Building on last weeks Data-Driven Innovation MENA workshop, I am delighted to announce that I will be speaking with entrepreneurs at Qatar’s Digital Incubation Center, Ministry of Transportation and Communication all about how data can inform startups.
Register here for the Wednesday, March 9th event.
See you there!
Are you a student or professional planning your next infusion of knowledge? Well, I have two opportunities that I would like to highly recommend.
The diverse global group of practitioners, governmental and research colleagues really altered my perspective on the internet(s) and media. As someone who is building a career in digital response and humanitarian technology it is so important to be as open as possible to the viewpoints. It truly gave me a new lens and some policy frameworks to consider as I build programmes. (Class of 2012)
The Annenberg-Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute, held annually since 2004, brings together young scholars and regulators from around the world to discuss important recent trends in technology and its influence on information policy.
The objective of the program is to help prepare, motivate, encourage and support students and practitioners who aspire to pursue a career in a media-related field, may it be in academia, business or in policy-related fields. Applications are welcomed from students and practitioners working in communications, media, law, policy, regulation, and technology.
Registration for Annenberg-Oxford Media Policy Institute is due by April 4, 2016.
Space and Science. This August I have the honour of teaching about citizen-engaged programmes and crowdsourcing for science at the biannual Earth Observation Summer School. There are 60 spots open. Applications are due by April 6, 2016.
The two-week course, held in ESA/ESRIN (near Rome, Italy) during August (typically every two years) aims to provide students with an integrated end-to-end perspective going from measurement techniques to end-user applications. Courses include lectures covering issues related to Remote Sensing, Earth System Modelling and Data Assimilation as well as hands-on computing exercises on the processing of EO data. Students have the opportunity to present their work during a poster session. The three best posters will receive an award from the European Meteorological Society (EMS). Keynote lectures on global change issues are also given to discuss the current state of the science of global change and its relationship to society in order to help students appreciate how their specific field fits into a broader scientific and political context.
Register for Earth Observation Summer School by April 6, 2016
(Photos of Oxford and San Francisco statue taken by Heather Leson)
Data is all around us. Join me for coffee on Open Data Day (Saturday March 5th) to share about Data-Driven Innovation in Qatar. There is so much available data in Qatar that can inform our work and lives. The government strategy is to have an Open Data portal in 2016-2017. Let’s not meet and share tools, resources and ideas for data-driven innovation in Qatar.
Date and Time: Saturday, March 5, 2016 15:00 – 18:00 AST
Location: Expresso by Lavazza Dafna (Gate Mall)
Look for the sign: DDI
Data-Driven Innovation in Qatar? Really? Last week I spoke at the Data-Driven Innovation in MENA workshop with some examples of how data is being used. The following are some ideas on data and research in our community.
This week the Qatar Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics together with the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute is surveying residents of Qatar on their thoughts on the environment. Add your voice. The focus of this survey is about water and energy. A few months ago Sajjad Anwar from Mapbox shared this map about climate change in Qatar.
A few weeks ago the Qatar Census 2015 was released. This opens up incredible opportunities to use this data for your startups. How? Join us to talk about Tabula and data extraction tools to activate the census. Business intelligence is just a click away.
All around the world we are talking about the Sustainable Development Goals.
What kinds of datasets are available on these topics in the GCC? See the Open Data Barometer report on how a Data Revolution can help us meet the goals.
OpenStreetMap is used around the world to map communities. What if we helped Mada Qatar map accessible buildings? This could be done by printing field papers and going for a walk.
At Qatar Computing Research Institute, we use local data all the time. Sometimes we collect it using primary research methods and other times we use OpenStreetMap data to overlay data. One example is our Crisis Computing Project called Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response. See more in my Data-Driven Innovation slides.
See you for coffee and data sharing.
