Innovation in the Americas Towards Bridging the Digital Divide

www.ifrc.orgSaving lives, changing minds.

BACKGROUND

Today 2.7 Billion people are online, that’s almost 40% of the world’s population, there are also 6.8 mobile phone subscriptions. We are in the middle of a digital revolution that will change the face of the world. But what exactly are we changing? We have a unique opportunity to use these fascinating innovations to save lives. How? By making sure that people in the most remote areas of the world have the same access to information and technology that we praise in other parts of the world. Information and technology can save lives before and after disasters. We need to enable people everywhere to be better prepared alert and ready in times of an emergency and respond should one strike.

In fact our experience shows that 90 % of the lives saved after a disasters are saved by local people. Yet this 90% of first responders are often in the most vulnerable situations and are least likely to have access to live saving technologies. This lack of access has a major impact on people’s ability to prepare for survive and recover from disasters.

We need to harness the power of technology for all. For that we need to build partnerships between communities humanitarian organizations and governments and the private sector. We need to combine our unique expertise and experience in local knowledge, disaster management, emergency health, innovation, technology, public administration and much more, to strengthen communities in the face of disasters around the world using technology to improve humanitarian action and save lives is a responsibility not a choice.

-World Disaster Report 2013

As a Federation we often talk about changing minds. Bridging the digital divide in the America’s is essentially a changing of our mind-set from a pre-internet mentality to a digital innovation, learning and communication culture.

Bridging the digital divide is also about evolving the way we work to do more, do it better and reach further. Reducing cost and increasing our efficacy and efficiency. It’s about improving the way we carry out programmes, projects, activities, promote peer to peer collaboration among staff and National Societies, share lessons learned and best practices, as well as the way in which we conduct advocacy and knowledge sharing both internally and externally.

There is no denying that innovation and technology can significantly contribute to improving our network’s functionality. However, far too often we miss important opportunities to connect, share resources and tools to improve our work. Technology and innovation in the digital sphere present excellent opportunities to collapse space and time and bring our network together on virtual platforms.

OVERVIEW

The goal of this document is to gather and present the variety of tools used by National Societies and the Secretariat in order to continue improving our work, taking into account the needs and realities within the National Societies in the Americas. Fully aware that in many cases National Societies have tools created to fit their needs that could very well address the needs at sister National Societies in the Zone.

This first edition of Innovation in the Americas: Towards Bridging the Digital Divide is the first phase of a broader digitalization and innovation initiative in the Americas which seeks to present what is available both at National Societies and the Americas Zone Office, generate interest, and gather additional tools that will be later shared throughout the zone.

The document includes tools developed by the Americas Zone Office. The aim is to streamline innovation processes to determine what tools are best and applicable in order to avoid needlessly creating other tools that may complicate our work rather than facilitating it.

Innovation in the Americas: Towards Bridging the Digital Divide provides an easy to understand matrix, which includes, a description of each of these tools and a hyperlink so these can be readily accessed and tested by interested users.

In a second phase of the Americas Zone innovation and digitalization initiative, this document will be updated to include user’s testimonies, examples of use, ratings from users. This will later be uploaded onto an online platform which will allow National Societies and staff members at the Americas Zone Office to continually update this document. This will help us determine what tools should be maintained, streamlined, and promoted within Federation.

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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Innovation in the Americas Towards Bridging the Digital Divide2014

Name Description URLTable header 2 Youtube A video-sharing website. Free to use, people can

upload, share and promote videoshttps://www.youtube.com

Vimeo A video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos

http://vimeo.com

Vine A short-form video sharing service http://vine.co

Table header 2 Facebook An online social networking platform. This service allows people to contact, interact and share

information including photos and videos

https://www.facebook.com

Twitter A online social network and micro-blogging platform that enables users to send and read short 140

character text messages, called “tweets”. Users can read and post tweets

https://twitter.com

Instagram A media sharing platform using photos and videos http://instagram.com

Pinterest Online visual discovery tool for projects http://pinterest.com

Medium A blog publishing platform http://medium.com

Social Media

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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Innovation in the Americas Towards Bridging the Digital Divide2014

Name Description URLWix A cloud-based web development platform that allows

users to create HTML5 websites and mobile siteshttp://www.wix.com/

Hoop.la An online social networking community website that allows users to interact with others

http://hoop.la

Mailchimp An online email marketing solution to manage contacts, send emails and track results

http://mailchimp.com

Powtoon A cloud-based software for creating animated presentations, educational tutorials, and animated

videos.

