Help Map (Russian Fires)Crisis Mapping Case StudyAlexey SidorenkoPrague, March 9th 2011
Prerequisites for Wildfire Crisis in Russia, 2010
1. Unusually hot period; 2. Degraded system of wildfire protection; 3. Almost simultaneous outburst of wildfires
in different Russian regions;4. Raise of activism on the background of
government’s inability to cope with the disaster;
What’s the Story of Help Map?
• Idea of implementing digital tools wasn’t new;• Two persons publicly suggested usage of Ushahidi in their blogs;• One of them, Gregory Asmolov, proposed to try to install Ushahidi;• First reaction: “It would take at least a month” (MEH!) • Second reaction: “This is actually quite easy! THIS
COULD WORK!”
• Third reaction: IT WORKS!!!!• Result: Ushahidi deployment in 2-
3 days;
Difficulties
• Poor support for Cyrillic fonts;• Inactive community support -> necessity to fix all
the bugs by ourselves; • Poor documentation / difficult customization of
the platform;• Unexpected high load of the server (10-15
thousand unique visitors daily) -> necessity to move to a new hosting really fast;
Our Main Principles At That Time
• CROWDSOURCING. We crowdsource everything: message moderation, PHP/JavaScript programming, server optimization, server hosting, design;
• TRUST. We trust all volunteers, we don’t have time for background checks – dangerous but necessary;
• CREDIT. We credit everyone who helps us – people need to know and feel that their effort is taken into account;
• NEUTRALITY. we don’t support with any political organization;
Help Map1.The First
Ushahidi implementation in Russia;
2.Stage 1: Monitoring of various sources concerning wildfires;
3.Stage 2: Coordination of volunteers and victims of wildfires;
Information Coordination• Connecting random initiatives
together -> creating synergy;• Connecting those who asked for help
and those who could provide help; • Providing information on the abilities
of private initiatives.
Information coordinationPozar_r
uIgor Cherski
y Doctor
Liza
Russian ChurchVolunteer
groupsRandom Citizen
Initiatives
Work of Coordination Center• Moderation of reports;
• Monitoring of sources;
• Coordination of the work of remote moderators;
• Site maintenance;
• Phone “Hot Line” maintenance;
• Coordination of help.Фотографии ottenki_serogo
Full cycle of helpClothe
sTransport
ation«We have some spare clothes”, Moscow
«I have a car. Mazda 3, I am available to lift people or food to any place in the Moscow or Ryazan region.
Victims«In Vladimir region we need (August 14, 2010):• Утюги - 50 шт• Тонометр – 1• Глюкометр (+тестполоски) – 1•...»
Help Report
Trip report: we brought food and clothes to …
Weak sides of the project• Limited information flow from the cell phones;• Limited number of sources (mostly from the bigger cities);• Mapping as a process was unusual for some less computer
literate users;• Technical instability; • Lack of interactivity on the basis of the platform; • Limited feedback functionality (volunteers and victims
couldn’t connect with each other without the help of moderators);
• After the crisis is gone the future of the platform is unstable;
Perspectives:• Upgrade of the platform to version
2.0 + change of design to our own platform;
• Integration of aerial photographs; • Information support in endangered
regions ;• Better cooperation with the NGOs
Thanks!
Alexey Sidorenko• [email protected]• Twitter: @sidorenko_intl