Digital Humanitarian Network (DHN)

See the following -

How AI, Twitter And Digital Volunteers Are Transforming Humanitarian Disaster Response

Katie Collins | Wired | September 30, 2013

On 24 September a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck south-west Pakistan, killing at least 300 people. The following day Patrick Meier at the [QCRI] received a call from the UN [OCHA] asking him to help deal with the digital fallout -- the thousands of tweets, photos and videos that were being posted on the web containing potentially valuable information about the disaster. Read More »

OpenStreetMap Response To Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda

Pierre Beland | Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) | November 17, 2013

The Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda in Philippines is the worst ever registered. The Humanitarian OpenSteetMap Team (HOT) has activated to provide geographic base data in areas affected by typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan in the Philippines. Currently we are supporting the active OpenStreetMap Philippines community. [...] Read More »

When the United Nations Calls, MicroMappers Acts

Open source and crowdsourcing—uttering these words at a meeting of the United Nations before the year 2010 would have made you persona non grata. In fact, the fastest way to discredit yourself at any humanitarian meeting just five years ago was to suggest the use of open source software and crowdsourcing in disaster response. Then, a tragic earthquake occured in Haiti in 2010, and OpenStreetMap and Ushahidi were deployed in the aftermath. Their use demonstrated the potential of free and open source crowdsourcing platforms in humanitarian contexts. Then, Typhoon Ruby in the Philippines occured five years later. What technology was used?...

Read More »