We’ve been recovering from 28c3, Journey to the End of the Year, and Berlin New Year’s Eve all day today at the Unicorn Fortress. Did you know fireworks are legal to shoot off in the city of Berlin? The big, loud ones, too. So it’s kind of terrifying – bright flashes, bangs resounding off the buildings, and cartridges strewn throughout the streets. We sat up late through the night discussing holistic and Cartesian approaches, gender politics, and the slippery slope of Getting Involved.
But the video that is referenced in the title! That is what you came to this entry for. Here is Tomate and me giving a talk on Security in Response at the 28th Chaos Communications Congress.
I have triumphantly retuned to Berlin, land of club mate and hacker activism. It’s time for the yearly conference of Chaos Communications Congress, the longest running hacker con in the world. I have the honor of speaking with Herr Urbach of Telecomix, on “Your Disaster/Crisis/Revolution just got Pwned” We’ll be in Saal3 day four at 11:30a. The whole congress streams and you should definitely check out what you can, but definitely catch ours. Here’s the prezi we’ll use, check again later for an updated deck and video.
Willow was recently a guest on the Zombie Tech podcast. Zombie Tech is a “forum for engineers, scientists, and inventors to ponder on the technologies needed to survive the inevitable zombie apocalypse!”
Willow talks about what Geeks without Bounds is, what we do, how we do it, and some of the challenges we’ve encountered as a middle-man between humanitarian organizations and hackers. There’s a discussion of open source tools, including Ushahidi, which is an excellent open source tool for crisis mapping.
In keeping with my current inability to type (broke an arm), check out this totally rad VizThink Prezi I drew up, and check out the RHoK blog post (video reposted below).
Occupy CanHas is a GWOB project combining Twitter, Google Maps, CouchDB, bits of glue and some duct tape. (OK, I’m lying about the duct tape.) The idea is that people at the various Occupy protests around the world need various things and their supporters in the general community have the stuff to fill those needs. By tweeting @OccupyCanHas, an occupier can request much needed supplies. By tweeting @OccupyHas, an Occupy supporter can let the world know that they’ve solved the need.
When the project is complete, CanHas requests will be mapped out based on geo-data from Twitter (when safe) and location hashtags such as #occupyseattle, as well as categorized based on the hashtags #shelter #warmth #food #water #medical #legal #media #backup. An Occupy supporter can then search the needs database based on geography or need category. When a tweet is sent to @OccupyHas saying that the need has been met, the request is removed from the lists of open needs.
Willow created an example of an exchange in practice: @willowbl00 sez: @OccupyCanHas we need a #tent down here in #seattle #westlake #shelter
@benacker sez: I dropped a #tent to @willowbl00 via @OccupyHas.
When @willowbl00 sent her tweet, the app would post her request to the map in Westlake, Seattle and the request would be listed in the “Shelter” category on the OccupyCanHas website. When @benacker responded via @OccupyHas, Willow’s request would be removed from the needs listings.
Currently, we need five (5) things to push this project forward:
1.) More server code for aggregating tweets for map display and tracking answers. This does the best of it’s ability based on hashtags, locations, and addresses.
2.) Google Maps API coding with geolocation resolving, using the icons to indicate need and location.
3.) We need a better ‘Instructions’ page detailing how to request and how to respond.
4.) We need a place for people to be able to respond to requests using Twitter directly from the site.
5.) We need it to look pretty. Throw your design skill at our mad code so people will enjoy using it!
RHoK is fast approaching – this weekend, in fact! GWOB is hosting three events – Milwaukee, Portland, and a Main Stage in San Francisco! We’ll be working on a myriad of problems, but one spoke to each of us was Bicycle Commute Mapping.
Develop an easy way for everyday bicycle commuters to log their commutes (either by logging onto a website similar to mapmyride.com or having it automatically logged through a smart phone app.) such that the aggregate data of their commutes are displayed on a map (perhaps a google map).
It could be used to inform decisions about where to prioritize transportation infrastructure improvements to encourage increased levels of bicycle commuting. Currently, urban planners do not have good statistics about bicycle commuting, in terms of how many bikers are commuting, from where to where they are commuting, and the routes they are taking. Knowing such information could help planners both prioritize projects designed to make bicycle commuting more attractive, and have the data to convince stakeholders to support the projects.
