Disaster Tech
Mikel Maron
Jesse Robbins

Learn how to turn your
emerging technology into
lifesaving technology.

Pattern: Disaster Tech Innovation
1.Disaster
2.Ad-Hoc Adaptation
3.Championship
4.Iterative Improvement

<breathe>

Hurricane Katrina
‣ 1800+ Dead
‣ Millions displaced
‣ $81+ Billion in Damage

Ad-Hoc Adaptation:
Many Using Gmaps
http://twitter.com/nateritter

ARC: “Take the I-90 bridge...”
Jesse: “The bridge is destroyed”
ARC: “but Google says...”

Problem: Google Maps isn’t Realtime
Post Katrina
2007
2007 http://twitter.com/nateritter

Champion:
OpenStreetMap (OSM)

Iteration:
UN considering OSM
•UNJLC Interagency Humanitarian
Common Service
•Building UNSDI-t from the top
down
•But now considering OSM for
lightweight, open bottom up

Pattern: Disaster Tech Innovation
1.Disaster
2.Ad-Hoc Adaptation
3.Championship
4.Iterative Improvement

<breathe>

San Diego Wildfires
‣ 900,000+ Evacuees
‣ 500,000 Acres Burned
‣ 1500+ Homes Destroyed

Ad-Hoc Adaptation:
Nate Ritter’s Twitters
http://twitter.com/nateritter
http://twitter.com/nateritter

Ad-hoc Adaptation:
American Red Cross
http://twitter.com/redcross

Champion:
InSTEDD - SMS GeoChat

Iteration:
InSTEDD
Working with traditional Disaster
Agencies to build new tools.
Distributing work as Open Source

<breathe>

Boxing Day Tsunami
225,000 Dead

Boxing Day Tsunami
225,000 Deaths
Preventable with
existing technologies

Ad-Hoc Adaptation:
JRC Tsunami Model
1.USGS GeoRSS earthquake feed
2.EU Commission lightweight
tsunami propagation model
3.GeoRSS polygons republished

Ad-Hoc Adaptation:
JRC Tsunami Model

Champion:
GDACS: Global Disaster Alert & Coordination
System
http://www.gdacs.org

Iteration:
Pending.
Will these technologies save lives?
We won’t know until they do...
or don’t.

saving lives
means
losing lives

<breathe>

anti-pattern

Anti-Pattern
1.Disaster
2.Ad-Hoc Adaptation
3.Championship
4.Iterative Improvement

Ad-hoc Adaptation:
Tenacious Search
Distributed analysis of imagery for
Search & Rescue
Images put into Amazon.com’s
Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing tool.
Possible hits sent to experts for
review.

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

Champion:
none.
Public now believes that this is
easily repeatable.

Iteration:
Steve Fossett Search
Inadequate training for
volunteers.
Many false positives.
People called SAR teams
directly which hindered
search.

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/

New Champions:
InternetSAR

New Champions:
InternetSAR
“ABSOLUTELY UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES are
InternetSAR.org participants to report objects
found in imagery we provide directly to search
authorities. [...] The reason for this policy is that
our systems are set up to manage and filter
reports for search teams and those who bypass
our reporting system can actually impede the
efforts of search teams.”

<breathe>

Pattern: Disaster Tech Innovation
1.Disaster
2.Ad-Hoc Adaptation
3.Championship
4.Iterative Improvement

Be Champions

you don’t choose the moment...
the moment chooses you.
You only choose how prepared
you are when it does...
-Chief Mike Burtch
Mikel Maron - mikel@mapufacture.com
Jesse Robbins - jesse@oreilly.com