Technology

9Dec

Delivering, Still Waiting

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative is hosting a Data and Technology Humanitarian Response Workshop this week. I’m delighted to attend on behalf of Qatar Computing Research Institute. This occasion gives me pause to reflect: Where is humanitarian technology going, what are the gaps, what are the new research questions, what is innovative, what needs remixing, what have we learned and what does implementation look like? Certainly, this burst of questions are not something a blog post can address. But, it is my expectation that smart people are working on these items and syncing up to collaborate is essential.

Humanitarian Innovation: Where is the parallel stream

In October, the World Humanitarian Summit held a Global Consultation in Geneva. There was an Innovation Marketplace with small NGOs, large NGOs, technology companies and Digital Humanitarians. Representing OpenAerialMap (OAM) on behalf of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, along with my colleague Nate Smith from Development Seed, I spent the day talking with our fellow presenters and some of the participants. A conference and marketplace/demonstration hall is never fully representative of what is happening globally in the field, but it was a snapshot of a certain view. Humanitarian Innovation Fund had a few of their successful projects demonstrating their work on exciting projects like 3D printing and our OAM (aerial imagery platform). There was a virtual reality space and some demonstrations. Catching up with Bob Marsh from Inveneo lit up this idea that parallel systems matter. I mention these small highlights because there was a distinct gap.

The Innovation Marketplace was not enough to actually represent or connect people doing true innovation in the field, including Humanitarian technology. Early summaries from the WHS cite more localized support and even digital training (the WHS Youth agenda). Where will the real work happen to 1. identify which innovations (specifically humanitarian technology) that need to be supported 2. build a plan to implement them. This is still super unclear for me. Innovators don’t wait for conferences or research papers to deliver. Sure, there is a keen eye on the high level conversations and a hope that there will be increased support for the various streams of activities. Negotiations will happen. People will write more reports. Yet, the world keeps turning. Simply put: some of the priorities, activities and innovations cannot wait for large NGOs and the UN to get on board. It is the hallways and community centers in small local spaces that will really do the shining.

If the observations and suggestions truly mean to deliver, it needs more strong support from business, NGOs, donors and you. Sitting in Geneva made me again realize that we need stronger parallel systems to succeed. We need a humanitarian technology roadmap. It would help to have local, multi-lingual side events online and in person focused on doing instead of more writing more reports. If we are really going to ReShapeAid, then it is time to dig in and build some true lightweight infrastructure to actually implement things that are needed. There are many activity streams which are truly critical with Transforming through Innovation is one small corner, but it is the corner I know well. Technology is not always the answer. But people use the internet, they create things and use their mobile phones. We need to reclaim “innovation” and “disruptive innovation“. In all the reports, bylines and marketing campaigns, it has gotten buried as a punchline rather than true grit. As Panathea Lee pointed out with User Centered Design, we need to be careful to not lose track of implementation and delivery.

Some of the research and implementation areas that I am excited about include: mobile (messaging), imagery (aerial, satellite), translation, citizen participation, edtech, citizen science, web of things, civic technology, open hardware, blockchain, and, of course, location. There are pockets of amazing innovation and technology coming from the UN and other organizations. But, we can do more with collaborative spaces. There is much to learn from the Open Source and Agile Startup models to really knock it out of the park on humtech (humanitarian technology). I am not stating that we hackathon our way to change, but the chasm between the technology communities, affected communities and humanitarians needs some strong coordinated planning and more delivering. How can we get more technology companies supporting the growth of humanitarian technology? If the humanitarian spaces and research institutes are slower, what are other ways to get things moving?

Example: Digital Technology & Digital Humanitarians (Responders)

Digital, volunteer/technology communities and civic technology communities are consistently delivering during emergencies. Some recent efforts include the Nepal earthquake, collaboration on the Ebola response and now the refugee crisis. There were many efforts that shine in this space of digital participation and response, but to name a bias few: Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Standby Task Force, Missing Maps, NetHope (Tableau collaboration), PeaceGeeks (Service Advisor) and Kathmandu Living Labs.

Impact examples:

Kathmandu Living Labs – Nepal Earthquake
Ebola response with Doctors without Borders (MSF), Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Missing Maps
PeaceGeeks Service Advisor for Refugee Support

There are many more articles, reports, research articles and the like on the impact of digital humanitarians. However, what is missing is the bridge between proof of concept and real concrete sustainable support.