An easy to read map showing bicycle commuter routes would encourage more people to commute by bike (because they see just how many other people are biking)
The map could also help biker be more safe by encouraging them to all use the same route (a biker on a street with lots of other bikers is safer than a biker on a street rarely used by other bikers).
Bike commuting itself has many health benefits, as well as the many environmental benefits that come with reduced use of cars for transportation needs.
You can dive right in by starting a discussion on the link above – the bulk of the work will happen over the weekend, though, so be sure to register!
This is the third in a 3-part series on collaboration amongst humanitarian agencies, NGOs, and similar organizations (see parts one and two).
________________________________________________
Wonderful! Now, give me some concrete examples of how to use this humanitarian network to effectively collaborate.
Gladly.
The new wave of humanitarian response that is brewing just under the noses of most aid organizations is VTCs: Volunteer Technology Communities. These communities create technological tools to increase the efficiency, ease, and timeliness of disaster relief, especially in areas that are rural, have little in the way of technology or communication resources, or topographical and mapping information.
Who are the people in these communities? These people are experts in the field of innovation, creativity and problem solving. They are programmers, engineers, systems administrators (to name a few), a hodgepodge of technological knowledge and skill. They know how to collaborate.
How can these VTCs be used to further the humanitarian effort? Once the humanitarian network is put into effect, agencies will be able to create a system of layperson response that directly engages these communities and uses the tools they have created specifically for the use of aid organizations. Great examples of these communities are GameSave, Ushahidi, Crisis Mappers, Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK), and Open Street Map.
Communication is a huge issue in getting first responders out to hard-stricken areas in a disaster situation. Technology created in VTCs can be used to inform agencies of areas in the most need, verify incidences in areas with little capacity for communication, and provide eyes on the ground.
This is why having a standardized communication, information and resource-sharing network is incredibly important; it increases the ability of disaster relief agencies to meet the needs of people in emergency situations. Food, medical supplies, and other resources can be fed directly to those in the most need, saving time that would otherwise be wasted on determining where to send aid.
Using VTCs for disaster response is one of many possibilities for a humanitarian network. A slew of options become available by creating a network of cooperating agencies. With these tools and open collaboration, disaster and emergency response can be further enhanced and developed to assist those in need.
In October Willow Brugh and Lisha Sterling launched a new podcast about geekdom, technology and society: BrainMeats! The plan is to release one podcast per month, supplemented by frequent blog posts posted about the topics discussed in that month’s show. For the first episode of BrainMeats! Willow hosted a conference call via Skype with Ari Lacenski, Eleanor Saitta, Matthew Borgatti, Rubin Starset, and Smári McCarthy about the history of OWS, the meaning of illegibility within the movement, software tools for protesters, and what hackers and makers can do to support the movement.
The podcast starts out with with a history lesson of sorts from Smári, explaining how we got to this point. As the economy collapsed in Iceland, Ireland, and Greece, people took to the streets in protest. Then, in December of last year, a popular revolution in Tunisia was followed in January by uprisings in Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Syria and protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara.
The whole cascade of protests, civil wars and revolutions became known as the “Arab Spring”, and the courage of the people who took to the streets against totalitarian regimes gave the people of the West an example to follow in reacting to our own political issues. Over the summer, the people of Israel took to the streets, first to protest the high price of cottage cheese, then to protest the high price of housing, and finally to demand social justice across a swath of economic, racial and political issues. On September 17, the Occupy Wall Street protest began in New York, and by October 6, a planned peace protest in Washington, D.C. became subsumed into the Occupy Wall Street movement. By the second week in October, the Occupy movement had spread throughout the Western nations. At this point, there have been Occupy protests in over 900 cities worldwide.
In fact, the differences between the Arab uprisings and the protests in Iceland, Europe and the United States may not be so large. All of these protests were triggered by particularly difficult economic situations which have been brought on at least in part by financial corruption of governments by corporations and the very wealthy. Another similarity between all of these cases is the use of the Internet and mobile technology to schedule the protests, enable communication during civil actions, and spread the news of events on the ground directly without the mediation of corporate-owned news outlets.
