CrisisCommons http://crisiscommons.org connecting people, tools and resources to support crisis response Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:39:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 An Open Letter from Sahana’s Mark Prutsalis http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/16/an-open-letter-from-sahanas-mark-prutsalis/ http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/16/an-open-letter-from-sahanas-mark-prutsalis/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:48:22 +0000 Brian Chick http://crisiscommons.org/?p=789 Heather and Noel–

First and foremost:  Thank you!

Your shared vision, passion and energy made CrisisCommons a sustainable force for good in the world.  We will all miss your active leadership in the CrisisCommons community.  I know you will be incredibly successful at whatever you decide to apply yourself to in life.

I wanted to share with the community how I became one of the first CrisisCampers, attending the inaugural CrisisCamp DC event in June 2009.  It came, appropriately enough, through twitter.  I had become increasingly aware of the planned CrisisCamp through its promotion on twitter by those like-minded individuals interested in helping the victims of disaster with technology – a field I have been in for close to 20 (gasp!) years now.  But I wasn’t planning on attending – it being all the way in Washington, DC and me living so far away (spur sarcasm) in Brooklyn, NY – until one of my own Sahana community members from India tweeted me asking whether I was going to go to the CrisisCamp.  It made me pause and think that this event might be different, if people from half way around the world had heard of it and were interested in attending – an event I had considered until that time to be a very insular and too inside-the-beltway focused to be of any value.  So I took a look at the eventbrite link (which is still up there today: http://crisiscamp.eventbrite.com).

What struck me about the event was not just the vision and agenda for the event, but who was coming that marked it as significant – with significant representation from the US Government, the World Bank, technology companies, academic and research groups, and an incredible number of individuals with experience – some of these people I knew personally, others I knew of professionally and others I wanted to get to know.  So I made plans to attend, packed up my family in the car and drove to DC for the weekend.  At the Ignite sessions on Friday evening at the World Bank, I met Noel and Heather for the first time, and we’ve since become close allies professionally and friends personally.  Along with Andrew, they share a vision for a Commons and have always balanced well the need for leadership with the independence of the community.
Sometimes I thought that they needed to step up and be more decisive about making decisions – but they understood their role was to bring people to the table – not to direct.  CrisisCommons has become a far more resilient and successful organization than I could ever have imagined because of the blood, sweat and tears that they put into it.

And it has spurned on other efforts such as Random Hacks of Kindness and the Standby Task Force.

I know this is not a community that feels comfortable directly credit at individuals, but every time someone attends a CrisisCamp, a RHOK, a GWOB hackathon, or supports a deployment of the Standby Task Force, they have Heather and Noel to thank, in part, for that opportunity to make the world a better place.

I know I do.

Love bombs right back at you.

Best regards,
Mark

]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/16/an-open-letter-from-sahanas-mark-prutsalis/feed/ 1 Thank You, Heather! http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/14/thank-you-heather/ http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/14/thank-you-heather/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:56:53 +0000 Brian Chick http://crisiscommons.org/?p=780 CrisisCommons would like to thank Heather Blanchard for her vision and commitment to the organization. She has been instrumental in building the organization from its inception to the global network it has become. We wish her the best in her academic endeavours and assure the community that the goals and ambitions of CrisisCommons will continue to be pursued, with the leadership of the Interim Management Team.

Heather was a visionary and a founder, and co-founder Noel Dickover (both at right with Andrew Turner, also a co-founder); CrisisCommons will continue to move forward, build her vision, and make her proud.

Thank you, Heather and Noel and good luck!

