Scaling Crisismapping

Scaling Crisismapping

Sara-Jayne FarmerChange Assembly

WHERE WE’VE BEEN: WHY

Why

Broken Systems

• Communities• Processes• Tech• Innovation

(Some of) What Broke

• Crisis Data– Remote vs Ground disconnect– Crisis vs Development disconnect– Deployment lead overload

• Development Data– Broken data formats, access, coverage, standards– Ignored data sources– Human vs Data disconnect

• Communities– Stovepipes, fiefdoms, imperialism, finding…

I’ve tried to help fix that from…• CrisisCamp London• Crisiscommons projects• Standby Task Force• Humanity Road• United Nations – EOSG/ Global Pulse• Ushahidi developers• (pacifist) military system design• NY VOST• Crisismappers NYC• ICT4D London• ICCM• Humanitarian systems consultancy• Also been in one tornado, two hurricanes, snowstorms, floods, 1 nuclear alert, 1

conflict, 1 cold war, but never as an on-the-ground responder

WHERE WE’VE BEEN: CRISIS DATA

Typical Workflow

Find…

Listen…

Estimate…

Geolocate…

Erm… you also need a map…

Analyse

Use

WHERE WE’VE BEEN: DEVELOPMENT DATA

Typical Workflow

Data Access

Online, under an open license

Structured (e.g. Excel, not PDF)

Non-proprietary (e.g. CSV, not Arcgis)

URI / API (so people can point at it)

Linked to other data (to give context)

Clean

StandardiseDR Congo in Data.UN.Org:

• “Congo, Democratic Republic of the”, “Congo Democratic”, “Democratic Republic of the Congo”, “Congo (Democratic Republic of the)”, “Congo, Dem. Rep.”, “Congo Dem. Rep.”, “Congo, Democratic Republic of”, “Dem. Rep. of Congo”, “Dem. Rep. of the Congo”

DR Congo in common standards:

• “Democratic Republic of the Congo” (UN Stats), “Congo, The Democratic Republic of the” (ISO3166), “Congo, Democratic Republic of the” (FIPS10, Stanag), “180” (UN Stats), “COD” (ISO3166, Stanag), “CG” (FIPS10)

Analyse

Use

WHERE WE’VE BEEN: KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Knowledge Aggregators

Knowledge Aggregators

Knowledge Aggregators

Connectors

Specialisations

Training

Technologies

• Hackathons (H4D2, RHOK, Space Apps Challenge)

• Open source codebases (Ushahidi, Sahana, Taarifa, ckan, OpenStreetMap etc)

• Commercial software (ESRI, Google, dropbox, skype, Crowdflower, ning, sparkrelief, recovers.org, many startups etc.)

• Academic experiments (e.g. TweakTheTweet)

• I.e. code and work from many of you…

Evolving Technologies

AT THE SAME TIME: BIG DATA

Enthusiastic Sponsor

Knowledge Aggregators

Specialisations & Embedding

Industry & Tool Maps

Formal (Free) Training

Knowledge Sharing

Targetted Volunteering

AT THE SAME TIME: CITIZEN SCIENCE

Grassroots Communities

Communities of Communities

Mixing Communities and Commerce

WHERE WE’RE GOING

These things are good

• Crisismapping established as a field• Talented individuals have new routes into humanitarian

work• Academic and VTC communities formed• Healthy open-source software environment• Changed UN from broadcast to (partly) listen• Added surge capacity and social media analysis to crises• Encouraged other communities-for-good

But Some Differences

• No big publisher-sponsors• Less focus on grassroots capabilities• European communities still disconnected• Little formal training• Almost no meetups• No visible benefits to companies (but insurance?)• Few volunteer reward systems• Unformed markets for systems and services• Very little knowledge curation• No “in a box” kit for countries/ cities/ communities

What could we do?

• Catalogue what we have– Encourage visible knowledge aggregators– Map what we have (e.g. Mendelay, tools, companies)– Populate datastores

• Apply data & citizen science business patterns– Adjust patterns to our environment– Check what's there, what's missing, what's unique

e.g. these patterns

• Build better connectors – Reach out to stakeholders– Make the commercial case for mapping– Create and equip local communities– Embed mappers in organisations

• Understand roles– Describe specialisations

• Build better tools– Fit tools to people’s problems– Create tools for non-specialists

• Etc.

e.g. Build better EU Connectors

• NGOs• Emergency services• Military• Academics• Local organisations• Local people• Hackers• VTCs• Etc.

e.g. Reach out to Stakeholders

• Map the stakeholders• Make the commercial case for mapping• Embed mappers in organisations• Create and equip local communities• Start meetupsEtc.

e.g. Describe Specialisations

• Turksourcer• Specialist volunteer• Community lead• Designer• SMEM specialist• Etc.

[email protected]@bodaceacat

www.ChangeAssembly.comwww.opencrisis.net

www.overcognition.comicanhazdatascience.blogspot.com

www.meetup.com/crisismappersnyc