DisasterTech
Serving those
that Serve Others
Jesse Robbins
O’Reilly Radar
jesse@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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Geeks:
“We’ll save everyone with
our new technology!”
Emergency Managers:
“It will never work and
you’ll kill everyone!”
Foolish Scared
None Lots
Experience
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Geeks:
“OMG No! It won’t work
and it will kill everyone!”
Emergency Managers:
“We’ll save everyone with
your new technology!”
Foolish Scared
None Lots
Experience
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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 Improvement
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Ad-Hoc Adaptation:
Handheld GPS
+
Google Maps for Routes
http://twitter.com/nateritter
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15

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srsly?
“Take the I-90 bridge...”
“The bridge is destroyed... still”
“but Google says...”
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Problem: Google Maps isn’t Realtime
Post Katrina
2007
2008 http://twitter.com/nateritter
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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 for
Humanitarian Aid
&
Better Products for
Everyone
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Pattern: Disaster Tech Innovation
1. Disaster
2. Ad-Hoc Adaptation
3. Championship
4. Iterative Improvement
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anti-pattern
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anti-pattern
1. Disaster
2. Ad-Hoc Adaptation
3. Championship
4. Iterative Improvement
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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. 26

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 Search
Inadequate 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/
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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 Robbins
jesse@oreilly.com
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