]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/14/thank-you-heather/feed/ 0 A New Chapter for CrisisCommons http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/12/newchapte/ http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/12/newchapte/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:02:25 +0000 Heather Blanchard http://crisiscommons.org/?p=778 I was in town the other day chatting with Noel and we regaled about all the great things that we have seen happen since that first tweetup in March of 2009 where we wondered if anyone would be interested in creating the very first CrisisCamp. Indeed, not only was there one that was created but so many of them all around the world – both during disasters and to help prepare communities. I love Noel’s passion when he says, “We have changed the world” and I believe him. Since Haiti, coders and regular people with nothing more than internet browsers believe that they can make a difference in a crisis, even if they do not go to the disaster area.  CrisisCommons connected technology volunteers around the globe to work with formal crisis response organizations in a new way – one that is still exploring its boundaries. Maybe projects didn’t work out or we didn’t move down the road we initially wanted to, you can’t deny that everyone who pitched in believe in a new model of giving. A model that is based on people skills and breaks the myths that complete strangers can’t organize themselves to be ready to help. Indeed that has been the backbone of everything we have done.
Just think that two years ago today we made one decision that changed all of our lives. We decided to do something to help. We wanted to try. We wanted to see if we could help. Two years later there have been many highs and lows but what remains is the undeniable fact that people can help during disasters. We see it during each and every disaster event. Haiti changed everything for so many of us and communities which are in this space.Looking back to 2011 there were many advancements where volunteers continued to contribute their time to projects and response actions. Volunteers responded to blizzards, floods, tornadoes and earthquakes last year. We saw a gathering of CrisisCamp communities in Europe and the very first mobile CrisisCamper hit the road for a cross country tour in the United States. The communities of interest were in high gear as well. The Missing Persons Community of Interest had two Data Summits – one in Paris and the other in NYC with folks like Facebook, Google, Refugees United, ICRC and the American Red Cross attending. The community has also supported the efforts with #SMEM to help provide a snapshot in time of the challenges and opportunities which emergency management practitioners are currently facing. We also worked together on the perhaps first crowdsourced Congressional testimony. That was a fun project for all who participated. Lots of great things happening.Towards the late summer and the fall we began to shift into looking at where the community was today and begin to evaluate what the next steps were for the community. To make this more inclusive, an interim management team was established to explore the next steps for CrisisCommons. In a sense the community has the opportunity to create a new chapter filled with so many possibilities. This team, as an all volunteer effort, will begin to start charting the voyage ahead. You can reach the new team by sending an email to core@crisiscommons.org and check out their bios on the website at www.crisiscommons.org.

As this team begins to move ahead, Noel and I have decided, after three years of amazing experiences and working with the best people in the world, that we are both stepping down from the community and are moving on with a few new projects. You can check out what I’m doing here.

We are very excited to see all the great things that the new generation of leaders at CrisisCommons will accomplish. We both wish everyone well.

So here’s to new journeys for everyone and major love bombs for the new team. We know they will do amazing things!

Happy New Year!

Heather Blanchard and Noel Dickover

]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2012/01/12/newchapte/feed/ 0 Happy Holidays! http://crisiscommons.org/2011/12/22/happy-holidays/ http://crisiscommons.org/2011/12/22/happy-holidays/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:27:14 +0000 Heather Blanchard http://crisiscommons.org/?p=773

From everyone at CrisisCommons

we hope that you and your family

have a safe and happy holiday season!

** See you in 2012 **

(Image: Wikipedia)

]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2011/12/22/happy-holidays/feed/ 0 #SMEM Camp Report Released http://crisiscommons.org/2011/11/11/smem/ http://crisiscommons.org/2011/11/11/smem/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:40:21 +0000 Heather Blanchard http://crisiscommons.org/?p=759 On Wednesday November 10, 2011 a community of emergency management practitioners in collaboration with a volunteer research team at CNA, released a report of the findings of the March 2011 Social Media in Emergency Management Camp. During this event emergency managers and practitioners gathered to discuss the opportunities and challenges of using social media and other emerging technologies in emergency management. The primary objective of the gathering was to capture best practices, challenges, future engagement and training opportunities.

SMEM Camp event brought together more than 150 members of the U.S. emergency management community convened to discuss how social media and emerging technologies are affecting response operations. Findings of this event, along with additional collaboration with the community, has yielded the first independent, community-led report reflecting the needs and challenges of our nation’s emergency services systems ability to leverage social media tools to support emergency management functions, not only during crisis events but during preparedness, recovery and mitigation efforts.