[Credit: Map gif from Mapbox] [Credit: Coffee Icon by Grant Taylor via Noun Project]
Over 10 years ago at Tucows Inc., the communications department included my colleague James Koole, who was a journalist by training. His skills of digital storytelling and technical tinkering fostered the customer experience. Business intelligence, “in house journalists” and data science are now more pervasive in many workplaces. At the data-driven journalism course in Cairo, as part of the Data-Driven Innovation Workshop Week in MENA, I am here to talk about data in research and potential of data-driven innovation. As I prepare my thoughts on how Data-Driven Innovation can affect business growth, I consider why hybrid employees, like Mr. Koole, help. What other hybrid skills are needed and how can we support people’s learning journeys to drive social entrepreneurship?
In Qatar, there is a growing technical community. The Data-Driven Innovation MENA team asked me to provide an overview of examples of data-driven research and this might apply to business growth. The following are some examples from QCRI’s research and from a few of the local startup community (There are extensive notes):
In a world that is increasingly focused on entrepreneurship, there is also a parallel stream focused on STEM education. This is a potential mistake to be too focused on silos. If you can tell a better story or design useful data-driven content/information products, this is also core to growth.
Qatar and Doha have a limited number of technical education events. If you are in school, you can join
CMU’s Smartlab and learn data analytics. Qatar Computing Research Institute has a Summer internship program open to local youth considering a career in computer science. If you are an entrepreneur and are able to join a number of the great incubators, accelerators or youth programmes, you might get some data-driven innovation training. Everyone can learn online by, for example, taking Cousera courses, but fostering this ecosystem needs in person engagement and learning opportunities.
In Doha, I hosted a few workshops on Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Social Media Curation and Digital Mapping. The free classes were oversold and included a wide mix of professionals, young startups, students and, even, research colleagues. QCRI will continue to build the knowledge economy sharing skills and technical training. But, I highly recommend a startup focused on training data-driven innovation skills for business. There is indeed a growing market beyond the student body. Change will happen when more senior people are exposed to the techniques and how it can enable their business team to flourish. Organizations also need to continue to provide more technical workshops to augment all the strategy and leadership training. This includes encouraging technical companies to host workshops on how to use the tools and apply to a diverse stream from humanitarian to startups to social entrepreneurship.
What is one quick win for data-driven innovation in Qatar: More technical training and more data journalism skills. What if there was a a Data Driven Startup Handbook and shared curriculum?
Consider this type of future of domain expertise, data-smart employees including Type 2 Data Scientists:
“…require a different kind of data scientist, one that does not have the core technical ability to write code but enough of a general understanding of what can and cannot be achieved using machine learning approaches to effectively evaluate its outputs. This ‘type II’ data scientist does not need an in depth understanding of the code but might lead a team containing data scientists and needs to be able to translate between the business or policy problem and the technical environment. Without some understanding of what these learning systems can and can’t do there is the potential for a lot of poor quality problem solving and the outcomes on society could be very negative. There are examples of courses trying to fill this gap, like the MSc course at Sheffield, targeted at non-data scientists that aims to teach students fundamental data science principles and its application within organisations to support data-driven approaches to problem solving. “
(Source: Nesta Report: Machines that Learn in the Wild, 2015.)
Fostering ideas to full scale implementation is on many people’s minds in the Humanitarian Technology space. Yet, true sustainability and effectiveness can only happen with local knowledge, culture and partners. There is a convergence happening in the humanitarian space as technologists, humanitarians, businesses and governments are seeking better long-term ways to move past ‘little projects’ to healthier local engagement. The occasional marriage of entrepreneurs and humanitarian organizations is growing. We’ve seen the power of communities like Kathmandu Living Labs, Yellow House and global digital communities. How can we keep fostering these types of communal ideation spaces? Well, UNOCHA’s intern Kate Whipkey and Andrej Verity just published a report on: Establishing a Humanitarian Entrepreneurial Innovation Space. It was my pleasure to provide input into this important research.
” The Humanitarian Entrepreneurial Incubator (HEI) would be a partnership between humanitarian organisations and humanitarian entrepreneurs. Organisations host entrepreneurs within their office and provide resources and insight to them as they develop and implement an innovative product or service related to humanitarian response. This departs from a traditional incubator as a stand-alone entity and instead enables deeper collaboration between humanitarian entrepre-neurs and organisation staff.”
