Tag Archives: ISCRAM

The links are coming fast and furious this month – it must be something to do with the US elections…

• I was busy with work when Ushahidi launched their alpha version, just in time for a test run in DRC. Hopefully lots of lessons learned will come out of that one, lessons that will be relevant not just to Ushahidi but other projects as well.
• An interesting article in Science Daily on Collecting Health Data in Areas with No Power Supply – in this case, Sierra Leone. Useful insights into the specific problems of poor countries, although it’s not strictly speaking about “no power supply”, it’s about a broader lack of physical and – more importantly – institutional infrastructure. I want to know more about the actual system involved – any details, Jeff?
• Another interesting article on how Sahana emerged from the Indian Ocean tsunami, Does it take a disaster to understand the power of open development? Now I think that this narrative needs some tweaking in order to keep it relevant, nearly 4 years after the event (hard to believe it’s been so long), but this is a good opportunity to point you to TalkSahana, for all your… erm, Sahana Talking requirements.
• It’s all Sahana all the time, isn’t it? I wouldn’t be doing my job (well, it’s not really a job) if I didn’t announce the great news that Sahana will be the basis for OpenEvSys, a human rights violation reporting tool; and that Respere will be the company developing the software. Congratulations are due on all sides, particularly as this means that we add another member to the Humanitarian Open Source community.
• The Google Flu Trends website goes up, using search terms to track the progress of flu. Now this is an interesting supercruncher sort of project which could form the basis of a tracking system – but only in countries where internet access is sufficiently deep and local-language content available.
• Finally (unless somebody sends me yet more links) Crisiswire has just launched. As a Web2.0 aggregator for crisis-related information, it’s the sort of project that I need to be persuaded about – but it looks like they’ve designed it well, which is always a good start.

• Shelter Centre unleash their new website upon the world. Finally a humanitarian website that’s highly-functional, well-designed and thinks hard about the community – in this case the shelter sector (obviously). Give it a spin, and kudos both to the Centre and to Development Seed for a job well done.
• NetHope gets some play in the NYT, in an article entitled Wiring Disaster Areas to the Outside World. Nice enough, but nothing that hasn’t been said before, which leaves me wondering why it’s appearing now?
• You’ve read the BBC World Service Trust Report Left in the Dark, and now you can meet the Project Managers at an HPN Event at 12.30-2.00 on 4 December in London. No online links (yes, HPN are that backward) but you can reserve a space by emailing hpn <at> odi <dot> org <dot> uk. Sadly I won’t be attending, so please ask a reasonably informed question on my behalf.
• Is the obvious avenue for Aid Workers Network the street called Facebook? I’m not convinced, for a number of reasons, but it’s nice to see the sector trying these things out. However we seem to be back to flogging the old dead horse with debates about the platform… Also worth joining – Humanitarians for Fashion.