An Overview and History of the Sahana Free and Open Source Disaster Management Platform. What differentiates it and makes it a leading Disaster Management platform in the world

1. SahanaCamp IOTX

2. SahanaCamp IOTX
Overview + History of Sahana
“No innovation matters more
than that which saves lives”
Avelino J. Cruz, Jr., Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines
on the use of Sahana following disastrous mudslides in 2005

3. Agenda
• An Overview of Sahana
• What makes Sahana Unique?
• A history and evolution of Sahana
• The Sahana Foundation
• Case Studies…

4. The Sahana Project:
n What is it in a nutshell?
n Open Source
n Global Community Built
n Disaster Management
n Platform
n Mission
To save lives by providing
information management
solutions that enable
organizations and communities
to better prepare for and
respond to disasters

5. The Historic Trigger: 2004 Indian
Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami
☀ At least 226,000 dead
☀ Up to 5 million people
lost their homes, or
access to food and
water
☀ 1 million people left
without a means to
make a living
☀ At least $7.5 billion in
the cost of damages
“Facts and Figures: Asian Tsunami Disaster”
New Scientist, 20 January 2005

6. Typical Problems Responders had work on..
n Search And Rescue
n Setting up Shelters
n Effective Distribution
of Aid
n Management of
Donars and
Donations
Tracing Missing People
Trauma Counseling
Assuring Security of
Affected Areas
Protecting Children
Rehabilitation
Live saving decisions need to be made very fast!
The best decisions are the most informed ones
Disaster => Information Overload!

7. Government Relief
Local Authorities, Police,
Army, Fire fighters,
+ Authorized coord
+ Well trained
+ Accountable
+/- Big picture relief
(e.g. national security)
- Procedures create
bottlenecks
- Overloaded
Local Relief
Spontaneous volunteers,
corporate village
communities, friends and
family
+ first responders
+ lot of capacity
+ instant aid
- not trained
- focus unknown
- not accountable
UN, NGOs
Red Cross, OCHA, CARE,
WHO, Sarvodaya, etc
+ focused on people
+ trusted to accept aid
+/- less well trained
+ accountable
- Donor driven
- narrow focus / fragmented
Victims
Effective Collaboration and Coordination!
Relief
Disasters Coordination
Rapid Info Sharing and Collaboration Needed
10s of Orgs 100s of Orgs 1000s – 1 Mill

8. How Can I.T. Help?
Large Scale Info Management and Dissemination is an area IT excels in
n Scalable management of information
n No stacks of forms and files to manage
n Efficient distribution of information
n Accessibility of information on demand
n Automatic collation and calculation
n No delay for assessments and calculations
n Live Situation Awareness
n Reports are updated live as data goes in
IT Improves Manageability ( Impact α H x V / M )

9. “Sahana” – Relief in Sinhalese
Rapidly custom build for SL Gov to handle Tsunami
“Sahana”
Software
Rapidly Builds
Tsunami 2004
CNO Urgent
Requirements
Sri Lankan
IT Community
Sri Lankan IT Community =
LSF/LKLUG + SL IT Industry + Academia

10. Sahana first deployed for
Sri Lanka tsunami response

11. Tracking Missing People /
Casualties
n Shared Bulletin
Board of lost / found
n Computer based
search heuristics
n Tracking Family
units
n Analyzing networks
of connections
The Missing People Registry helps track and
find missing, people

12. Who is doing What, Where & When?
n Registry of operating
relief organizations
n Coverage of
Services
n Self-Allocation and
Reporting
n Contact Information
The Organization Registry helps maintain data
(contact, services, region, etc) of organizations
groups and volunteers working in the disaster

13. Matching Aid to Ground Realities
n Estimating Needs
n Matching Aid to
Ground Needs
n Inventories/Catalog
n Quantities
n Expiration dates
n Re-order levels
n Tracking Allocation
The Request Management System tracks all requests and
helps match pledges for support, aid and supplies to fullfilment

14. Lessons: Large Scale Disaster
Management Systems were rare!
n Surprisingly no one had built such a system
before! (we had asked FEMA, IBM)
n Identified many of the common coordination
problems of a large scale disaster disaster and
formulated modules to address them
BUT
n NEVER build a disaster management system
from scratch during a disaster again!!