How will your organizational incorporate these learnings? Are you considering opening a Humanitarian Entrepreneurial Incubators (HEI)? We really need to convene all these actors mentioned in the research. What if a room of ‘doers’ or online forum could build out programmes to support civil society and NGOs? Would the technical companies support this? Could it be part of their CSR programmes or, better yet, have companies encourage employee sabbaticals to contribute as advisors and supporters for the local entrepreneurs? How can accelerators, incubators, labs, hubs and research institutes play a part?
In the conclusion of report: “As humanitarians worldwide engage in dialogue about changes to the humanitarian system, there is an opportunity to transform the way in which organisations respond, by adopting innovative practices that foster collaboration and ultimately contribute to building capacity. The growth of innovation spaces could signal a positive change that communities, entrepreneurs, and organisa-tions are teaming up to make humanitarian response even better.”
With great interest, I read the UN Secretary General’s report for the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit. The research from this intensive consultation process indicates the need for strong ideas with funding legs to support the change from parachute technology to really locally driven service design. As the HEI report highlights, there are already many groups leading the charge. But it is my hope that we can foster more of this with local entrepreneurs supporting the needs of their communities. Plus, imagine the possibilities of ideas created in Kampala not only helping people in their city but also helping people in Phnom Penh.
From the Secretary General’s report:
“109. To this end, we need to embrace the opportunities of the 21st century. Capacities to prevent and respond to crises are now diverse and widespread. Community-level capacity in many crisis and risk-prone environments has increased. Technology and communications have given more people the means to articulate their needs or offer their assistance more quickly. Yet, international assistance too often still works in traditional ways: focused on delivery of individual projects rather than bringing together expertise to deliver more strategic outcomes. We operate in silos created by mandates and financial structures rather than towards collective outcomes by leveraging comparative advantage.”
The pieces are falling into place. Now, how can we implement changes and support the changes already in progress?
Honoured to have contributed to Establishing a Humanitarian Entrepreneurial Innovation Space incorporating on lessons and observations from RHOK, various social entrepreneurship zones plus being in an Accelerator programme with Qatar Computing Research Institute and Qatar Science & Technology Park.
[Image from the Noun Project (Look and Feel)]
Doha is the land of cars and traffic. In the next few years, the Rail (Metro/Subway/Underground) will open. It is expected that traffic and our use of cars will also evolve. Qatar Computing Research Institute is excited to invite you to learn more about “Self-Driving Cars from MIT’s Daniela Rus”. With all the technology and car enthusiasts, we are sure to have a good conversation.
“We spend a lot of time in out cars, yet this is a part of our lives where we have been vulnerable to the world’s leading cause of bodily harm. Now, the digitization of practically everything coupled with advanced robotics promises a future with extensive use of robots in our transportation systems. Self-driving cars have the potential to increase the safety and efficiency of our transportation systems and enhance the driving experience. In this talk I will address recent developments in self-driving cars. I will describe the state of the art in developing autonomous cars and mobility on demand with self-driving cars. I will also address some of the technological challenges and policy challenges ahead. I will then describe a scalable data-driven approach for developing mobility on demand systems with self-driving cars. ”
Iyad Rahwan and colleagues from the MIT Media Lab have been writing about the shift with self-driving cars. See the research on the ethical implications of autonomous cars. (This should drive some great questions!)
(comic source: XKCD CCBY (Buy his book and laugh for hours))
[Reposted from the Huffington Post, January 28, 2016]
It is now commonplace for people around the world to use social media during emergencies, and the volume of online information coupled with its rapid arrival is becoming increasingly overwhelming to humanitarian organizations. In response, digital humanitarians (individuals who participate in humanitarian relief online) have organized into skilled teams online to decipher the signals from the noise and thus provide accurate data. These teams work in partnership with formal humanitarian organizations using digital forensics, mapmaking, data mining, curation and open dialogue. Communication is now considered a crucial part of aid, and social media is part of this toolset. Even so, privacy, power and access are just some of the complex challenges that digital humanitarians must navigate when using these platforms in their work to help communities in need.
