Random Hacks of Kindness, Social Media & Crisis Mapping

RANDOM HACKS OF KINDNESS

SOCIAL MEDIA, MAPPING AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT

MAURITS VAN DER VLUGTSpatial Information strategist

OVERVIEW Volunteers and Emergencies What is RHOK?

Sydney 2010 Melbourne 2011

BushfireConnect What’s Next?

COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTEERS Self-help & Resilience Nothing new:

Rural Fire Brigades SES Numerous NGOs: Red Cross, Vinnies, …

So why not Technology too?

WHAT THE HACK?

Started 2009 Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and the World

Bank

“Developing practical open source solutions for disaster management and climate change adaptation”

“Hackathons”: Experts and Volunteers Practical, Open Source Solutions Worldwide Sharing

ONE OF MANY VOLUNTEER TECHNICAL COMMUNITIES:

SahanaFoundation Ushahidi, Swift River and Crowdmap OpenStreetMap Frontline SMS Crisismappers Random Hacks of Kindness Humanity Road Geeks without Bounds HFOSS and more

WORLDWIDE EVENTS

RHOK #1 5 & 6 June 2010 7 Cities (incl. Sydney), 500 + Volunteers

RHOK #2 4 & 5 Dec 2010 21 Cities, 2000+ Volunteers

RHOK #3 3, 4, & 5 June 2011 19 Cities (incl. Melbourne), 2100+ Volunteers

RHOK #1 – SYDNEY (JUNE 2010)

RHOK #3 – MELBOURNE

3rd worldwide event: 4/5 June 2011: http://www.rhok.org/events/rhok-3

19 Cities including Melbourne, Australia 6 Projects worked on, including:

BushfireConnect (Mark-2) QuakeFelt Vic Alert/VicSafe (winners!)

VIC ALERT/VICSAFE

Problem Many providers of alerts Hard for citizen needs to keep track of relevant (type,

location) ones

Solution http://www.rhok.org/solutions/vicalert Aggregation platform for alert providers Standardised API (CAP) Results Mash-up (VicSafe)

7 FEB 2009 - BLACK SATURDAY

Worst Bushfires in State of Victoria Burnt1 Million Football Fields Displaced 7,500 people 2000 houses lost 173 dead

INFORMATION BREAKDOWN

Official Agencies & Emergency Services Slow & Overwhelmed 000 overloaded

No alternative sources Rumours & Misinformation

Evacuations: too late and misdirected.

COMMUNITY NEED

Grass roots community reporting Fast, localised, community driven

Integration with Official Sources Integrate with agency feeds Inform Emergency Services (add to COP)

Crisis Mapping 2.0!

ENTER USHAHIDI… Open Source, Citizen

Reporting, since 2008 Citizen Reporting &

Alerting Crisis Mapping 2.0 tool

of choice Haiti & Chile Earthquakes Gulf of Mexico Oilspill Egyptian elections (5x!!) Pakistan Floods Etc, Etc..

RHOK #1USHAHIDI – BUSHFIRE CONNECT

Twitter: @bushfireconnect

http://bushfireconnect.org

BUSHFIRE CONNECT

Community Powered

Community Resilience

Integrate Crowd Sourced and Official Information

INCIDENT REPORTS

SMS Web-Form Geo-RSS Emails Tweets

INCIDENT ALERTS – OPT IN

SMS Email RSS…

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Since May 2010 Working prototype up and running ’Live’ site since Feb 2011 (http://bushfireconnect.org) Small team of volunteers (up to 7 people) $2000 cash

Next steps (next season) High performance server environment Team of volunteer moderators National Coverage All Hazards

LONDON RIOTS MAP

SUMMARY

Community Resilience: Self-help & Volunteers Random Hacks of Kindness

World-wide Very successful Open Source solutions

Bushfire Connect Out of Black Saturday & RHOK #1 Live now

Watch out for RHOK #4, coming soon near you!

THANK YOU

Maurits.vandervlugt@mercuryps.com.au

http://mercuryps.com.au

http://bushfireconnect.org

Twitter: @mvandervlugt

Thanks to Heather Leson (SecondMuse) for some slide material