The Next Digital Humanitarians
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The Next Digital Humanitarians Presented September 2, 2015 at the World Humanitarian Youth Summit as part of the Transformation Through Innovation Panel. https://www.worldhumanitariansummit.org/youth Learn more on textontechs.com, qcri.org.qa, hotosm.org
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The Next Digital Humanitarians
- 1. World Humanitarian Youth Summit September 2, 2015 Heather Leson The Next Digital Humanitarians
- 2. Matter – how can we support humanitarians and affected communities?
- 3. New Technology tools integrated in the field
- 5. MicroMappers Curate Damage Assessment Data
- 6. Kathmandu Living Labs – civic tech hubs/labs support resilience
- 7. Mapping flood districts using UAVs by school children
- 8. Young Mappers in Indonesia, Bangladesh and the United States of America
- 9. Challenge: how can we teach more of these skills globally?
- 10. Challenge: how can we translate and connect diaspora communities ?
Editor's Notes
- Thank you to Reach out to Asia, The Children and Youth Major Group and the World Humanitarian Youth Summit for including me as a guest. I am honoured to be here to share some thoughts on implementing innovation. Matter. Each of us is here today because we think real change for humanitarian response matters. We want to help in this effort. There are some large problems to solve. We need the best minds. The astrolabe is a very ancient astronomical computer for solving problems relating to time and the position of the Sun and stars in the sky. (Photo by Heather Leson, Astrolabes, Katara Doha Qatar, November 2015, CCBY) How can we be the best problem solvers of our time using the best and appropriate tools?
- At the Qatar Red Crescent Disaster Management Camp, I spent 10 days with new recruits and seasoned responders. This photo is from an earthquake simulation. They taught me so much about how digital information fits and does not fit in their work. I met a young Syrian refugee there. He was around 20 years old and could no longer continue his studies to be an engineer. We need to make serious changes to give people the opportunity to learn. Whole generations are displaced around the world. As Dr. El-Hanna mentioned yesterday in his words – we need to use these reminders to hold ourselves accountable to make the necessary changes. I hope he can return to school someday. (Photo by Heather Leson, April 2015. CCBY)
- How many of you use Whatsapp? Have you created a list for people here – your new network of global leaders and allies? Have you created a twitter list? How will you ensure that you help each other on this journey when you return home? During times of emergency people will use the tools and networks that they know. They will help each other, share stories, and make a difference. It is really up to young people to be an information ambassador to those in their family and community who might not have access to these communication sources. Plus, it is important to teach each other best practices in civil society and support NGOs and our governments. The communications teams used their social savvy to practice online verification and human computing (harnessing ‘your network’), they live-tweeted events, crushed rumours and held press conferences with Twitter. They used WhatsApp to relay critical information during scenarios between two emergency sites, thus having the medical center receive updates via radio, phone and a WhatsApp messaging group. Pictures were also sent via WhatsApp by the response team to medical team to help them prepare. - See more at https://storify.com/heatherleson/qatar-red-crescent-disaster-management-camp What does implementation look like? How can we better connect offline and online activities? What programmes are needed to help support this around the world? A few weeks after disaster management camp some participants were activated to go to the Nepal. I saw pictures of them getting onto a plane knowing that they would be helping people. Along with 1000s of others, I also activated but “digitally”. To illustrate some pathways for next steps, I will share a few examples of small tasks to larger tasks plus a few models to consider.