Seeking a way to “do something,” more and more people are answering the call to action on social media after each emergency. Digital responders or “digital humanitarians” immediately log on when news breaks about a natural disaster or human-created catastrophe. Individuals and teams “activate” based on skill sets of volunteer and technical communities (VTCs). These digital responders use their time and technical skills, as well as their personal networks in an attempt to help mitigate information overload for formal humanitarian aid in the field. The terms often used to define these contributors in the humanitarian space are remote help, citizen engagement, citizen response, localized community, civil society and global civic technology. Some participants are new to online humanitarian response, but have found a topic or location that drives their passion to get involved.
This surge of action by participants is often just as chaotic as the actual physical emergency response. People are compelled to work, at a dizzying pace, by the fact that many parties involved in first response require valid, urgent and usable data. Focused on the needs of the citizens in affected areas, informal and formal networks collaborate and sometimes collide in an effort to make sense of and identify needs or stories from this user-generated content. With a combination of will and skill, they create updated maps, datasets, information products, and even communities (both online and offline). The global growth of these activities is based on access to information, connectivity and language skills as well as digital literacy levels. These groups are making efforts to become more inclusive while respecting local language, culture and knowledge. The mantra of most digital responders is “support” not “supplant” local citizens, humanitarians and emergency responders.
The role of digital communities in humanitarian response has been well documented in the past few years, from the UN Disaster 2.0 report to the rise of the CrisisMappers Network and beyond. A starting point might be the use of online bulletin boards (BBS) and mailing lists in response to the tsunami in Asia followed by a parallel timeline for most small and large humanitarian and conflict crises since 2004. The tools and volume have changed over time, but the propensity to connect and potentially help occurs after each incident. The fact is that every day there is a local or global emergency happening somewhere (slow onset or immediate), and there is a flood of online communications that follows immediately afterwards. The high volume of news and citizen data saturates online spaces with such speed that accurate reports and priority items can become a blur. This user-generated content (UGC) comes in many forms: texts, photos, aerial and satellite imagery, videos and more. Digital responders learn and refine techniques with each response.
Humanitarian organizations and the citizens they serve are overwhelmed by the speed of change and the onslaught of information. In the five years since the Haiti earthquake, there has been a steady progression of change. Humanitarian groups have sometimes resisted incorporating social media into their information workflows. Often this is due to process changes, a lack of trust, concerns about accuracy and fear of change. People who create user-generated content are often considered outliers and have not yet gained the trust of leaders within official institutions. And having people in affected regions use these tools to help each other or ask for help changes the information flow from one-way to two-way. Humanitarian institutions simply adapt to change at a slower pace. They also have a low capacity to review information outputs and seldom have the funds to incorporate UGC into their processes. Plus, they often do not understand the tools and techniques these online/offline communities use to connect. The conundrum is that UGC and citizens are simply changing faster. As a result, this gap between the two groups is being tested and often fulfilled in new ways.
Across the world there are branded hubs, labs, fellowships, meetings, conferences and research. Governments, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are all working on various projects. How can these new voices and communities become part of the humanitarian apparatus? From Unicef Innovation to Ihub Nairobi, Kathmandu Living Labs to UN Global Pulse Jakarta, there are many new spaces where solutions have been observed and created. There is a parallel stream with groups like the Code for All community and other civic technology or humanitarian technology/research communities who aim to connect software developers, data scientists and designers to solve hyperlocal issues with official organizations. Code for All has grown from its base in the United States to Japan and beyond. Their goal is to connect local communities and governments with digital technologies and problem solvers for all issues. The intersection of these two movements is inevitable in risk-prone areas.
The Digital Humanitarian Network consists of many groups, from those that create maps, like Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and those who curate social information like Humanity Road and Standby Task Force, to those bridging language skills like Translators without Borders. Digital responders coalesce during an emergency to tackle tasks that can be large or small. For instance, over 2,800 people contributed to the Nepal earthquake response by doing small tasks such as using MicroMappers to make quick decisions about text or images. These curated information insights were used by over 250 organizations to make decisions about various needs for their response, including damage assessments and aid distribution. This example shows that UGC can be created by anyone, but someone still needs to parse the data, find the crucial points and match these items to needs and actions. After reviewing the IP addresses of contributors, Qatar Computing Research Institute observed that the majority of these digital MicroMapper helpers were from northern countries.
