certificate program.

Portable/Sustainable Partnership

Computing

Departments

• Teach computing

• Build FOSS

• Gain skills and

opportunities

IT Corporations• Host interns

• Fund and advertise

• Volunteer expertise

• Recruit students

Humanitarian

Community

• Acquire software.

• Host interns

• Teach volunteerism

The Humanitarian

Project

Sahana Volunteer Mgmt Module

Medical Record System

• OpenMRS: Electronic medical record system for

developing countries.

• Deployments: Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, …

• Initiated by Paul Farmer of Partners in Health and the

Regenstrief Institute.

• Supported by WHO, CDC, Clinton Foundation,…

• Our contributions

– Touchscreen module and toolkit (Summer 07)

– Image Manipulation Module (Summer 08)

– Remarks (post-it notes) module (Summer 09)

POSIT/ Android

Portable Open Search and Identification Tool

Outline

! Part I: Free and open source software! FOSS history and principles.! Why is FOSS important for humanitarian response.

! Part II: Mobile technologies for Crisis Response! Mobile phones, SMS, smartphones.! Examples of professional and citizen uses

! Part III: Case studies! RapidSMS! POSIT/Android (hands-on demo)

! Part IV: Programming the Android phone? (after

class)! Hello World Exercise

Free and Open Source Software

!"#$%&’()*+#,- .,#,-*#/%0)*&#+10*#+* 21(+*’#,-.,# (3#"#0(4*#.#5+%/+.6#"#6 1’,#’-.+*#(,#7 (,- #%,-* +#5*%50*#7-%#0(4*#(,8#"#$.&&%,#(&#/%%)#$%&’$(*&$*#’ (/&#.#&%&)(’$0%’1+*#./+**6*&,#%+#.#’%3,7.+*#0($*&’*#./+**6*&,8

888"96#0%%4(&/#3%+#5*%50*#3%+#7-%6#4&%7(&/#,- *:# .+* #-*05(&/#- 16. &(,:#(’#.’#(6 5%+,.&,#.’#6%&*: ;8##<#=($-.+ ) #>,.006.&?#@ABC

FOSS is freedom to …

• … run the program.

• … study how the program works.

• … share copies with your neighbor.

• … improve the program to benefit the community.

"Free software" is a matter of liberty, not price. Tounderstand the concept, you should think of "free" as in "free speech," not as in "free beer."

(Richard Stallman, The Free Software Definition)

www.fsf.org

Linux ...

• … is the kernel of GNU/Linux.

• … started as a hobby project in 1991.

• … a community of 1000s of developers.

• … 370 Mb of code under GNU/GPL license.

• … distributed by projects (Debian) and companies (Fedora

RedHat)

Hello everybody out there using minix - I'mdoing a (free) operating system (just ahobby, won't be big and professional likegnu) ...

(Linus Torvald, Usenet post, 1991)

FOSS development is ...

• … based on the community (bazaar) model.

• … open and transparent.

• … a meritocracy based on peer review.

• … closely tied to the user community.

• … release early and often philosophy.

Every good work of software starts byscratching a developer's personal itch.

(Eric Steven Raymond, The Cathedraland the Bazaar)

FOSS products are protected...

• … by free and open licenses.

• … First: GPL (GNU General Public License)

• … 60+ licenses on Open Source Institute.

• … 80+ licenses listed by FSF.

• … creative commons license.

www.opensource.org

The strategic marketing paradigm of open source isa massively parallel drunkard's walk filtered by aDarwinistic process.

(Bruce Perens, The Emerging Economic Paradigmof Open Source, 2006)

FOSS Licenses

Permissive – software can become proprietary.

Strongly protective – software cannot become proprietary.

Weakly protective – software component cannot become

proprietary but can be part of a proprietary system.

Source: David Wheeler, The F/LOSS Slide, 2007.

Many Large Successful Projects

GNU/Linux Mozilla Firefox

Apache

Companies

Supporting

Market Share - Million Busiest Sites

Source: http://news.netcraft.com (March, 2009)

Humanitarian FOSS

• Free and open source software for the general public good.

• Software that promotes human welfare and human rights.

• Recognized by Free Software Foundation (“help thy neighbor”)

• Advantages of FOSS:

• No discrimination on access.

• Transparency of the code and the project.

• Shared use and development.

• Adaptability and local control.

H-FOSS Example: DataDyne EpiSurveyor Project

Video: DataDyne Wireless EpiSurveyor

http://www.youtube.com/v/rI3ED6-jU0Q (1:30)

! UN + Vodaphone collaboration.! Form-based, data gathering FOSS for mobile phones.! Originally PDA-based; now web-based (beta).

Prior to the use of EpiSurveyor, handheld data collection was gathered using

commercial software that required expensive consultant programmers every time a

new form was needed, or an old form needed to be modified. Now, with support

from the United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Group Foundation, and in

partnership with the UN World Health Organization and national governments,

EpiSurveyor is putting effective health data-

gathering tools in the hands of country health

officials.-- Joel Selanikio, MD, co-founder of DataDyne.org, July 2007

Example: H-FOSS as a Development Tool

! Report from the a UN official:

Designed to facilitate the supervision of health data in public clinics using handheld

computers, the initiative broke ground when country officials modified the open source

EpiSurveyor data-gathering software to meet other public health needs as they arose.