15. Sahana Generic Platform Rebuild
A generic disaster management platform
LSF
Team
(+ SIDA)
Sahana
Software
A Global Need (2005)
Tsunami
Requirements
LSF Team = FOSS Geeks on Fellowships
Builds and Donates

16. Collaborative Situation Mapping
Collaborative Map of
n Hazards / Incidents
n Shelters (IDPs)
n (field) Hospitals
n Organizations
n Responders
n Stores
n etc
The Shelter Registry helps track data on all
shelters setup following the Disaster

17. Why Map Data?
Much faster situation awareness
Takes 5 seconds

18. Geographical Information System
(GIS)

19. We donated to the world as Open Source Software
What is (Free and) Open Source?
n Free as in Speech
n Freedom to access, run, modify and redistribute
n Open Source
n Is a set of principles and practices that promotes
access to the design and production of goods and
knowledge
n Regulated by Copyright Law
n Based on Copyright law, but spun on it's head (copyleft)
n Rights are passed perpectually to users
n GPL (FSF), LPGL (FSF), Apache (ASF), BSD, CPL
n Software becomes a Global Public Good
n Open Source software becomes a global public good

20. Why does Open Source make this better?
This was a natural alignment to Humanitrian Values
n Freely Available to deploy
n No discrimination on access (Red Cross CC #2)
n Ability to “leave technology behind” (RC CC #6)
n Rapid customization to actual needs with code
n L10N and integration (RC CC #5)
n Building local capacities & self-reliance (RC CC #6)
n Open system => Transparent and trustworthy
n Better acceptance than “foreign” proprietary systems
n Countries/NGOs can collaborate to develop
n Get the best minds from the world to participate in
building the software
n This should be a global public good
n Build on each others work by including it in project
Called Humanitarian-FOSS or H-FOSS

21. Lessons: Open Source in this domain
had tremendous acceptance
n The open source community coupled with the
humanitarian community sprit provided a
strong contributor motivation
n “Software Engineers without Boarders”
n Acceptance of an Open Source Disaster
Management system and HFOSS was
tremendous
(UNDP IOSN, ISCRAM, AsiaOSS, Govs)
n We hardly spent anything marketing the
product as it spread by word of mouth and by
every use

22. LSF + IBM + Community
● 2004 - Indian Ocean Earthquake &
Tsunami
● 2005 - Pakistan - Kashmir Earthquake
● 2005 - Philippine - Landslides
● 2006 - Indonesia - Yogjakarta
Earthquake,
● 2007 - Peru - Ica Earthquake
● 2007 - Bangladesh - Cyclone Sidr
● 2008 - China - Chengdu-Sitzuan
Earthquake
● 2008 - Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis
● 2008 - India - Bihar Flooding

23. Sahana Open Source Phase
Global Open Source Incubation Phase
LSF Team +
Global Community
Sahana
Software
Builds + Refines
Attracts + Grows
Disaster Incident
Urgent
Requirements

24. The 4 Sub-Communities of Sahana
H-FOSS
Free & Open
Source
Community
Humanitarian
Community
(NGOs)
Emergency
Management
(Gov, UN)
Academic
Research
Community

25. Different Perspectives of the elephant
Sahana became a melting pot of innovation
SAHANA
“Cool Open Source
Development
Platform!”
“Grass Roots:
By the Community
for the
Community”
“Rapidly
Customizable
EM System”
“A great
Crisis
Research
Platform”

26. A Community Support Example
n Multiple local groups reach out to Sahana
n Call out made in Sahana community
n One initiative progresses further
n L10N / Promotion, QA, Deployment
n IBM-China for Chendu Gov and then Police (China)
n 24x7 Technical Support
n LSF (SL), Trinity College (US), Community Individuals
n Funds and Sponsorship
n IBM-Foundation (US,China)
n 40+ Families reunited within first few days

27. A Community Response Example

28. LSF + IBM + Community
● 2004 - Indian Ocean Earthquake &
Tsunami
● 2005 - Pakistan - Kashmir Earthquake
● 2005 - Philippine - Landslides
● 2006 - Indonesia - Yogjakarta
Earthquake,
● 2007 - Peru - Ica Earthquake
● 2007 - Bangladesh - Cyclone Sidr
● 2008 - China - Chengdu-Sitzuan
Earthquake
● 2008 - Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis
● 2008 - India - Bihar Flooding

29. Endorsements as a leading Open
Source project
l New Free Software Foundation (FSF) award for
“Social Benefit” won and inspired by Sahana
l Sourceforge Project of the Month, June 2006
l Software 2006, CA USA Good Samaritan Award
l One of the top 10 Open Source Project to keep
an eye on – Network World article
l Recognized by forums such as:
- US WSIS, ISCRAM, UNDP IOSN, StrongAngel,
AsiaOSS Symposium, Emergency
Communications Asia

30. Sahana is not just Software
Global Community Incubation Phase
LSF Team +
Global Community
Sahana
Software
Builds + Refines
Grows
Disaster Incident
Urgent
Requirements
GSoC, Global FOSS