For the past 5 years, many digital humanitarians/digital responders have worked/volunteered alongside humanitarians and the NGO machine. Truly it is a gift that all these people volunteer their time, energy and skills to assist on the information overload and citizen engagement gaps that new technology like social media opens. Reading all the World Humanitarian Summit reports on the goals, needs and suggestions, I keep asking the question around Humanitarian Innovations – What will implementation look like?

We are not looking for a free ride, but what is going to take to open this door?

Volunteer and Technical Organizations have proven their impact and considered essential to the humanitarian information workflow. Some of those organizations setup small NGOs to support the large volunteer bases with lightweight documentation, staff and servers. The collaborative spaces are organically growing. Civic technology communities globally are connecting inside the digital humanitarian communities. One of my favourite examples was the support from the Japanese civic technology community of the Nepal civic technology community after the Nepal Earthquake. The Nepal OpenStreetMap guide for identifying buildings was translated into Japanese to support remote mapping efforts.

Considering the small corner of potential that humanitarian technology can deliver for affected communities and humanitarians, it is time to rethink how we can collaborate using the best of minds, best of technology and some sheer grit. We need spaces like the Digital Humanitarian Network in many parts of the world with local language, local knowledge and local culture. While digital humanitarians is one example, there are many other humanitarian innovations that do not get the financial support they need to really succeed. The donor model is set up for traditional NGOs. Some of these digital organizations don’t completely qualify as social technology companies/social entrepreneur startups. Fortunately, there are some bright spots like the Humanitarian Innovation Fund or the various NGO supported Hubs/Labs that are supporting some local humanitarian technology. But how do we get more concentrated humtech accelerators and donors for bright innovations? If digital humanitarians are not NGOs and not social entrepreneurship businesses, what is the long term sustainability?

[Disclosure: I am on the Board for Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and PeaceGeeks. Previously, I worked at Open Knowledge and Ushahidi. For Crisis Commons in 2010, I did a short research project about the innovation community. And, I am part of the event team at CrisisMappers. Currently I work at Qatar Computing Research Institute]

24Nov

Mapmaking for Good in Qatar

Maps are critical for logistics in humanitarian response. We are excited to invite you to the second Digital Humanitarians in Qatar event on Sunday, November 29, 2015. In this session, we will talk about the power of maps and location data using examples from various Humanitarian Emergencies. We will introduce you some basic components of mapping share how you can even add social media data to maps. Qatar Computing Research and Qatar Red Crescent are co-hosts of this event. Our special guest is Sajjad Anwar of Mapbox and the OpenStreetMap community.

To learn more and register, click here Event is Sunday, November 29, 2015.

Event Details

Dates and times: November 29, 2015 16:30 – 18:30pm AST
Location: Qatar Red Crescent Headquarters, 1st floor, Al Salata (Doha)
(Parking is near the old Movenpick Hotel)

Digital Humanitarians and CrisisMapping Agenda

How Qatar Red Crescent uses Maps – Qatar Red Crescent
Introduction to Map tools and Remote Mapping – Heather Leson, QCRI
Overview of Mapbox and OSM – Sajjad Anwar, Mapbox
Introduction to MicroMappers and Leaflet – Ji Lucas, QCRI
Map exercises (in Arabic and English)

16Nov

Crisis Communications Shifted – How will you adapt?

Did you feel a shift in global Crisis Communications this week? How is your organization, community and country preparing for how citizens receive and use emergency messages? People will use what they know and on platforms with their trusted networks. For 1 billion people, this may very well be Facebook with their Safety Check Feature. Facebook has some policies to refine, a plan for SMS outbound messages/Messaging systems and some good will to build with responsible data. All in good time. I’m sure they are on the case now. But, in general, we need to think globally. What are the trusted platforms/communications methods in which areas of the world and what does this mean for crisis communications?

Living in Qatar has been an experience in reconsidering the “majority” world use of communications. As noted in my Report from the Qatar Red Crescent Disaster Management Camp, participants used social media but WhatsApp was their primary tool. I’m part of the Social Computing team at Qatar Computing Research Institute. We are researching to use machine learning and human computing during humanitarian emergencies. This is currently using Twitter data, but in Qatar, Twitter is the less prominent tool for interactions. The Northwestern report on MENA Media Use 2015 really highlights these differences. Emergency managers are still trying to adapt to Social Media incorporated into their workflows. How will the next stage of online communications change emergency response?

