IOTX - ISCRAM 2014

Overview + History of Sahana

Chamindra de Silva Director, Sahana Foundation Director, Virtusa Corporation

Agenda •  An Overview of Sahana •  What makes Sahana Unique? •  A History and Evolution of Sahana •  The Sahana Foundation •  Case Studies •  Sahana NextGen

The Sahana Project: n  What is it in a nutshell?

n  Open Source n  Global Community Built n  Disaster Management n  RAD Platform

n  Mission To save lives by providing information management solutions that enable organizations and communities to better prepare for and respond to disasters

The Historic Trigger: 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami ☀ At least 226,000 dead ☀ Up to 5 million people

lost their homes, or access to food and water

☀ 1 million people left without a means to make a living

☀ At least $7.5 billion in the cost of damages

“Facts and Figures: Asian Tsunami Disaster” New Scientist, 20 January 2005

“Sahana” – Relief in Sinhalese Rapidly custom build for SL Gov to handle Tsunami

“Sahana” Software

Rapidly Builds

Tsunami 2004

CNO Urgent Requirements

Sri Lankan IT Community

Sri Lankan IT Community = LSF/LKLUG + SL IT Industry + Academia

The First Community

n  “We just wanted to help our countrymen” n  We used our skills to provide a tool

n  Operational model - “Chaos” n  400 IT volunteers n  1st week 24hr development n  Major releases almost daily

n  Applications n  Missing Person Registry, Organization Registry,

Request management System, Camp Registry

Sahana first deployed for Sri Lanka tsunami response

Tracking Missing People / Casualties

n  Shared Bulletin Board of lost / found

n  Computer based search heuristics

n  Tracking Family units

n  Analyzing networks of connections

The Missing People Registry helps track and find missing, people

Who is doing What, Where & When?

n  Registry of operating relief organizations

n  Coverage of Services

n  Self-Allocation and Reporting

n  Contact Information

The Organization Registry helps maintain data (contact, services, region, etc) of organizations groups and volunteers working in the disaster

Matching Aid to Ground Realities

n  Estimating Needs n  Matching Aid to

Ground Needs n  Inventories/Catalog n  Quantities n  Expiration dates n  Re-order levels n  Tracking Allocation

The Request Management System tracks all requests and helps match pledges for support, aid and supplies to fullfilment

Lessons: Large Scale Disaster Management Systems were rare!

n  Surprisingly no one had built such a system before! (we had asked FEMA, IBM)

n  Identified many of the common coordination problems of a large scale disaster disaster and formulated modules to address them

BUT n  NEVER build a disaster management system

from scratch during a disaster again!!

Learned how I.T. Fail in a disaster

n  Comms can be saturated or not accessible n  Systems have to be able to work disconnected

n  User familiarity can be low n  Systems has to be as intuitive as possible

n  Data centers can get impacted n  Systems have to be resilient (simple), mobile and

self-sufficient n  Functionality can be inadequate

n  System has to be quickly customizable

Sahana Generic Platform Rebuild A generic disaster management platform

LSF Team

(+ SIDA)

Sahana Software

A Global Need (2005)

Tsunami Requirements

LSF Team = FOSS Geeks on Fellowships

Builds and Donates

Slightly different design goals than what we were used to at the time

Typical Enterprise Software Disaster Management App Network LAN/WAN connected high

bandwidth expected Intermittently connected, low bandwidth, most often WIFI

User Interface Highly interactive, Chatty AJAX lookups, graphics rich and engaging

Low throughput, Simple, highly intuitive, low size graphics if any

Deployment Designed for one particular deployment environment in Cloud or Data Center

Designed for any available environment from cloud, server, to portable app

Dependencies Dependent on 3rd party internal and external web services

Minimize dependencies, and potential point of failure, caching when needed

Development Well typed, compiled, security manager, clear interface definitions

Easy to pickup and dynamically modifiable scripting language

Independent Hazard Info. Center

Collaborative Virtual Helpdesk

zone of trust

(legislation)

Peer 2 Peer Pony Express

Started to look at portable

USB Disk / Laptop Mobile

OLPC

+ Synchronization

“Plugin” / Platform Pattern

n  The Plugin / Modular Architecture pattern n  Enables evolutionary parallel development

n  “Survival of the fittest module” n  Consistent Base Platform for RAD

n  Themed UI, Support diverse multiple-clients n  Security, Data management, Error handling n  GIS, WS, Reporting Toolkits

Framework and Platform Services

Core Module Core Module New Module New Module

Collaborative Situation Mapping

Collaborative Map of n  Hazards / Incidents n  Shelters (IDPs) n  (field) Hospitals n  Organizations n  Responders n  Stores n  etc

The Shelter Registry helps track data on all shelters setup following the Disaster

We donated to the world as Open Source Software What is (Free and) Open Source? n  Free as in Speech

n  Freedom to access, run, modify and redistribute n  Open Source

n  Is a set of principles and practices that promotes access to the design and production of goods and knowledge

n  Regulated by Copyright Law n  Based on Copyright law, but spun on it's head (copyleft) n  Rights are passed perpectually to users n  GPL (FSF), LPGL (FSF), Apache (ASF), BSD, CPL

n  Software becomes a Global Public Good n  Open Source software becomes a global public good