For the Nepal earthquake response, over 7,500 people contributed to improve OpenStreetMap in a short span of time. OpenStreetMap is the Wikipedia of maps, creating a large free and open dataset that anyone can use. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (a VTC) creates tools and training to support mapping for humanitarian response and economic development. The Nepal Earthquake response was co-lead by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Kathmandu Living Labs. Kathmandu Living Labs, started in 2013, creates local data and map solutions and partnerships for Nepal. They have steadily built a local community of mappers trained to use OpenStreetMap, and they have mapped the country. Over the years, they have also built relationships with a range of local partners, from emergency responders to universities. When the Nepal earthquake struck, they lost their office and a day’s worth of work. Meanwhile, remote digital responders in the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) community activated. HOT, with the generous support of partners, obtained both pre- and post-disaster satellite imagery to determine the regions of Nepal that might be affected.
While they are informal, these networks are all driven by the common vision of UGC for humanitarian response. Simply put, they move fast and have the initiative to do what is most needful. For example, the OpenStreetMap Japan Foundation community translated the Guide to Mapping Buildings in Nepal from the Kathmandu Living Labs. Thus one former disaster-affected civic technology community activated to aid another, transferring skills and supporting digital needs. No government or formal institution advised that this was required; people simply self-organized based on digital responder knowledge and the desire to help their digital neighbours. While these processes are not yet seamless, the gap between official and informal is closing with each response.
1. At the moment, the vast majority of social media is available via public posts. But with huge growth in private messaging tools like WhatsApp, how will digital response incorporate data from platforms like this?
2. In times of crisis, data becomes the lifeblood of managing humanitarian operations. But as access to data increases, how will people safeguard the privacy and security of those who need help?
3. What role should the main social platforms play during disasters? Can these social networks work together more closely to coordinate their responses?
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and The World Economic Forum sharing insights gained from surveying 5,000 digital media users from Brazil, China, Germany, South Africa and the U.S on the impact of digital media on society. The series is developed in conjunction with the Forum’s Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media for Society project and the Forum’s Impact of Digital Content: Opportunities and Risks of Creating and Sharing Information Online white paper. The series is running during the Forum’s Annual Meeting 2016 (in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, Jan. 20-23). Read all the posts in the series here.
What is the impact of Open Source in ICT and HFOSS? How can we share our overall story better? Often this larger topic is buried in reports from individual organizations and in delivery of those who produce or consume outputs using Open Source. The “Economic Impact of Open Source on Small Business: A Case Study” (report) from O’Reilly is an example of the type of report this document intends to start writing. A few days ago an article was written “The Revolution will not be Open Source”. This spurred some discussion as to the potential gap in this literature. This topic may well have research literature or reports. Great! Please add these to the bibliography so that we can all share widely.
How can we measure the impact of Open Source in this area? Can we collect a common bibliography and showcase these stories better? As a wider community, we can collaboratively share insights, collect data and a bibliography. At the moment, this is just a running shared document, but if there is potential to make this more formal, I would be happy to keep on this important topic flowing with a github account and trello board. (I also think we could remix the the Sunlight and the wider Open Data Community on “Reasons (not) to Release Data” to a framework “Reasons to (Not) use Open Source in ICT/HFOSS.” This might be a side-topic and happy to do another time.)
(Image Credit: Open Source nametag via OpenSource.com ccby)
Four months tasked to a large project often means readjusting all kinds of perspectives, lessons learned and new/old ideas. Add to that: the email backlog and reconnecting with people. Wiping up the dust and catching up on tabled research and social innovation programmes comes with the opportunity of walking around with new eyes.
(Demo Day, January 18,2016. Photo by Irina Temnikova)
There are many models for accelerators, labs, social entrepreneurs, lean startups and hubs. The debate about whether an accelerator actually helps a business is kind of moot. Each experience is worth it for the team and, hopefully, for the individuals involved. I blame the hours of reading about business models, how to startup and innovation creation. Models, formulas, templates, schemes, and meetings are simply devices for you get something and take something away. The magic comes from us. Our Accelerator team is in review process and next steps planning. And, I am reflecting: how can I apply these experiences to humanitarian technology innovation (humtech)?