SMEM Camp was hosted by the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) and the SMEM Initiative, in collaboration with CrisisCommons. Participants included representatives from state and local emergency management agencies, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the American Red Cross, Twitter©, companies like Citibank, and volunteer technology communities. SMEM Camp was a direct response to changes in societal expectations of emergency responders (e.g., the timeliness of response) brought about by the emergence of social media and related technologies over the past decade.

The participants and researchers collaborated with hopes to share an independent and grassroots practitioner perspective which can to shed light on current opportunities and challenges with regards to use of social media across the entire emergency management spectrum. To view the report and its resources you can click to http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/SMEM_Initiative or the below links:

About the SMEM Initiative

The Social Media in Emergency Management Initiative “SMEM” is an informal network of emergency management practitioners who seek to explore best practices and bridge social media in emergency management. SMEM seeks to build a common understanding and “experience exchange” to support the use and inclusion of social media, public data and technology innovation to support mission objectives of emergency management to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate against disaster.  To join the conversation, visit the #SMEM hash tag and be sure to visit the #SMEMchat each Friday at 12:30PM EST where there is a live discussion. Check out news and archive topics at at www.sm4em.org and wiki.crisiscommons.org and be sure to join the practitioner email group at http://groups.google.com/group/smem.

]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2011/11/11/smem/feed/ 4 CrisisCommons Interim Management Team… http://crisiscommons.org/2011/11/03/crisiscommons-interim-management-team/ http://crisiscommons.org/2011/11/03/crisiscommons-interim-management-team/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:58:17 +0000 Pascal Schuback http://crisiscommons.org/?p=756

CrisisCommons has a new Interim Management Team. We are entering a new era of consolidation and outreach to volunteers across the globe. We will focus our attention in the next few months on strengthening our relationships with all of you involved in crisis camps and VTC activities.

Our aim is to build on the successes we have achieved collectively by ensuring that those who provide support and leadership during crises and emergencies have a voice in the discussions concerning the future of CrisisCommons. The new Interim Management Team counts on your feedback to set strategic objectives and ensure that this organization remains at the forefront of crowdsourcing and crisis mapping activities in disasters and crises around the world.

Infrastructure                    Deborah Shaddon, Chris Foote

Community                        Chad Catacchio, Jacob Greer

Governance                       David Black, Pascal Schuback

Communications              Patrice Cloutier, Brian Chick

Projects                               Sara Farmer, Monika Adamczyk

Founders                            Andrew Turner

]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2011/11/03/crisiscommons-interim-management-team/feed/ 0 CrisisCommons Interim Governance Introduction http://crisiscommons.org/2011/10/24/crisiscommons-interim-governance-introduction/ http://crisiscommons.org/2011/10/24/crisiscommons-interim-governance-introduction/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:43:14 +0000 Pascal Schuback http://crisiscommons.org/?p=753 We’ve been getting some questions over at the governance committee about our current activities. People have stepped up to help us with our tasks and offer their input and experience from other ventures to assist us. Our committee consists of David Black, Pascal Schuback, Aaron Huslage, Jeannie Stamberger, and Willow Brugh.We are pleased that people are showing interest in the group in supporting the governance process in building the CrisisCommons to be a long lasting organization supporting this and many other communities. It is important that we all take the appropriate time, openness and collaboration in structuring and building out the operation of the CrisisCommons. The following actions will help the CrisisCommons move forward in creating its organizational identity and eventually its near future operational structure. This will include the ability to maintain grant projects, expand to additional unknown future projects and increase our funding steps from many other sources.

The CrisisCommons governance group is putting the final touches on a plan to manage the process of developing a permanent governance structure to serve the needs of the Commons. It will be a methodical process for which we hope for much input from the Commons community and it will take some time, measured in months.

So in the meantime, in parallel, we have been discussing with the current temporary core team a way to formalize an interim decision-making process. The purpose behind this is to move a step ahead of where we are right now fairly rapidly, so we can focus on the longer process.

