Serving Those That Serve Others Web2 Summit Jesse Robbins Final

DisasterTech

Serving those that Serve Others

Jesse RobbinsO’Reilly Radarjesse@oreilly.com

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Web2.0 tools transforming Humanitarian Aid

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Make a Difference,Improve Your Product

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hard problems are hard.

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None LotsExperience

ScaredFoolish

“We’ll save everyone with our new technology!”

“It will never work and you’ll kill everyone!”

Geeks:

Emergency Managers:

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None LotsExperience

ScaredFoolish

“OMG No! It won’t work and it will kill everyone!”

“We’ll save everyone with your new technology!”

Geeks:

Emergency Managers:

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there is a way

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Pattern: Disaster Tech Innovation

1. Disaster

2. Ad-Hoc Adaptation

3. Championship

4. Iterative Improvement8

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Ad-Hoc Adaptation:

http://twitter.com/nateritter

Handheld GPS+

Google Maps for Routes

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“Take the I-90 bridge...”

“The bridge is destroyed... still”

“but Google says...”

srsly?

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Problem: Google Maps isn’t Realtime

http://twitter.com/nateritter

Post Katrina

2007

2008

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Champion:Mikel Maron

geo-hacker,hero.

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• Iteration:

• Open Street Map

• Collaboration with Google & Yahoo

• Working with with UN & Aid Agencies

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Champion:Mikel Maron

Better Maps forHumanitarian Aid

&Better Products for

Everyone21

Pattern: Disaster Tech Innovation

1. Disaster

2. Ad-Hoc Adaptation

3. Championship

4. Iterative Improvement22

anti-pattern

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anti-pattern

1. Disaster

2. Ad-Hoc Adaptation

3. Championship

4. Iterative Improvement24

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Ad-hoc Adaptation:

Tenacious SearchDistributed analysis of imagery for Search & Rescue

Images put into Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing tool.

Possible hits sent to experts for review.

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Source: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-08/ff_jimgray_lost

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Champion:

none.

Public now believes that this is easily repeatable.

It was not.

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Iteration:

Steve Fossett SearchInadequate training for volunteers.

Many false positives.

People called SAR teams directly, hindering search.

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Anti-Pattern“In hindsight, I wish it hadn’t been there, because it didn’t produce a darn thing that was productive except for being a giant black hole for energy, time and resources. There may come a day when this technology is capable of doing what it says it can deliver, but boy, that’s not now.”

- Maj. Cynthia Ryan

http://www.humanitarian.info/2007/11/08/the-perils-of-the-distributed-approach/30

New Champion: InternetSAR

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How can WE be Champions?

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many kinds of disaster

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many opportunities

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define:

non-profit organization

...same as the Enterprise,but less money.

(also, actually desperate for Web 2.0)

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Find & Embrace Non-Profits

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Understand their needs

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“get boots on the ground”

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Serve those that Serve Others

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make a difference &improve your products

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Be Champions.

Jesse Robbinsjesse@oreilly.com

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