In Kenya health officials modified EpiSurveyor to investigate and contain a polio

outbreak, and in Zambia health officials modified the software to conduct a post-

measles-immunization campaign coverage survey to identify which children had not

been vaccinated. Because the EpiSurveyor application is open

source, its application was owned and controlled entirely

by WHO and country health officials without depending on

outside consultants.

Why H-FOSS Matters for Developing Countries

! Richard Stallman, United Nations, World Summit

on the Information Society Conference, Tunisia,

November 2005! See 7:15 –9:30 minutes

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/051118-WSIS.2005-

Richard.Stallman.ogg

Mobile Technologies

A pager for emergency services.

Satellite

telephony

1940: Motorola SCR536

St. Louis, MO:

June 17, 1946

Mexico City Earthquake 1985

Sabrina, 1954

Mobile Phones and Smartphones

Wireless Technology: Cellular Service

! 1946: Hexagonal cells proposed at Bell

labs.! No technology or frequencies.

! 1960s: Cellular electronics developed.

! 1970: Cell handoff algorithm.

Wireless Technology: AMPS

Wireless Technology: Mobile Phone Coverage

Wireless Technology: Mobile Telephony in the South

Hemisphere

! “Leap frog technology” –

more mobile than land lines.

! By 2012, 1 billion more.

! SMS is everywhere.

! Web is spreading to phones.

Wireless Technology: Short Message Service (SMS)

! Defined as a GSM standard in

! First messages in 1992.

! 160 7-bit characters / message.

! Supported by other mobile

technologies as well as

satellites, landlines.

! World's most widely used data

application.

! 2005: 1 trillion messages

(2/p/d)

! 2006: $35 billion industry

! $0.11/msg for practically 0 cost

Mobile FOSS Examples

Example: Mobile phones in disaster management

Mobileactive08: Mobiles & Disaster Relief

http://www.youtube.com/v/UADazvwM4-8

! MobileActive.org – Global network of people using mobile

phones for social impact.

! Goal: Increase the effectiveness of NGOs in communication,

organizing, service, and information.

! Interactive database on world wide mobile date – usage,

rates, adoption: http://mobileactive.org/mobiledata

Crisis Mapping Then: GDACS

Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System provides

near real-time alerts about disasters.

Crisis Mapping Then: ReliefWeb

• Documents and Maps on humanitarian emergencies and

disasters.

• UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

• 3 million hits / day following Asian Tsunami

• 300,000 maps and documents

Crowdsourcing Now:

! Ushahidi (Swahili for testimony): Started mapping reports

of violence following the 2008 Kenya election.

! Premise: Gathering and mapping crisis information from

citizens can provide real time insights.

! Citizen journalism.

! Ushahidi Engine: Allows citizens to gather and map reports

by mobile phone, email and the web.

! Free and open source.

! Pluggable, extensible web architecture.

! Volunteer effort: Kenya, South Africa, Uganda,

Malawi,Ghana, the Netherlands, U.S.

! Partners: FrontlineSMS, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative,

Example: Ushahidi

Erik's TED talk on Ushahidi

(Crowdsourced Filtering to avoid Info Overload)

http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2009/05/01/eriks-ted-talk-on-ushahidi/

Software: Frontline SMS

! FOSS that turns a laptop into

an SMS communication hub.

! Works with GSM phones and

existing plans.

! Attach a phone and SIM card

and pay per message.

Source: http://www.frontlinesms.com/

Software: Slingshot SMS

! Lightweight SMS gateway.

! Runs on laptop or USB stick.

! Mac, Windows, Linux.

! Interfaces with applications.

Source: http://developmentseed.org/

Case Study: RapidResponse in Malawi

• Health platform based on

RapidSMS

• The Earth Institute and

UNICEF Innovation Group for

the Millenium Villages Project.

• Use SMS to facilitate and

coordinate field-based health

providers.

• UNICEF Malawi and UNICEF

Innovations, Using Mobile

Phones to Improve Child

Nutrition Surveillance in

Malawi, June 2009.

• Cellphone coverage: Small (4.6%)

but growing rapidly (51%

growth,2006-7) (Source: Kinkade

and Verclas. Wireless Technology

for Social Change: Trends in Mobile

Use by NGOs. Washington, DC:

United Nations Foundation, 2008.)

RapidResponse: Information Flow

RapidResponse: Paper to SMS

RapidResponse: Data Entry &

Aggregation

RapidResponse: Analysis

RapidResponse: Findings

• Reduced delays in data transmission.

• Improved data quality.

• Reduced manpower needs for data entry and

analysis.

• Reduced patient dropout rates.

• Improved reporting rates.

RapidResponse: Challenges

• RapidSMS technical issues

• User interface and reporting upgrades.

• Better mechanism for data representation.

• System for sending free form messages.

• Networks and electricity.

• Cost of sending messages (toll-free??)

• Delays and coverage.

• Need for uninterrupted power supply (UPS).

