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Mobile Collaboration for Disaster Response

Problems, Methods, and Tools

Robert KirkpatrickChief Technology Officer

We create free and open-source software

for collaboration toward collective action.

We then teach other people how to create it for themselves.

Some of the most pertinent questions in disaster response…are collaboration questions

What information

isn’t getting to

those who need

it?

Which groups should be

making more decisions together?

What field reports and alerts

should come faster?

Which systems

need to share

information?

In our opinion, collaboration, in humanitarian action is THE critical task

Refugee management

Cholera outbreak

Katrina response

What ought to happen every time:

1. Diverse organizations self-organize temporarily into a coherent whole.

2. Information flows freely, reliably, and securely.

3. Information flows up, down, and sideways.

4. Information flows across geographic, cultural, technical, and organizational boundaries

5. Information shared is timely, accurate, complete, relevant, and credible.

6. All actors -- including those in the field, in the community, at the edge of the network – maintain a common operating picture.

7. The response is agile, coordinated, efficient, and effective.

Challenges in crisis collaboration• Harsh field conditions

• Slow, unreliable networks

• Hot, tired, busy, scared users

• Disincentives for cooperation

• Unsuitable platforms

• Slow and inaccurate data collection

• Lack of tools for information sharing

• Low signal-to-noise ratio

• How to include the local community?

The role of collaboration technology• Problem

– Agencies can’t (or won’t) collaborate effectively in crisis.

• Observation– Technical obstacles are an easy scapegoat and are frequently used

as an excuse for not working together.

• Hypothesis– Mutual recognition that there is a new class of software that is

effective, free, standards-based, easy to use, sustainable, measurable, and flexible…will change the rules of the game.

• Approach– We’ve built four free and open-source tools as prototypes for

improved collaboration in crisis. They fill gaps we identified.

• Implementation – beta evaluation in progress with all four in Southeast Asia

We think this is what collaboration requires…(…and we hope you have already built much of this.)

We work on several principles…

• Participatory design

• Agile development

• Build only where we must

• Internal capacity first

• Teach innovation

Innovation LabPhnom Penh

Stung Treng Province, Cambodia: SMS is the only option…

Mesh4X: a data-mesh synchronization platform:bring together tools, services, data, and people in a collaborative network

•Cross-device

•Cross-platform

•Cross-application

•Redundant

•Socially-neutral

•Standards-based

•Works offline

•HTTP and SMS

•Hibernate, KML, and JavaRosa

Linking early detection to rapid response:from a faint signal to collective action

Merge &

Analyze

- Collective understanding- Response initiation

Immediate analysis & decision support

Peer-to-peer information sharing and collaboration

Informed collectiveaction

Real-time exchange of information

Mesh4X and Forms on Mobile Phones

• Collect information in the field

• Press “sync”

• The information on the phone can be linked by Mesh4x and SMS to:

– spreadsheets

– databases

– Google Earth

– And to anywhere in the world

GeoChat: Emergent Awareness

GeoChat Preview Features

1. Group chat on a map surface

2. Via SMS, email, or browser

3. Int’l gateway +45 60 99 10 321

4. Twitter integration

5. SMS command interface

6. Automatic geo-coding

7. Supports location and tags

8. Public or private chat groups

9. Optional anonymity

10. RSS feed relay over SMS

Example command syntax

Reflections for discussion

Mobiles play a critical but partial role in crisis management.

Successful mobile collaboration solutions for crisis management will have broad utility in other settings and markets.

As with all disaster technology, interoperability trumps features. Pay attention to ease of data access and data integration when shopping.

Broad adoption and daily use are key, so look at other scenarios.

Issues: anonymity vs. verifiability, authentication, authorization, data retention.

Thoughts?

Robert KirkpatrickCTO, InSTEDDhttp://www.instedd.org+1 650 796 [email protected]: robertkirkpatrick