How can you use your technology and social media skills to help NGOs during emergencies? All you need is a computer and Internet access. CrisisCommons.org is a Volunteer Technical Community (VTC) made up of a growing group of technical, project manager, emergency planner and social media knowledge workers. After the earthquake in Haiti, cities around North America and the UK started CrisisCamp (Haiti) in their locations to volunteer their time to "help the helpers". They are using social media tools to crowdsource collaboration on various projects from software development to opensource mapping to social media translation – work that is new and evolving every minute. Heather, Brian, Rachel and others from CrisisCommons (Toronto) will be addressing the question how can technology and knowledge workers volunteer their skills with one click of a mouse.

1. Heather Leson, Melanie Gorka and David Black
February 26, 2011 Podcamp Toronto

2. Crisis Commons is a global network of
volunteers who use creative problem solving
and open technologies to help people and
communities in times and places of crisis.
Crisis Commons members organize response
events called CrisisCamps.

3. Applied Social Media

4. Code, test tools, translate, map, wiki, Twitter,
Facebook, communicate, collaborate, plan,
coordinate, iterate, brainstorm, research,
analyze, report, broker relationships, create
content, videos, pictures, slideshare, and
document

5. 90 days
8 countries
50 events
+2000 volunteers

6. CrisisCamp Paris

7. CrisisCamp Argentina

8. CrisisCamp Bogota

9. Team Canada

10.  Sahana Foundation
 Ushahidi, Swift River and Crowdmap
 OpenStreetMap
 Frontline SMS
 Crisismappers
 Random Hacks of Kindness
 Humanity Road
 Geeks without Bounds
 HFOSS and more

12. Random Hacks of Kindness 1.0
June 2010 - 5 countries
500 volunteers
RhoK Sydney, Australia

14. Nairobi to Montreal via Sydney and London
Ovoo + Skype + Twitter + IRC +
Wiki + Email
= 2 hours

15. CrisisCamp Pakistan
August – September 2010

16. Mobile phones are global.
What if you read a text message (SMS) and could
help your neighbour?
+ Text message + short code
+ Report
+ Read, search, document and categorize
+ Map

17. Pakreport.org

18. CrisisCamp London (UK) for Pakistan Floods

19. Global CrisisCamp Marathon
September 4 – 5, 2010
24 hours
CrisisCamps:
Toronto Silicon Valley Sydney Bangkok London
Dozens of virtual volunteers collaborating with the
CrisisMappers , Sahana, OpenStreetMap and other
teams.

20. CrisisCamp Sydney

21. Random Hacks of Kindness 2.0
(RHoK)
December 2010
10 countries, 21 cities
1000 volunteers

22. RHoK Chicago

23. RHoK Toronto /Open Data Hackathon with CrisisCamp Toronto

28. So what does it all mean?
4 days
995 reports (verified and mapped)
82,121 unique visitors
From 65 countries
100s of local volunteers
Global volunteers and observers

29. Heather@textontechs.com
Melanie.gorka@gmail.com
rdavidblack@gmail.com
@crisiscampto
@crisiscamp
@crisiscommons
Crisiscommons.org
Photos by:
heatherleson, Brian Chick, Cynthia Gould, Mariella,
Ratzilla, Tolmie Macrae, Deborah Shaddon, Spike,
Luis Aguilar