31. The Community Spreads (2007)
An Open Global Community (300+)

32. The community spreads so much that people want to do new projects
The Sahana Eden is Founded
• Sahana Eden is founded
• Stronger GIS and Reporting
capabilities
• Extremely Theamable
• Object Oriented Rapid
Application Development
Platform
• A structure is established to
govern projects and standards
This Makes Sahana Foundation a host for
multiple disaster management/H-FOSS
projects

33. Sahana Software Foundation gets
Established
● In 2009 a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization what
established to help promote Sahana internationally
● A Board is created to govern Sahana
● A common set of standards to run multiple projects
● Help guide vendor growth
● Membership is a Meritocracy on Contribution
● Mission: To save lives by providing information
management solutions that enable organizations and
communities to better prepare for and respond to
disasters

34. SSF replaced LSF as the custodian
Global Community Incubation Phase
SSF + Vendors
Global Community
Sahana
Software
Builds + Refines
Attracts + Grows
Disaster Incident or
Preparedness
Requirements

35. Preparedness Deployments
● 2007 - USA - Sahana Emergency Management System
● 2009 - USA - NLM: People Locator
● 2011 - Asia Pacific - Red Cross Resource Mapping System
● 2011 - Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Project Portal
● 2012 - Africa - EUROSHA Humanitarian Mapping Platform
● 2012 - Philippines - Relief Goods & Inventory Management
● 2013 - Timor Leste - Disaster Risk Management System
● 2013 - USA - Community Resilience Mapping Tool
● 2013 - Sri Lanka - Disaster Preparedness & Response Division
● 2011 - USA - Give2LA
● 2014 - Caucasus and Central Asia - Humanitarian Data Platform
● 2014 - USA - Maritime Common Operating Platform
● 2014 - Italy - Shelters & Evacuee Management

36. Disaster Response Deployments
● 2010 - Venezuela - Floods
● 2010 - Mexico - Veracruz Hurricane
● 2010 - Pakistan - Floods
● 2010 - Chile - Earthquake
● 2010 - Haiti - Earthquake
● 2011 - USA - Joplin Tornado
● 2011 - Japan - Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami
● 2011 - New Zealand - Christchurch Earthquake
● 2011 - Colombia - Floods
● 2012 - USA - Hurricane Sandy
● 2012 - Chile - Wildfires
● 2013 - Philippines - Typhoon Haiyan
● 2014 - Bosnia - Floods

38. Lessons: Innovation and Adoption
n Encourage innovation and internal competition
n Eden would not have happened if we stayed with
just one product
n There should always be one mature product
n 501(c)3 status and vendors was advantages to
promote deployments
n For preparedness the best model is a public-
private partnership with the Foundation and
Vendors on deployment

39. Community today
● 40 members from 12 countries
● Programs
o Google Code In
o Google Summer of Code
o Sahana Internship Program
o Training program
o SahanaCamp
Lead Partners

40. Testimonials
Faced with disaster situations, like those lived by [Chile] in the last
days, the need for information becomes imperative. With this Smart
Center, we can significantly reduce response times for the persons that
search, and optimize volunteer work.
Lorenza Donoso, President of the Chilean Red Cross on the Sahana Eden-based Smart
Center solution, used in response to wildfires in early 2012
Sahana [Eden] is blowing my mind. I can’t think of any project we’ve
done that we couldn’t build on this platform.
@CDRP_FSU (Center for Disaster Risk Policy at Florida State University), 2012
No innovation matters more than that which saves lives.
Avelino J. Cruz, Jr., Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines on the use of
Sahana following disastrous mudslides in 2005
The Sahana Software Foundation’s commitment to supporting
grassroots, community-led organizing endeavors has been astounding.
Devin Balkind,, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Sarapis Foundation on the
Sahana Software Foundation’s response to Hurricane Sandy, 2013
☀

41. Recognition
Computerworld Honors Laureate in Human Services 2013
Gartner “Cool Vendor” in Risk Management & Compliance 2010
Public Private Businesses Inc. Best Practices Award 2010

42. To Recap: Sahana is
n Open Source
n For alignment to Humanitarian Values
n Global Community Built
n A melting pot of global innovation with
shared investment
n Disaster Management
n A leading disaster management system
n Platform
n Rapidly configurable for a disaster response
requirement
● 22 Disaster Response Deployments
● 13 Disaster Preparedness Deployments
● 25+ Countries

43. Thank You
Chamindra de Silva
Director, Sahana Foundation
Director, Virtusa Corporation
chamindra@sahanafoundation.org

44. SahanaCamp IOTX