Why does Open Source make this better? This was a natural alignment to Humanitrian Values n  Freely Available to deploy

n  No discrimination on access (Red Cross CC #2) n  Ability to “leave technology behind” (RC CC #6)

n  Rapid customization to actual needs with code n  L10N and integration (RC CC #5) n  Building local capacities & self-reliance (RC CC #6)

n  Open system => Transparent and trustworthy n  Better acceptance than “foreign” proprietary systems

n  Countries/NGOs can collaborate to develop n  Get the best minds from the world to participate in

building the software n  This should be a global public good

n  Build on each others work by including it in project

Called Humanitarian-FOSS or H-FOSS

Lessons: Open Source in this domain had tremendous acceptance n  The open source community coupled with the

humanitarian community sprit provided a strong contributor motivation

n  “Software Engineers without Boarders” n  Acceptance of an Open Source Disaster

Management system and HFOSS was tremendous (UNDP IOSN, ISCRAM, AsiaOSS, Govs)

LSF + IBM + Community

●  2004 - Indian Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami

●  2005 - Pakistan - Kashmir Earthquake

●  2005 - Philippine - Landslides

●  2006 - Indonesia - Yogjakarta Earthquake,

●  2007 - Peru - Ica Earthquake

●  2007 - Bangladesh - Cyclone Sidr

●  2008 - China - Chengdu-Sitzuan Earthquake

●  2008 - Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis

●  2008 - India - Bihar Flooding

Sahana Open Source Phase Global Open Source Incubation Phase

LSF Team + Global Community

Sahana Software

Builds + Refines

Attracts + Grows

Disaster Incident

Urgent Requirements

The importance of Community

n  The system is nothing without community n  Expand the community to as many organizations

as you can trust with the data n  More capacity builds more resiliance

n  Creates pre-existing relationships and trust n  Which a software takes to another level of

efficiency n  Use MoUs if needed

n  Don't forget there is a global community to help as well

The Community Spreads (2007) An Open Global Community (300+)

The 4 Sub-Communities of Sahana

H-FOSS

Free & Open Source

Community

Humanitarian Community

(NGOs)

Emergency Management (Gov, UN)

Academic Research Community

Different Perspectives of the elephant Sahana became a melting pot of innovation

SAHANA

“Cool Open Source Development

Platform!”

“Grass Roots: By the Community

for the Community”

“Rapidly Customizable EM System”

“A great Crisis Research Platform”

A Community Support Example

n  Multiple local groups reach out to Sahana n  Call out made in Sahana community

n  One initiative progresses further n  L10N / Promotion, QA, Deployment

n  IBM-China for Chendu Gov and then Police (China) n  24x7 Technical Support

n  LSF (SL), Trinity College (US), Community Individuals n  Funds and Sponsorship

n  IBM-Foundation (US,China)

n  40+ Families reunited within first few days

A Community Response Example

Sahana Structure n  Meritocracy on Contribution

n  Project Management Committee (PMC) n  Pinnacle group governing Sahana

n  Committers / Senior Contributors n  Direct access to the code base

n  Contributors / Developers n  Users

n  Sahana Committee n  50% developers and 50% domain experts

n  Sponsors n  IBM, Google, SIDA, NSF, etc

Lessons: Community n  The diversity of our community both by geography and

role created a tremendous melting pot of best practices n  We had not perfected the best model

n  Apache “by developer for developer” was a good baseline but it was not the right model for us

n  We needed a model that supported “By developer, for user in ultimate benefit of victim”

n  Respect the meritocracy of contribution and the community will grow

n  When we did not respect the meritocracy we lost community

LSF + IBM + Community

●  2004 - Indian Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami

●  2005 - Pakistan - Kashmir Earthquake

●  2005 - Philippine - Landslides

●  2006 - Indonesia - Yogjakarta Earthquake,

●  2007 - Peru - Ica Earthquake

●  2007 - Bangladesh - Cyclone Sidr

●  2008 - China - Chengdu-Sitzuan Earthquake

●  2008 - Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis

●  2008 - India - Bihar Flooding

We received a lot of endorsements

l  New Free Software Foundation (FSF) award for “Social Benefit” won and inspired by Sahana

l  Sourceforge Project of the Month, June 2006 l  Software 2006, CA USA Good Samaritan Award l  One of the top 10 Open Source Project to keep an

eye on – Network World article l  Recognized by forums such as:

-  US WSIS, ISCRAM, UNDP IOSN, StrongAngel, AsiaOSS Symposium, Emergency Communications Asia

Sahana is not just Software Global Community Incubation Phase

LSF Team + Global Community

Sahana Software

Builds + Refines

Grows

Disaster Incident

Urgent Requirements

GSoC, Global FOSS

First Preparedness Deployment: NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) for Shelter Management

We also get the first downsteam project BHEPP DM Technology

n  Digital Triage n  Wireless Voice Bridge n  Patient RFID Tracking n  Lost Person Finder n  Patient Data Exchange n  PFIF export (Google People Finder)