- Digital Humanitarians provide online digital skills in times of crisis. They aim to provide support for humanitarians (eg. Information Officers) who manage all the data from multiple sources during a disaster. The Digital Humanitarian Network was formed a few years ago. This network of various communities collaborates directly with the United National Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). It is a global community network that use their digital skills to help Humanitarians get data, maps, insights and technology. They provide surge support capacity to manage the influx of so much information during times of crisis and emergencies. Each has their own community, skillsets and priorities. They work as a team and are ‘activated’ based on the needs assessment identified by the UN. http://digitalhumanitarians.com/ http://digitalhumanitarians.com/resources
- MicroMappers is a partnership of Qatar Computing Research Institute, UN OCHA and the Standby Task Force. We wanted to make it simple for people to contribute by making quick decisions about social media (text, pictures, videos) and aerial imagery. We defined keywords with official responders using AIDR – Artificial Intelligence of Disaster Response. This feeds into data insights which are shared with responders. In fact the Standby Task force shared this information with the UN OCHA and hundreds of other groups. They were part of an online network of digital responders who worked with Humanity Road and Kathmandu Living Labs to have items that needed action given to the right parties. More about QCRI’s work - http://www.slideshare.net/heatherleson/humanitarian-innovation-52253051
- Challenge #1 – how can hubs and labs be centers for digital response? How can civic tech communities like Kathmandu living labs teach each other about preparedness and response? What can we learn from them about humanitarian workflows for information and communication? Kathmandu Living Lab is a group of young people working to harness human potential and creativity by leveraging open data and civic technology. As community mappers, they have been leading community mapping activities throughout Nepal for a number of years. The civic tech response was lead by this mighty team after the Nepal Earthquake. They connected Digital Humanitarians, NGOs, responders, INGOs, civil society groups and ICT. They used maps, data, software and, most of all, inspired a global community by their ability to navigate some complex technical, personal and professional barriers, including losing their office space. See their blog. Photo courtesy of http://kathmandulivinglabs.org/ and Nepal Vote Monitor’s presentation on how they delivered actionable items to responders like the Nepal Red Crescent. https://prezi.com/yhxx6j5ifoky/quakemaporg/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
- The photos are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/markiliffe/albums/72157651152460865, they’re CC-SA-NC attribute to “Mark Iliffe". It was taken in Tandale, and it’s Freddie Mbuya, World Bank with school children from Tandale Primary School
- Young Mappers from Indonesia are part of a preparedness program of UNESCO. They were trained by OpenStreetMap Indonesia. The students with the umbrella are field mapping in Bangladesh. While the two students in the the left corner are mapping Bangladesh while at a Stanford mapathon (USA) Thanks to Chad, Yantisa and Stace of HOT for providing the stories). More on the OSM Indonesia project: “The Establishment of Community-based Point of Interest in Flood Prone Areas in Jakarta” is part of the “UNESCO’ World POI” Map Project which is implemented through UNESCO Office in Nairobi, Windhoek, New Delhi and Jakarta. - https://www.flickr.com/photos/osm-id/11701826574/in/album-72157639296892364/ Background - http://openstreetmap.id/en/pelatihan-pembentukan-point-of-interest-berbasis-masyarakat-di-daerah-rawan-banjir-jakarta-di-smkn-56-pluit/
- Challenge #2 – How can we learn from the processes and capacity building of Humanitarian OpenStreetmapTeam to help teach other digital skills? Could we have a school of digital humanitarianism? If the sustainable development goals have the world’s largest lesson, how can we learn from this and build a parallel project? https://www.tes.com/worldslargestlesson/ http://missingmaps.org/ http://learnosm.org/en/ http://mapgive.state.gov/ http://www.peacecorps.gov/
- Challenge #3: how can we support diaspora community involvement and language translation for responses? Next Day Better is a community and movement. There are over 10.5 million Philippine diaspora. They provide the 3rd largest remittances in the world - 26 billion (behind india and china) (Renjii’s paper, world bank data 2013) 10 percent of the country’s GDP. NDB pf. 27 NextDayBetter is a creative speaker and food series for diaspora communities. Our global events celebrate changemakers from untapped communities and call them to action. We believe that diasporas like the Philippines are hubs for inspiration and world-changing ideas. We’re bringing together the boldest innovators, creatives, and entrepreneurs to create solutions to the most pressing global challenges that we face today. http://translatorswithoutborders.org/ https://meedan.com/bridge/
- Well, to help figure out how we can teach and build capacity in this region, we will have digital humanitarians in Qatar meetups. Our goal is to teach people the basic skills and help them join these already active global communities. QCRI is keen to inspire local residents in Qatar to get involved in the global space. We will be hosting in person trainings and workshops to help people learn some fo the skills and get involved in the global community. Image includes OSM, infogr.am, Wikipedia free image and photo of Ji Lucas training. Made with Canva.com - More details about this programme - http://textontechs.com/2015/08/digital-humanitarians-in-qatar/ (First Workshop is in October) http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/305095#map=8/25.428/50.916&layers=H
- I welcome your questions and comments on this. (Photo by Heather Leson: Astrolabe, Katara, Doha, Qatar November 2015. CCBY)