Because we are moving quickly with the interim model we expect it to be fairly simple and agile. It won’t be perfect, but we plan to introduce it with a sunset clause in something like 6 months to a year, or whenever we are ready to convene a CrisisCongress to ratify the more formal long-term governance model, whichever comes first. Also, we will propose that the interim group have limited powers, as we won’t have significant enough accountability built in to the simple model. Again, it won’t be perfect, but it is temporary and should fit our needs in the short term. We do, of course, want to hear opinions as this will help us in the development of the long term structure. It is important for the community to participate and share their opinions.

We think that the current organization of the working groups addresses much of our short term needs so we propose not to make changes to the structure at this time. However, we have a number of vacancies and are inviting people to step up and help with the leadership. Currently, what has been referred to as the Core Team consists of 5 working groups plus the 3 founders. The working groups are Communications, Projects, Infrastructure, Governance, and Community. Each working group, or committee, is supposed to have 2 co-leads that represent the working groups within the Core Team for a total of 13 people.

Recruiting Working Group Co-leads/IMT Members

Right now we have 6 vacancies as follows:

2 co-leads – Projects, 2 co-leads Communications, 1 co-lead Infrastructure, 1 co-lead Community. We propose to fill these roles and refer to the accepted full team as the Interim Management Team. This new name reflects the stewardship role that the team undertakes. Once again there are vacancies and this is your opportunity to participate.

We are asking for people to join us by sending an email to pascal@schuback.com signaling their interest and their preferred roles by 6pm UTC Wednesday October 26th, if we have more than one person interested in a single position the governance committee will work to talk through a solution with the interested parties. If that does not result in agreement a draw will be held to chose the names.

While we will not give preference to anyone, we encourage city leads and international representatives to step forward.

If you want to help but are not able to commit in a lead role all work groups are open for people to contribute to and they are a place to have your voice heard.

What does the Interim Management Team do?

The IMT meets monthly, possibly more in the beginning by conference call. The Chair of the meeting will rotate through the working group leads alphabetically and will follow a consistent agenda template to be created by the governance committee. A volunteer will be sought within the IMT to take notes, if no one volunteers the person slated to chair the following meeting will take notes. Notes will be distributed to all participants within 4 days of a meeting adjournment.

The IMT is a forum to coordinate the activities of the work groups and make decisions that are related to the day to day operations. Additionally;

  • Maintain standards agreed upon by Interim Management Team
  • Present/Represent the CrisisCommons at an Interim Management Team level.
  • May need to meet in person.
  • Possibility of other additional duties as developed

Further guidelines for operation of the group are forthcoming from the governance group.

Working Group Members

Infrastructure
Current Leads – Deborah Shaddon, Chris Foote (Spike)
Contributing Members Andrew Turner, Ted Han
Current Scope
  • Establish CrisisCommons Infrastructure at OSL
  • CCIWG Working Group Team Building and Culture Cultivation
  • CrisisCommons Digital Strategy (Technology)
  • CrisisCommons New CCIWG Projects
  • Ongoing CCIWG Admin, Support, Gardening, Management, and Documentation

Communications
Current Leads – OPEN
Contributing Members Heather Blanchard, Becky Boutwell, Chad Catacchio, Todd Jasper, Joanna Lane, Andrew Lih, Melissa Elliott
Current Scope
This is a workgroup which support CrisisCommons and its projects such as CrisisCamp to effectively communicate to the public and our volunteers.

Community Development
Current Leads –  Chad Cattacchio, OPEN
Contributing Members – Open
The Community group is focused on helping CrisisCamps and individual volunteers have the best experience to collaborate and communicate. Our first goal for 2011 is to build the CrisisCamp in a Box (CCIAB).

Projects
Current Leads –  OPEN
Contributing Members OPEN

Governance
Current Leads David Black, Pascal Schuback
Contributing Members Aaron Huslage, Jeannie Stamberger, Willow Brugh

Current Scope
The scope of the governance committee is to research, develop alternative models, make recommendations and lead the discussion within Crisis Commons on the most appropriate governance structure that will facilitate the vision and goals of CrisisCommons.