Willow asked what the connection between the Occupy movement and open source culture might be. “I think that it’s a reflection of the participatory culture movement that we’ve been seeing… in everything from Maker Faire to the hacker space movement… to increasing interest in citizen journalism.” Ari explained, “…This is an ongoing movement toward every person in a society having a more of stake in what happens to them rather than just saying, ‘Well you know, these corporations control the media and I guess we just have to live with that.’”
A portion of the discussion centered on individual tools that have been created in response to the needs of protesters. The lessons of early 2011 have led to new ways of using technology in an activist mode. Some software tools have been offered as a way to give more anonymity to protesters, and some of those have turned out to be less than secure. Even in the case of programs that were written with the best of intentions, sometimes they can be two edged swords that can be used by the authorities against activists as well. Other tools, like Vibe or Sukey deal with location-specific communication. During this section of the discussion, Matt told us about NoiseTor, Noisebridge’s Tor exit node service that you can support with donations to help provide anonymity to browsers, journalists, and activists anywhere in the world.
Not all open source tools are software, either. Ideas for organization and best practices can be “open source”, and some of the best methods for public speaking, voting, organizing committees and meeting the basic needs of the movement have spread quickly through the occupations around the world. Musicians and artists have been creating creative commons works to spread the ideas of the movement and support the protesters. Designers have been creating open source designs for posters, placards, and other items, in order to help people express themselves.
The end of the discussion revolved around some of what makes the Occupy movement special. Some of the participants felt that the illegibility, the difficulty in understanding just what the protesters want, is part of the power of this movement. The lack of a unified platform beyond the need to dismantle the power of corporations and money over people creates a need to speak to individuals more closely if you want to understand the movement as a whole. The flavor of the protests comes from those face-to-face discussions, the small meetings and the large general assemblies that make up the political process within the movement. In essence, what is special about Occupy is that it is suggesting new ways of functioning in society not just through theoretical discussion but through trial and error on the ground. Perhaps Occupy can’t be understood from the outside at all because it is participatory by nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Israeli_housing_protests http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street See http://hiphopoccupies.com/ as an example. Other examples have been springing up faster than I can keep track of them all.
This is the second in a 3-part series on collaboration amongst humanitarian agencies, NGOs, and similar organizations. Part one is here.
________________________________________________
How can humanitarian aid collaboration be accomplished? How can we change the system of cutthroat competition to one of healthy collaboration?
In order to create an environment of collaboration between these aid organizations, a standard of communication, information sharing and record keeping must be adopted. This creates a system of trust, where organizations are transparent in their intentions, resources (including money, information, and technology), and future goals.
It’s all well and good to speak of collaboration and trust in theory, but when it comes down to actually opening up your books and giving away information, organizations get a little hesitant. Who takes the first step? Who establishes that trust-based network in a concrete way? How do these agencies know they won’t be taken advantage of?
To create this safe space for humanitarian agencies and organizations, the groundwork must be laid for the post-scarcity model mentioned before. In a system of abundance, sharing of knowledge and resources is the norm. This changes the current system from one of competition to one of support. The first step in creating an abundance-based model is to establish unconferences where participants representing aid organizations come to discuss issues without a pre-written agenda, and come up with solutions and action plans as a community.
Once this atmosphere of community has been established, humanitarian organizations can ask for the resources they need from their new network without fear of repercussion or loss of funding.
Another big step to establishing a humanitarian network is to standardize the way funding is applied to organizations. These organizations can work together to create a model of resource assignment within their network that best allocates funding for each organization. With the creation of an open network of information, reinvention of the wheel will virtually become a thing of the past.
For example, if FEMA needs software for locating disaster victims (such as LifeLocator), and The Salvation Army already has a distribution and communication system using that software up and running, why don’t they share it? Who would it benefit for FEMA to do double work and recreate software that already exists? The time and resources that would have been used to duplicate an already existing resource can be used to benefit the humanitarian effort in another way – perhaps in infrastructure or relief aid implementation.
The possibilities of how resources can be repurposed to create a more efficient and purposeful emergency response network are endless once organizations are able to collaborate with each other in the truest sense of the word.
________________________________________________
Tune back in for the third and final installment of our series on humanitarian networking, where we’ll talk about concrete examples of collaboration benefits.
Comments