Think Again: Tech and Media Outlook 2016 (Michael Wolf)

Last week Michael Wolf shared this comprehensive analysis on the future of communications and media. Planning means seeing these changes and adapting your global and local crisis communications strategies. For example, Michael Wolf notes in his presentation, Messaging will surpass online communications by 2018. Facebook has a partial corner on this market with WhatsApp:

(Slides 16 – 17)

Perhaps this is where Digital Humanitarians can help with training in local communities to be “CERT” for online help. One idea I’ve been considering is a Digital Humanitarian programme of Online Messaging Ambassadors existed in civic technology spaces around the world (Labs, hubs, technical spaces and coworking spaces). One thing is for certain, the shift means that planning is needed. From a research point of view, we simply don’t have visibility into how people use Messaging for response. We have qualitative examples, but with a closed system (rightfully so), it is hard to make conclusions on use and effectiveness.

16Nov

Open Source Software Challenge Winner!

Qatar Computing Research Institute‘s humanitarian technology, AIDR (Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response), has been awarded the Grand Prize for the 2015 Open Source Software System Challenge!

I’m super proud to be part of a team scientists, researchers and engineers behind AIDR. We are also thankful for all our partners for their input to help us keep growing. Partners for deployments included: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Standby Task Force. Our mobile software development partner was GeoThings.

Learn more about our work:

Humanitarian Innovation from heatherleson

11Nov

Hungry to Learn

Education. The drive to change the economy with education is everywhere. It is a bit overwhelming and exhilarating. I’ll admit that I am a bit bias since I work at Qatar Computing Research Institute, part of Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation. These institutions were set up to inspire high level research and new science. Today is my one year anniversary of working within this huge organization and my 10th month of living in Doha. Time Flies.

Next week I will be co-hosting a number of technical workshops as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) with Qatar Science & Technology Park. These were sold out over a week ago. As I have a small room for the class, I can’t expand it. Plus, delivering heavy topics in a room larger than 40 is not really productive for the teachers and students.

Free ideas, go build them

In the past months, I have observed such a hunger to learn in many of the residents of Qatar. Building a strong local entrepreneur ecosystem needs a step ladder and a hand. My mandate is Social Innovation with a personal goal to get people involved in technology to help humanitarian response. There are only so many hours in the week and focus means delivery.

If I had one million dollars and large facilities/networks to focus on the entrepreneurship community, I would hire someone to build these free ideas. Though, with all the super smart people around, I am sure these might already be on the roadmap:

More Free Technical classes (all levels) Every day, every night: The classes for GEW filled up in no time at all and with low advertising effort. The entrepreneurs keep telling me that there is a local technical gap. If the economy needs more technical entrepreneurship and people have a hunger to learn, then it follows that this type of programme will help seed the future.
QNCC for large technical event: If Qatar can bring universities here, what about making Doha a tech destination for a large technical event? The ideal event would have many hands-on workshops, a trade fair, and large company demos (Docker I am looking at you). Most years I attend OCSCON with 5000 of my tribe. There is nothing like an influx of talent to learn and inspire.
Tech Hubs, Labs and Coworking spaces: Everywhere I have traveled these casual spaces make for interchange of ideas and brillant outcomes. Truly, I have no place that I can go on a Saturday, geek out with other geeks and flop on a couch debating the latest tech thing. While it might sound fluffy, it works. Just make sure there is excellent coffee and snacks.

Now, I’m going back to work on my proposal for encouraging Humanitarian Technology in MENA. We all have our passions. And, I can only hope that our thirst to learn and create helps a people build something useful for their community and neighours.

7Nov

Map the Difference: Calling Global Supporters

Every edit, every contribution maps the difference. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) launched our largest ever fundraising effort and we ask for your help. HOT uses principles of open source and open data sharing for humanitarian response and economic development. We create spaces, support and tools to assist people to map.

Thousands of people map during emergencies. Many of you are supporters of HOT, but we have never asked you for help outside outreach. Some of you use the results of HOT’s and OSM’s contributions, maps and tools for your communities and projects. Believe me, we are so very thankful for all your support. HOT has always been very understated in our requests for donation. We are set to change this: Help HOT become a community and supporter funded project.

I want to support HOT: Click Here!

Why HOT matters

What can a Map do? What can you with a map? Learn about HOT’s impact around the world:

Business Supporters and Sponsors

Mapbox has agreed to match up to $10, 000.00 for this campaign. Thanks!

HOT has proven that technical skills and tools can make a difference around the world. We call on business friends and allies to help HOT continue to flourish. Often, when I talk with funders I find that HOT is really a hybrid – we are not only an NGO, we are a social tech organization. How can other companies help in the short or long term? Do you run a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme? Perhaps you and your team are keen to support an NGO in your next year’s budget?

