Comments on: PreventionWeb launches

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:31:54 +0000

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.

By: Craig Duncan

Craig Duncan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:42:48 +0000

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.

By: Paul Currion

Paul Currion — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:44:52 +0000

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.

By: Dennis King

Dennis King — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:57:41 +0000

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…