Strong partnerships, a new era for humanitarian assistance.
CrisisCommons is among a group of Volunteer Technical Communities (VTCs) and others who have joined forces to launch a new initiative to bringing together the expertise and good will of software developers and the passion and knowledge of those working in humanitarian assistance.
NetHope, GeeksWithoutBounds and CrisisCommons, supported by Microsoft and DotNetRocks, are behind the launch of the Humanitarian Toolbox. The initiative intends to create synergies for the common good.
Microsoft is playing a key role in support of the Humanitarian Toolbox by offering its Team Foundation Services as the technical platform. All of us realize that our world is increasingly coming closer together as new technologies bring testimonies of despair and tragedy to the entire globe.
We are here because we care and know we can make a difference. We also believe collaboration is at the heart of assistance during a disaster.
The Humanitarian Toolbox is the latest illustration of this principle.
More details on this initiative is available in the news section of The Humanitarian Toolbox or listen to the .NETRocks! podcast . We, at CrisisCommons, feel privileged to be among its early supporters.
Thirdly, humanitarian organizations are far more open to using free and open source software than they were just two years ago. So the resources required to monitor and map crowdsourced information need not break the bank. Indeed, the Syria Crisis Map uses a free and open source data-mining platform called HealthMap , which has been monitoring some 2,000 English-based sources on a daily basis for months. The technology powering the map itself, Ushahidi , is also free and open source. Moreover, the team behind the project is comprised of just a handful of volunteers doing this in their own free time (for almost an entire year now). And as a result of this initiative, I am collaborating with a colleague from UNDP to pilot HealthMap’s data mining feature for conflict monitoring and peacebuilding purposes.