November 15, 2007
PreventionWeb launches
It’s fair to say that Craig Duncan was largely responsible for ReliefWeb, the site which has become the primary hub for the humanitarian community on the web. It’s not perfect, but there’s a number of good reasons for that, particularly the problem of addressing legacy systems in the age of Web2.0. He’s now moved from OCHA to UNISDR, and is the Senior Co-ordinator of PreventionWeb, a new website which hopefully will become similarly indispensible for the disaster prevention / risk reduction / preparedness community.
This demo gives you a good idea of what PreventionWeb is about, and it looks like Craig and his team at UNISDR have taken the opportunities presented in building a website from scratch. The layout is clean and the site is easy to navigate, and things like RSS feeds are clearly flagged, but the site doesn’t really take advantage of the full range of Web2.0 type interactive functions. This last point may become a problem, as UNISDR has correctly identified that they need to rely on contributions from practitioners, rather than generating all their own content; and engaging users more actively in the site is one of the best ways of doing that.Like the blurb says,
PreventionWeb is a new information service to increase knowledge on disaster risk reduction (DRR). For the first time, a website will provide a common tool for both specialists and non-specialists interested or working in the area of disaster risk reduction to connect, exchange experiences and share information.
There are two questions that will impact on the success of PreventionWeb. First, will people adopt it as a resource in the way that they have with ReliefWeb? Second, will ISDR be able to get beyond ReliefWeb’s relatively passive model and generate a sense of community around DRR? This is just the beta version, however, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the site develops.
Filed under United Nations, Web by Paul Currion
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Comments on PreventionWeb launches »
Dennis King @ 9:57 pm
Congratulations to Craig and his team at ISDR on the launch of PreventionWeb - the beta version looks very good and user friendly, and of course, it is nice to see that it complements the relief and response focus of ReliefWeb and is tailored to the unique information needs, issues and challenges of the disaster reduction and prevention community.
I feel that we might be on the verge of another tipping point (like the fortuitous timing in 1996) when a convergence of initiatives, innovations, culture change, and problems that can no longer be ignored come together to make some small but significant progress. Like Paul, I look forward to seeing how the site develops and will do what I can to contribute to and promote and support the project.
Dennis King
Analyst, Humanitarian Information Unit
US Department of State
Washington DC
PS. On my front, I am making slow but some progress on the prototype development of WebVISTA - a humanitarian situational visualization and analysis tool…
Paul Currion @ 12:44 pm
Dennis - if you have anything on WebVISTA that you want to share, feel free to send me the details and I’ll be happy to post them.
Craig Duncan @ 1:42 pm
Paul and Dennis,
Thanks for the kind words. For the record though, I definitely can’t take credit for the success of ReliefWeb. In fact, after 10 years, I would say that I am probably responsible for most of the site imperfections. As for the real value of the project, my full respect goes to the content team, whose efforts make the site a worthwhile destination. PreventionWeb is in its infancy, and I am well aware of the challenge that we need to overcome in order to make it a “go-to” place for DRR information.
Paul Currion @ 6:31 pm
Craig - I dithered about whether to point out that you had a whole team working with you, and weren’t just a one-man show, but it always seemed to me that you provided the continuity that enabled ReliefWeb to build on its success, rather than continually reinvent the wheel. However it goes without saying that I think that the content team have also done a sterling job over the years.