In order to make sound recommendations that best suit the organization’s aspirations a framework strategic plan outlining first year goals and objectives will be prepared.

The committee acknowledges that the first strategic plan will have significant flexibility as it will be based on many assumptions and cannot be formally adopted until after a decision-making body is officially defined through the governance-building process itself.

Once a governance model is chosen the committee will oversee the development of bylaws and present them for approval.

Founders
Heather Blanchard, Noel Dickover, Andrew Turner

Once again, please let us hear your voice.  Email pascal@schuback.com and let us know.
Prepared by the Governance Working Group – October 19, 2011
]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2011/10/24/crisiscommons-interim-governance-introduction/feed/ 1 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Turkey – CrisisCommons monitoring situation http://crisiscommons.org/2011/10/23/7-2-magnitude-earthquake-in-turkey-crisiscommons-monitoring-situation/ http://crisiscommons.org/2011/10/23/7-2-magnitude-earthquake-in-turkey-crisiscommons-monitoring-situation/#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:23:59 +0000 Chad Catacchio http://crisiscommons.org/?p=748 A few hours ago a 7.2 earthquake hit eastern Turkey 16km from the city of Van according to the USGS. According to both CNN (video below) and the AP, there appears to be significant damage. Here is a live stream from Turkish television on the quake.

CrisisCommons is currently monitoring the situation and is open to requests for assistance from response organizations. If you would like to request assistance from CrisisCommons, please email Heather Blanchard at heather@crisiscommons.org.

You can see our current activities on the VAN Turkey Earthquake Wiki page. If you wish to volunteer to help monitor the developing situation in Turkey, please fill out our Volunteer Form. Also, you can join our Google Group to receive email updates and also follow us on Twitter @CrisisCommons and @CrisisCamp and via our Facebook Page.

We will continue to provide updates as our situational awareness increases.

Al Jazeera reports from earthquake-hit Turkey

]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2011/10/23/7-2-magnitude-earthquake-in-turkey-crisiscommons-monitoring-situation/feed/ 0 Movin’ Right Along: CrisisCamper Tour Kicks Off http://crisiscommons.org/2011/09/22/crisiscamperkickoff/ http://crisiscommons.org/2011/09/22/crisiscamperkickoff/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 04:12:51 +0000 Heather Blanchard http://crisiscommons.org/?p=741

Yes! That is right, the dream is real! Pascal and his team did it! At this very moment, Pascal (@schuback) driving the CrisisCamper to San Francisco to kick off the 2011 CrisisCamper Tour!

Be sure to join Pascal and his merry band of Electric Mayhem as they travel from San Francisco to New Orleans sharing how collaborative communities, social media, open data and engagement can help communities prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate against disaster.

We hope you can come out all the events along the way! You can follow the CrisisCamper Tour via Twitter @crisiscamper

If you want to get in touch with the CrisisCamper email Pascal at pascal (at) schuback.com or give him a shout on Twitter @schuback

]]> http://crisiscommons.org/2011/09/22/crisiscamperkickoff/feed/ 0 SMEM Camp Whitepaper Released for Comment http://crisiscommons.org/2011/09/03/smempape/ http://crisiscommons.org/2011/09/03/smempape/#comments Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:52:42 +0000 Heather Blanchard http://crisiscommons.org/?p=733 Clarence Wardell and his merry band of researchers at CNA are proud to share the second draft of the Social Media in Emergency Management (#SMEM) Camp Paper for final public review. As you might recall earlier this summer Clarence released the initial findings which is a great executive summary of the opportunities and challenges identified at the March 24, 2011 SMEM Camp organized by SMEM volunteers and hosted at the Mid-Year National Emergency Management Association Conference in Alexandria, Virginia.

The second round of comments will be the final opportunity to provide thoughts and feedback. Please focus on CONTENT. We are grateful that CNA has budgeted for a technical editor for the paper who will make is all pretty. We really want to thank Clarence Wardell, Yee San Su and the leadership of CNA for adopting this project as a probono effort to ensure the important conversations at the SMEM Camp were reflected in a document which can begin to point to opportunities to move the ball forward to help emergency management and first responders use technology and open data, including social media tools, to help communities prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate against disasters.