If you are interested in discussing, please contact me: Heather.Leson AT hotosm DOT org.

1Nov

Global Enterpreneurship Week: Free Technical Courses

Time to dig into learning! Global Entrepreneurship Week is November 16 – 22, 2015. Qatar will join over 125 other countries in this week long event. Qatar Computing Research Institute (HBKU) and Qatar Science and Technology Park are pleased to invite you to two workshops on Tuesday, November 17, 2015: Introduction to Big Data and Introduction to Machine Learning. Our goal is to help you learn some basics to help your startup or business.

Register for the Workshops

These workshops will be held on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at the Qatar Science and Technology Park. Registration is now open for two separate free technical training courses. QCRI has a mandate to share with the local entrepreneurship community. Research scientists have tailored the workshops for you. Keep in mind that you will need some technical skill to make the most out of the content.

Other Global Entrepreneurship Week Events:

Qatar Development Bank will be hosting events on November 15- 16, 2015. Register here for these activities. There will be other events listed leading up to the events.

This amounts to a very busy week of learning and networking! Let’s do this.

26Oct

Why Youth are core to #ReShapeAid

Dear Digital Humanitarian allies, the United Nations Children and Youth Major Group have big ideas. Let’s help them make these happen. They embedded the need for digital skills into the Doha Declaration which then informed the World Humanitarian Summit Synthesis Report. Over the past months, I have closely followed and met these amazing leaders. Their sessions in Doha for the World Humanitarian Youth Summit followed by their participation in the World Humanitarian Global Consultation in Geneva, has shown the true power of youth. And, frankly, they have written Digital Humanitarian strategic plan that we should help them implement. Roll up your sleeves, while the talking continues leading up to the Summit, there is no need for any of us to wait.

Read the whole Doha Declaration report.

*****

These are just some examples of statements. I find the whole report really inspiring. While many of the topics discussed, here are some key statements that resonated with me:

2.1
“Develop specific data collection tools and train young volunteers in affected communities to collect, monitor, and report data that will inform country-‐level preparedness and response standards. Disaggregate data in conflict or
crisis stricken areas by sex, age, and socio-‐economic, as well as other status so that the situations of youth can be
assessed.”

4.1
“Innovative Tools for Local Capacity and Participation Foster communication via robust and portable technologies at the local level to facilitate collaboration and engagement of different humanitarian actors (e.g. telemedicine, e-‐learning, phone applications).”

4.2
“Enable safe learning spaces to raise awareness on preventative safeguards and measures to disaster response, strengthen resilience, and promote participatory action (e.g. virtual disaster simulation, meetups).”

“Encourage online and offline peer-‐to-‐peer exchange to share knowledge, skills, culture and trade to collectively build resilience through interactive media and art.”

“Make use of technologies such as mapping, web-‐-‐based platforms, social networking, and others to build partnerships,engage youth in early-‐warning, promote reciprocal action, and coordinate efforts of different humanitarian actors.”

*****

Many of us have youth engagement plans for NGOs and Digital Responders, but just take a look at some of their additional core priorities. Let’s spend the next months helping draft plans to make these items happen. How can each Digital community consider these items as part of their plans? How can funders/donors plan for this? What role can companies play? I’m hosting Digital Humanitarian training classes in Doha because we need local knowledge for local action.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how groups and organizations can help build plans. And, for the members of the Children and Youth Major group = please keep up the great work. Policy negotiation is hard, but you have a voice and a plan that can thrive with passion and action.

4Oct

Sold out – Digital Responders in Qatar

On October 7th, Qatar Computing Research Institute and Qatar Red Crescent Society will co-host the first ever Digital Humanitarian meetup in Doha, Qatar. We are sold out! The room holds 100 people and that is how many free tickets we made available. If you reserved a ticket and can no longer attend please email me asap so that I can open up a ticket for the waiting list. IF you are looking for a ticket, please do contact me.

The Digital Humanitarians in Qatar registration page

Digital Humanitarians are people who use their technical, social, community and storytelling power to help support humanitarians in their work. We aim to use maps, data, and social media to provide information and insights. While this is the first event of its kind in Doha, we join a growing global civic technology community.

