The Comrades project, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, aims to empower communities during crises through an online platform for reporting emergencies. It enables citizens to share urgent information and facilitates responders in managing and processing these reports effectively. The project's objectives include developing a resilient socio-technical system to assess and monitor crisis situations and enhancing community response capabilities.

1. www.comrades-­‐project.eu

2. Funded
by
the
Horizon
2020
Framework
Programme
of
the
European
Union
7
Richter
Earthquake
CiEzens
hunt
for
informaEon,
to
grasp
what
is
happening,
to
learn
where
to
go,
and
how
to
get
or
offer
help.
• Phone
network
unstable
• SMS
works
• wifi
limited

3. Funded
by
the
Horizon
2020
Framework
Programme
of
the
European
Union
Messages
start
spreading
about
an
online
pla1orm
called
COMRADES
set-­‐up
by
Ushahidi
ac?vists,
which
ci?zens
can
send
crisis
reports
to,
online
or
via
anonymous
SMS.

4. Funded
by
the
Horizon
2020
Framework
Programme
of
the
European
Union
Dozens
of
responders
flog
to
the
COMRADES
plaPorm
to
help
process,
map,
and
translate
them
Thousand
reports
arrive
per
hour

5. Funded
by
the
Horizon
2020
Framework
Programme
of
the
European
Union
COMRADES:
• quickly
filters
the
ciEzen
reports
as
they
arrive
• removes
uninformaEve
and
irrelevant
ones
• points
out
unreliable
sources
• picks
up,
and
alerts
to,
several
lone
messages
requesEng
urgent
help,
sent
by
people
trapped
under
rubble
or
in
need
of
urgent
medical
help
• extracts,
groups,
and
monitors
unfolding
emergency
micro-­‐
events.

6. Funded
by
the
Horizon
2020
Framework
Programme
of
the
European
Union
Project
ObjecEves
COMRADES
aims
to
empower
communiEes
with
intelligent
socio-­‐technical
soluEons
to
help
them
reconnect,
respond
to,
and
recover
from
crisis
situaEons.
• Main
objecEves:
– Extract
the
socio-­‐technical
requirements
for
collecEve
resilience
plaPorms
– AutomaEcally
idenEfy,
process,
assess,
and
monitor
emergency
events
in
distributed
communi?es
and
social
media
sources
– Measure
the
informa?veness
and
validity
of
crisis
informaEon
– Develop
the
intelligent
COMRADES
pla1orm
for
community
resilience
– Deploy
COMRADES
to
support
real
and
distributed
communi?es
during
live
crises
events

7. Funded
by
the
Horizon
2020
Framework
Programme
of
the
European
Union
Work
Diagram

8. Funded
by
the
Horizon
2020
Framework
Programme
of
the
European
Union
ConsorEum
Knowledge
Media
insEtute,
The
Open
University,
UK
www.open.ac.uk
iHub
Ltd,
Kenya
www.ihub.co.ke
Universitetet
i
Agder,
Norway
www.uia.no/en
University
of
Sheffield,
UK
www.sheffield.ac.uk
Government
to
You,
Belgium
www.gov2u.org

9. Funded
by
the
Horizon
2020
Framework
Programme
of
the
European
Union
Contact
Dr
Harith
Alani
(co-­‐ordinator)
Knowledge
Media
insEtute
The
Open
University
h.alani@open.ac.uk
hap://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/harith/
www.comrades-­‐project.eu