Bridging the Gap ThinkTank
Welcome!
Welcome and Introductions
• Organisation– Tolmie MacRae– Rebecca Paget– Maurits van der Vlugt
• And of course: You!
• Thank You!– Google Australia for the Catering
Program for the day
• 9 – 11 AM: Morning presentations• 11:30 AM:– Ushahidi 101– Dev/Hacker & Business Streams
• 1 PM Lunch• 2 PM: – Open StreetMap info session– Streams Continue
• 4:30 PM: Reconvene, present outcomes• 6PM: End
Morning ProgramTime Speaker Topic
9:05 Tolmie MacRae Crisis Commons
9:15 Lea Clarke (Red Cross)Red Cross’s engagement with tech tools
9:30 Andrew Harvey (Lagen Spatial) Open Street Map
9:45 Stephen Collins (AcidLabs) Government, tech and volunteers
10:00 Lew Short (RFS) Social Media for Community Resilience
10:15Lisa Wilhelmseder (Green Cross Australia) Harden-Up!
10:30Maurits van der Vlugt (BushfireConnect) BushfireConnect & Ushahidi
10:45 Monique Potts (ABC) Crowdsourcing during the Qld Floods
11:00 Morning Tea
Trust, Transparency & Timeliness
Using social media to empower communities in the face of disaster
Maurits van der Vlugt
There is a need for change […]
Empower communities with Timely, Relevant
and Tailored information
Craig Lapsley, VIC FSC
”
”
Photo: ieplexus.com
Bridging the Ecosystems
A2C Sample
Twitter Earthquake Detector (TED)• Filter Tweets for
Earthquakes (place, time, keyword)
• <60 sec detection
• Contextual info (photos, narratives)
13
Social Media & Queensland Floods
Photo: Courier Mail
Agency to Community
Community Reporting 1
Community Reporting 3
Community Reporting 2
Harvesting Crowdsourced information
The Fear Factor
The Fear Factor
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
• “Crisis Commons” worldwide community • Citizen reporting site up within hours– Using Ushahidi Platform (free & open source)– Hosted on the cloud– Hundreds of volunteers across the globe– Collect, validate & map citizen reports
Black Saturday: Information Breakdown
• Official Agencies & Emergency Services– Slow & Overwhelmed– 000 Overloaded
• Few Alternative Sources– Rumours & Misinformation
• Confusion, Misdirection, …
Community Need
• From Strathewen Recovery Committee:– Grassroots Community Reporting
• Fast, localised, community driven
– Self-help – Integration with Official Sources
• Integrate with Agency Feeds• Inform Emergency Services (add to COP)
Bushfire Connect initiative
Bushfire Connect
• Community Powered
• Community Resilience
• Integrate Crowd Sourced and Official Information
Citizen Reports
• SMS• Web form• Emails• Twitter• Smartphone
Incident Alerts – OPT IN
• SMS• Email• RSS…
Where to from here?
• Since May 2010– ‘Live’ site up and running (launched 7 Feb)– Volunteer time & $2000 cash– Community Engagement (Trials: Eaglehawk, Flowerdale)– Very little fire activity!
• Next steps– Get ready for 2011/12 Fire Season– Partners & Sponsors
• Grant application submitted
– All Hazards
Recap
• Timely– Near real time publishing of reports
• Relevant– Combining official and community reports
• Tailored– Alerts tailored to your needs
We are looking for partners & volunteers!
• http://bushfireconnect.org• Twitter: @bushfireconnect• [email protected]
(Or email me: [email protected] )
• Join the “Ushahidi-101” training session after morning tea?
Bridging the Gap, What’s next?
• 3 Streams– Ushahidi 101– BarCamp (Ideas/Projects!)• Tech/hacking• Business
Reconvene
• Group reports• Discussion• Next steps
Recommended