The SMEM Camp whitepaper is now open for public comment. It will be a tight turn around we want to gather as much as we can in the coming days to incorporate into the final document which will be released this month for National Preparedness Month and we hope will be able to shape a panel discussion at the upcoming National Emergency Management Association and International Association of Emergency Management Annual conferences.

To provide input please follow these links:

  • To review the paper click to the PDF here: http://tiny.cc/c6cu4
  • To provide written comments (please cite the line number) please provide them via the comment document here: http://tiny.cc/5pjg9
  • If you have other input, feedback or contributions, please email Clarence Wardell at cwardell (at) gmail.com or Heather Blanchard heather (at) crisiscommons.org
  • If you are an emergency manager and wish to join the #SMEM community Google group, or just to read about previous activities click to the CrisisCommons Wiki and www.SM4EM.org. 
  • Be sure to follow the #SMEM hashtag on Twitter. Every Friday at 12:30PM emergency management practitioners gather on Twitter and conduct a weekly #SMEMchat. To check out the archives of these chats on Twitter click to SM4EM.org.
CrisisCommons will host a SMEM Monthly Call this Thursday at 11:00AM EST to discuss these finding and provide any final last points for the paper.
All comments must be committed by 5pM EST – TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 6. CNA must complete the final draft by September 16th. We understand and wish we had more time but we are very grateful for all of the volunteer research team’s hard work on the paper and the opportunity to take advantage of a professional editor :)
This paper will be released via a PDF but CrisisCommons will translate the paper into a wiki format so the community can continue to edit and expand upon its findings with subsequent learnings. We like living documents. We hope you can spare a few minutes over this holiday weekend to take a look at the paper and provide your support through your comments.
Again we thank the village which this paper represents. From CNA team and the merry band of volunteer researchers and notetakers who spared a Thursday to try to get down all the great things people were saying at SMEM Camp, to NEMA and all the good people there who believed in this project and provided the space for collaboration and dialogue. We also appreciated them keeping us watered and provided mid-afternoon sugar fix with ice cream treats. But the big thanks goes to the team of SMEMers who braved weekly phone calls, virtual collaboration at all hours of the day (and across many timezones) to make the SMEM Camp happen but to keep building upon its spirit such as the weekly #SMEMChat, UASI Panel Discussion and contribution of writing perspectives such as Patrice Cloutier’s who flew all the way from Canada to provide an international perspective both in the event and written. His report will be an appendix to this report. In addition the UASI Conference notes were also provided to the research team.

 

About #SMEM

The Social Media in Emergency Management Initiative “SMEM” is an informal network of Cross-functional disciplines, including emergency management practitioners, Virtual Operations Support Team Volunteers, First Responders, and practitioners in academia, who seek to explore best practices and bridge social media in emergency management. SMEM seeks to build a common understanding and “experience exchange” to support the use and inclusion of social media, behavioral science, public data and technology innovation to support mission objectives of emergency management to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate against disaster.

The overarching goals of SMEM as an open community are to document and share social media best practices within the practitioner field of emergency management; to help frame policy development, operations and other augmentations of support within domestic crisis management systems; and to accelerate and amplify the incorporation and engagement with social media and accessible technologies within the broader emergency management community. The community will do this by establishing SMEM collaboration processes, including ad-hoc small multi-discipline workgroups to support coordination efforts, recruitment into the community, monthly conference calls, bi-annual in-person meetings, and reaching out to garner support and augment existing efforts.

In March 2011, SMEM gathered together to host its first gathering in collaboration with NEMA at their Mid-Year Conference. During this event emergency managers and practitioners gathered to discuss the opportunities and challenges of using social media and other emerging technologies in emergency management. The primary objective of the gathering was to capture best practices, challenges, future engagement and training opportunities. A volunteer research team led by CNA with support from CrisisCommons was conducted. Initial findings from this event can be found online with a full report to be released by fall 2011. (See final review above)

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