• Need for national internet access.

• Social/political issues.

• Government buy-in, training, education.

Random Walk Gossip (RWG)

Vector in message keeps track of informed nodes:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 01 11 1 1 1 1 1

ACKACK

A B C D

Randomly

choose

neighbor.

Research Questions

• How can this work for emergency management?

– Pilot: Somalia emergency response monitoring (July

– Using RapidSMS to submit emergency monitoring

checklist data.

• Can smartphones be used to improve the

amount and type of information transmitted?

Case Study and Demo: POSIT/ Android

What is Android?

• Linux-based mobile operating system.

• Java-based SDK

• Free & open source (Apache 2.0)

• Allows proprietary extensions

• Complaint: SDK not completely FOSS

• Complaint: Specialized Java

• Supported by the Open Handset Alliance

• Released in November 2007

• HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1), Oct 2008

• Today: 3 HTC models, Samsung 17500,

Qigi i6 (China)

• Forthcoming: 18 new models by 12/09.

Open Handset Alliance

Android Features

Mobile & Smartphone Market Share

Gartner: In 2Q-09 worldwide sales of mobile phones declined by

6% over 2Q-08 but sales of smartphones increased by 27%.

Android Market

Android Market (10/2008): March 2009: 2300 Apps, 2/3 free.

July 2009: 5000 Apps.

iPhone Market (6/2007): Sep 2008, 100m downloads, 3000

Apps, 1/5 free

AdMob, June 2009June 2009

Android Architecture

Rapid Android – RapidSMS for the

Android

• A port for RapidSMS for

the Android platform.

• Unicef and Dimagi.

• Proof-of-concept search

and rescue

implementation.

• Distribution and follow-

up of bed nets to combat

malaria.

Moca – Portable medical diagnostics

platform

• Remote medical

diagnostics platform.

• Interfaces with OpenMRS.

• MIT project.

• Connects remote health-

care workers with

hospitals and medical

professionals.

POSIT – Portable Open Search and

Identification Tool

Customizable data gathering and

communication tool.

Proof-of-concept search and

rescue implementation.

Data: GPS, clock, text, audio,

video, images, bar codes.

Communication channels: WiFi,

802.11, GSM telephony, ad-hoc

networking.

On-phone storage: SQLite Db.

POSIT – Communication System Architecture

• GPS

enabled

phones

running

• GPRS, SMS over GSM

• WiFi over 802.11 b/g

• AdHoc / RWG over 802.11

• AdHoc - RWG over 802.11

POSIT – Communication channels

Data-rich finds can be

transmitted between phones

and Server.

Telephony: 2G or 3G

depending on provider and

infrastructure.

WiFi: Depending on situation

and infrastructure.

Ad-hoc: Experimental ad-hoc

network can transmit limited

data among phones and

server.

POSIT – System Architecture

POSIT – Walkthrough

• Download POSIT by reading a QR code using the

phone's bar code reader.

• Register the phone with a “mission” by scanning

a QR code.

• Customizable forms interface can be used to

input data about the find.

• Finds can be displayed as a list or on a map.

• The server provides a command and control interface

where finds can be listed, mapped, analyzed.

POSIT – Coverage Tracking

• The phones report their search paths to the sever to

help guide search coverage.

• Phones can communicate in ad-hoc, manycast

mode when infrastructure is missing.

Ad-hoc networking

Disaster areas: cell towers, infrastructure destroyed

Phones talk to each other directly

• A low-power, partition-tolerant, manycast

protocol for disaster area networks.

• Collaborative project with Real-time Systems

Laboratory, Linköping University, Sweden

– PI: Simin Nadjm-Tehrani

– Students: Mikael Asplund, Gustav Niqvist

• Reach at least N nodes.

• Be energy-efficient.

• Be partition tolerant.

• Require little or no knowledge of system.

• Have reasonable latency.

• Active phase: messages spread using random

walk, ensuring progress but avoiding flooding.

• Inactive phase: messages wait in nodes for

uninformed neighbors to appear.

POSIT Demo Script

Part I: Basic functionality

• Download POSIT App (w/ RWG)

• http://posit.hfoss.org/?=

• Start POSIT

• Register with Server (@Trinity College)

• Server: http://posit.hfoss.org/demo/web/settings

• Username: demo@hfoss.org, Password: iscramdemo

• Register with 'Unexploded Ordinance' Project

• Use POSIT to identify Finds

• Photo, Text, GPS, Timestamp

• Synchronize w/ Server

• Point: All phones have a common set of finds

• Display finds on the Map

POSIT Demo Script

Part II: Ad-hoc networking mode

• Start RWG Activity Ad-hoc Mode

• Record new find

• Should send to other phones w/o Server

• Turn off the server

POSIT Strengths and Limitations

• Limitations

– Not (yet) many Android platforms.

– Doesn't use SMS.

– Lacks a use case client.

• Strengths

– Free and open source.

– Accessible to Android-supported devices.

– Customizable and extensible.

• Research questions/projects.

– Develop and field test for a specific application.

• EG: Sahana, OpenMRS

– Rich data vs. SMS.

What are the research questions??

What are the development issues?

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