The community spreads so much that people want to do new projects The Sahana Eden is Founded •  Sahana Eden is founded •  Stronger GIS and Reporting

capabilities •  Extremely Theamable •  Object Oriented (CRUD)

Rapid Application Development Platform

•  A structure is established to govern projects and standards

A new structure to handle multiple disaster management projects is needed

Sahana Software Foundation gets Established ●  In 2009 a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization what

established to help promote Sahana internationally ●  A Board is created to govern Sahana

●  A common set of standards to run multiple projects

●  Help guide vendor growth

●  Membership is a Meritocracy on Contribution

●  Mission: To save lives by providing information management solutions that enable organizations and communities to better prepare for and respond to disasters

SSF replaced LSF as the custodian Global Community Incubation Phase

SSF + Partners Global Community

Sahana Software

Builds + Refines

Attracts + Grows

Disaster Incident or Preparedness

Requirements

Preparedness Deployments

●  2007 - USA - Sahana Emergency Management System ●  2009 - USA - NLM: People Locator ●  2011 - Asia Pacific - Red Cross Resource Mapping System ●  2011 - Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Project Portal ●  2012 - Africa - EUROSHA Humanitarian Mapping Platform ●  2012 - Philippines - Relief Goods & Inventory Management ●  2013 - Timor Leste - Disaster Risk Management System ●  2013 - USA - Community Resilience Mapping Tool ●  2013 - Sri Lanka - Disaster Preparedness & Response Division ●  2011 - USA - Give2LA ●  2014 - Caucasus and Central Asia - Humanitarian Data Platform ●  2014 - USA - Maritime Common Operating Platform ●  2014 - Italy - Shelters & Evacuee Management

Disaster Risk Reduction

(DRR) Project Portal www.drrprojects.net

Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)

Asia Pacific Region - 2010-present

Lessons: User Experience n  Always Encourage innovation

n  Eden innovation would not have happened if we stayed with just one product

n  There should always be one mature product that a user will easily navigate to from the website

n  Fragmentation caused user confusion

n  We were not speaking as one voice to users n  Competition was good, but we were too small for

competition n  To many committees, differences and too thinly spread

n  Common Standards n  What makes Sahana, Sahana

Sahana Standards •  With multiple projects we needed

•  Development Standards •  Standards for conduct •  Interop Standards

•  Interop was needed not just within but also with other projects. Started integrating

•  PFIF, EDXL, CAP, HAVE

•  Working with •  W3C and OASIS

•  Also established Standards Committee to focus in this area

Disaster Response Deployments ● 2010 - Venezuela - Floods ● 2010 - Mexico - Veracruz Hurricane ● 2010 - Pakistan - Floods ● 2010 - Chile - Earthquake ● 2010 - Haiti - Earthquake ● 2011 - USA - Joplin Tornado ● 2011 - Japan - Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami ● 2011 - New Zealand - Christchurch Earthquake ● 2011 - Colombia - Floods ● 2012 - USA - Hurricane Sandy ● 2012 - Chile - Wildfires ● 2013 - Philippines - Typhoon Haiyan ● 2014 - Bosnia - Floods

Sandy Relief

Occupy Sandy

and other Community Based Organizations New York City

2012-2013

Hurricane Sandy Response

Sandy Relief Site

Community today ●  40 members from 12 countries ●  Programs

o  Google Code In o  Google Summer of Code o  Sahana Internship Program o  Training program o  SahanaCamp

Lead Partners

Testimonials Faced with disaster situations, like those lived by [Chile] in the last days, the need for information becomes imperative. With this Smart Center, we can significantly reduce response times for the persons that search, and optimize volunteer work.

Lorenza Donoso, President of the Chilean Red Cross on the Sahana Eden-based Smart Center solution, used in response to wildfires in early 2012

Sahana [Eden] is blowing my mind. I can’t think of any project we’ve done that we couldn’t build on this platform.

@CDRP_FSU (Center for Disaster Risk Policy at Florida State University), 2012

No innovation matters more than that which saves lives. Avelino J. Cruz, Jr., Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines on the use of

Sahana following disastrous mudslides in 2005

The Sahana Software Foundation’s commitment to supporting grassroots, community-led organizing endeavors has been astounding.

Devin Balkind,, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Sarapis Foundation on the Sahana Software Foundation’s response to Hurricane Sandy, 2013

☀

Recognition

Computerworld Honors Laureate in Human Services 2013

Gartner “Cool Vendor” in Risk Management & Compliance 2010

Public Private Businesses Inc. Best Practices Award 2010

Ultimately it is about the Human Impact

To Recap: Sahana is n  Open Source and pro-Open Standard

n  Strong alignment to Humanitarian Values n  Global Community Built

n  A melting pot of global innovation with shared investment

n  Disaster Management n  A leading disaster management system

n  Platform n  Rapidly configurable for a disaster response

requirement ●  22 Disaster Response Deployments

●  13 Disaster Preparedness Deployments ●  25+ Countries

Thank You

Chamindra de Silva

Director, Sahana Foundation Director, Virtusa Corporation

chamindra@sahanafoundation.org

SahanaCamp IOTX