http://www.powtoon.com/

VideoScribe An animations and graphic creation platform using whiteboard animations.

http://videoscribe.co

Scribd A digital library based on document and book sharing. This site features an eBook subscription

service as well as written work contributions by users from around the world

https://scribd.com

PIXLR A free online image editor allowing to fix, adjust and filter images in a browser

http://pixlr.com/

Piktochart A web based infographic software which allows users without experience to create professional-grade

infographics, using templates

http://piktochart.com/

Ustream A video streaming service with more than 80 million viewers and broadcasters.

http://ustream.tv

Whatsapp A cross-platform instant messaging subscription service for smartphones that uses the internet for communication. Services include text messaging,

images, video and audio message sharing.

http://whatsapp.com

Yammer A private communication within organizations used for internal communication networking

http://yammer.com

IVR* A technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF tones

input via keypad

http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/news-stories/

americas/haiti/-red-cross-telefon-kwa-wouj-reaches-

2-million-callers-in-two-years-65332/

Communications

* Developed by IFRC

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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Innovation in the Americas Towards Bridging the Digital Divide2014

Name Description URLSmartsheets An online project management, productivity and team

collaboration software using a spreadsheet style format. This also has cloud capabilities for sharing,

attachments, integration, etc.

https://www.smartsheet.com

Stepmap Online creation and customization of maps http://stepmap.com

ODK Open source data collection application using smartphones

http://opendatakit.org

ireport* A visual designer tool that supports major output formats and virtually any data source

http://test.ifrc-ireport.org

Federation Wide

Repporting tool for Haiti*

This is a web-based monitoring tool that collects and consolidates Federation-wide programme and financial

data for the Haiti earthquake operation

http://www.ifrc-haiti-fwr.org/

Name Description URLMoodle Open-source, web application for producing modular

internet-based courses that support a modern social constructionist pedagogy

https://moodle.org/

Articulate e-learning authoring tools for creating online and mobile courses

https://www.articulate.com/

Aura Interactiva

e-learning authoring tools for creating online and mobile courses

http://www.aurainteractiva.com/

Information Management

Learning

* Developed by IFRC

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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Innovation in the Americas Towards Bridging the Digital Divide2014

Name Description URLBlackboard Elluminate

A web conferencing program using virtual rooms for rent to be used for schools and businesses

http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Collaborate/

Products/Blackboard-Collaborate/Web-

Conferencing.aspx

Prezi A cloud based presentation software that allows the creation of projects, presentations, etc. using a virtual

canvas.

http://prezi.com

Office 365 The same Office you already know but powered by the cloud with no costs for most NS. It offers corporate e-mail (3,000 email accounts), online

conference system and Cloud Storage among other features.

http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/

en-us/nonprofits/apply-now/

Microsoft Products

MS Office Pro, Windows 8 and Windows Server products for Non-Profit Organizations offered by

Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/

en-us/nonprofits/apply-now/

Lyris Mailing Lists

Lyris is an email management tool offering a way to manage individual email addresses that you can

combine into lists and contact all at once.

Antivirus Donation from Symantec Antivirus Products. http://www.techsoup.org/

Navision Software intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management,

supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises.

https://fednet.ifrc.org/en/resources/support/

information-services/is-planning/suppliers-

agreements1/navision/

Working together

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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Innovation in the Americas Towards Bridging the Digital Divide2014

Emergency

Description URLDMIS* Is a web-based tool for NS and IFRC from which

users will be able to access: real time information on disaster trends, online internal and external

resources and tools and databases.

https://www-secure.ifrc.org/DMISII

Mega V* A stand alone software for emergency relief distributions using barcodes

TERA* A system that enables the beneficiary communications team to send SMS either

nationwide, to lists of uploaded phone numbers, or targeted on specific geographical area

First Aid App App that puts expert advice for everyday emergencies in your hand. Available for iPhone and Android devices,

the app gives you instant access to the information you need to know to handle the most common first

aid emergencies. With videos, interactive quizzes and simple step-by-step advice.

This app has being developed by American Red Cross

http://www.redcross.org/mobile-apps/first-aid-app

* Developed by IFRC

Contact information

Alberto CabreraInnovation DelegateLearning and Innovation UnitInternational Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Americas Zone OfficeBuilding 221Jacinto Palacios Cobos streetCity of Knowledge, Clayton, Panama

Tel. +507 317 3050E-mail: alberto.cabrera@ifrc.org

www.ifrc.orgSaving lives, changing minds.