It is my life’s goal to help people involved in their world with technology. To make this possible, we need step ladders of engagement: to give opportunities for small tasks and big asks. We need plans to tackle the right types of questions and problems. The Qatar Computing Research Institute’s Crisis Computing team is building machine learning and human computing software to enable microtasking databits. We keep studying and improving the software and engagement. Fortunately, our allies at UN OCHA and the Standby Task Force have been core to teaching us how to we can help during large scale emergencies. We use social media, news and aerial imagery data right now. But the opportunity to consume SMS, Messaging and sensor data is huge. Each layer of data informs. True, this all hinges on access to engagement tools and the ability to speak safely. Some day each part might fit, until then, many people in the humanitarian technology fields are working hard to make small differences.
There is no one way to scale a humanitarian project. This piece by Thoughtworks and the work of Humanitarian Innovation Fund explore the question: How to scale innovation and new technology for humanitarian responses?
For the past years, I have looked from these angles:
There are many great ideas that never get traction or support. Today I am asking again: What does implementation look like? I keep reflecting on some of the models and ideas that we had during our Crisis Commons sprints. What if we could collaborate more and make a top ten of things that need to get built then make it happen? What if there is amazing research idea/prototype that needs ‘accelerating’ to scale? How would this happen? I think that the local hubs and accelerators around the world are very much a potential. I also think that the Civic Tech communities are core to results. But how can we include the unusual suspects and the reluctant innovators.
The Humanitarian Innovation Fund is a start, but what are some other ways that techs, researchers and creative people can actually work with practicioners to solve these questions. How can techs and others find these opportunities to contribute? I love the Linked in For Good pages and the work of Code for All, but can we widen the circle?
Share your thoughts? Maybe I will convene an adhoc skype conversation on this topic. Let me know if you would like to join.
When an emergency happens, lives and homes are affected. People share images and information via social media. There are more data sources available to provide insights, including aerial imagery. All these data items result in information overload. How can technology help address this question of discoverability of key insights for humanitarians? Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) has been tackling this research project on information curation pipeline for over 3 years. Many bright minds have contributed to the project called Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response (AIDR) which combines machine learning and human computing.
QCRI participated in the Qatar Science & Technology Park Accelerator programme from September 2015 – January 2016. We took the prototype of AIDR and spin up AINGEL, a startup idea. Last night was Demo Day and we are happy to share some thanks and details about the project. As you can imagine, working on a startup idea is a steep curve for entrepreneurs and innovators. For the past 6 years, I have been involved in various types of humanitarian technology projects, so being in a ‘startup’ has been a fascinating learning journey. I’ll write more about this topic in the coming weeks. My colleagues will be sure to share more about the next steps for the startup.
We have many people to thank for their hard work, ideas, support and sheer grit to incept, design, research, and test a product. Add to this going through the process of an Accelerator to deliver a demo and pitch.
AIDR and AINGEL Product Development: Carlos (Chato) Castillo, Muhammad Imran, Patrick Meier, Ji Kim Lucas, Meghna Singh, Koushik Sinha, Latika Bhurani, Kushal Goyal, Sushant Dahiya, Sonu Malpani and Aman Agrawal.
Research, Advisal and Operations: Justine Mackinnon, Jaideep Srivastava. Lokendra Chauhan, Peter Mosur, Ibrahim Soltan, Raymond Filippe and Madj Abbar. Graphics by Jaideep Singh and Video by Farthest Star.
QSTP: Pontus All, Salvino Salvaggio, Mohammed Zebian and Haya Al Ghanim. Also, the PR and Events team.
Thanks as well to all our amazing classmates. Keep changing the world and Qatar with your ideas and startups.
Here is a video of our prototype and our slides:
Participation in the Accelerator Programme is only the beginning for AINGEL. The team will definitely keep iterating. Any future inquiries should be directed to qcri.org.qa or lokendra AT gmail.com. And, stay tuned for more posts about humanitarian technology and innovation paths.