About the Digital Humanitarians in Qatar event

Technical preparedness supports a resilient city and country. Qatar has a highly technical and young population. Digital Humanitarians use their social media savvy, create maps, conduct data analysis and use new media tools to provide insights to support humanitarians and affected communities. How can we get young people more engaged in their world, region and country? This is an opportunity to be globally responsible while potentially using the acquired digital skills for your work. We will work in partnership with humanitarians locally and globally to help you contribute.

What will you learn in this session?
In this session, we will provide an overview of the basic digital skills for humanitarian response online. Our guests will share real humanitarian scenarios for us to do some hands on learning.

Topics include:

Overview of Humanitarian response – context for emergencies
Introduction to Crisismapping and Digital Humanitarians
Social media curation, analysis and verification
Hands on exercises

We will provide more details on how you can learn between sessions and answer questions based on real world experiences.  

Who should attend:

Digital Humanitarians come from all walks of life. All you need is a willingness to learn and a technical device (mobile, tablet or laptop). There are many different types of contributions that people can make – large and small in terms of time and activities. In the global community, there are teachers, students, business people, creative people, humanitarians, researchers, analysts, data science, GIS experts and more. We will provide introductions to each of the various communities and skillsets to help your learning journey. It starts with us.  

23Sep

How to: A Digital Humanitarian Handbook

The Digital Humanitarian community is growing. In the Digital Humanitarian Network, there are many communities and organizations. Each of them have a specific set of skills to offer. While there are some guides for each of the groups, there is no free, online and translated course or introduction guide to help people get involved.

The purpose of this community driven project is to create a community sourced guide on github to help people learn from each other. This online handbook builds on the work of 1000s of community members who use their technical skills for good. Earlier this year, my colleague, Patrick Meier published his book about Digital Humanitarians. How can we widen the circle of participation and reach new areas to support resilience. For example, during the Nepal Earthquake response, the Japanese community created a translated version of the Nepal building guide for how to map in OpenStreetMap with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. The Qatar Computing Research Institute and Standby Task Force response to the Nepal Earthquake had over 2800 participants from around the world. Our IP address report highlighted a participation gap in some regions of the world. At the recent World Humanitarian Youth Summit, I presented on why I think these digital skills are essential for the youth communities. Participants expressed an interest in learning and evolving this for their regions of the world.

During my time with the Qatar Red Crescent team at their annual Disaster Management Camp, we determined that core materials need to be translated into Arabic. I’ll be hosting local Digital Humanitarian training in Doha starting on October 1st. But what about the rest of the global community of civic tech and technical savvy communities. We hope that this will support our collective mission to encourage resilience and preparedness. And, while we are focused on crisis and emergencies, we think these core skills are very transferable to all the Sustainable Development Goals.

How to get involved

Or contact @heatherleson or @willowbl00 for help.

Draft Table of Contents

In the upcoming Digital Responders call in, we will review this draft table of contents. This will then be added to github to begin the curation process. Stay tuned for more details soon.

SECTION: Digital Humanitarianism Introduction
History of Crisismapping and Digital Humanitarians
Lessons and best practices
Code of conducts
Ecosystem: Working with Humanitarians and Contributors
Tools and Techniques overview
Examples by various topics – environmental, crisismapping
SECTION: SMS, social media and messaging (Whatsapp)
Digital Storytelling
Storify, Storiful,Blogging
Social media storytelling
SECTION: Community work
big tasks, small tasks
Microtasking 101
Software development in HFOSS
managing community lists
managing language and culture
SECTION: Data collection and analysis
Data Collection 101
sensors, social media, sms
Data Analysis
basic tools and techniques
SECTION: Verification
Overview and the Verification handbook
Verily and other tools
Visualization
charts, graphs
SECTION: maps
basic network maps
Geo for Good
Mapping 101
Mapping Google
Mapping OSM
Mapbox and Cartodb intro
Mapping ESRI
SECTION: Simulation 1: Teamwork and Roles (Global scenario)
How does coordination work during emergencies?
Coordination and community guidance
after action review
Simulation 2: Technique and mentoring (GCC scenario)
Technique testing
after action review
What to do with data after a project is done
How having a pre-existing community matters (KLL and Public Labs as examples)
Adversaries in digital space? InfoSec but also GamerGate
Digital colonialism
APPENDIX
Sample curriculums
Sample simulation templates and checklists

I envision that the manual will have chapters by country and region. The Taiwanese OpenStreetMap community, for example, might have specific examples and scenario templates for their region of the world. Plus, it is our hope that the manual will help people find best practices across the very topics and civic tech communities. We need to learn from each other. This Digital Humanitarian Handbook is for all of us to evolve and fork.

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