InterAction's Member Forum Panel on Haiti Mapping

Today I was on a panel at the InterAction Forum, which is a conference for member organizations within InterAction.  InterAction is an coalition of NGOs with over 180 member organizations.   In the past few months at FortiusOne we’ve been assisting them in tracking their projects and sharing their geographic data. The panel I participated in was titled “Mapping the Haiti Earthquake: Open Geospatial Data and Transnational Social Collaboration.”  It was moderated by Andrew Schroeder of Direct Relief International with the other participants being Christiann Adams from Google, Kimberly Konkel from the Department of Health and Human Services, Nathan Heard of the State Department and Salim Sawaya from ESRI.

One of the points the panel wanted to highlight was the collaboration after the Haiti earthquake between corporations, government institutions and newer participants such as Ushahidi and OpenStreetMap.  As someone who participated early on in the collaboration it was interesting to finally meet people who previous I only knew through phone calls and emails.  One of the questions coming out was is Haiti special or will this happen again?  Was there something about the particular incident or has something fundamentally changed?

I think there are multiple sides to this question.  There is the technology, the people side, the geographic side and the sheer magnitude of the disaster.  I think as far as technology goes things have changed, people can find collaborators in a way that wasn’t possible before.  By finding collaborators individuals were able to make a difference far away from the scene of the actual crisis.  I think the people side is more complex, there was something compelling in the United States with Haiti being so close.  Though now people have formed powerful networks and know that when others need help there is often something they can do.  As far a geography the proximity of Haiti to the United States I believe made the government and its citizens respond in a way they haven’t before.  Then there was the size of the disaster which compelled many people to help.

I think all these factors have changed how people will respond in to a crisis in the future.  Now when an earthquake or flood hits I immediately see the various networks activate, seeing if they can do anything to help.  In some cases such as with the oil spill there is something the technology community can do.  In others there are other factors that either prevent people from helping or the help is unneeded.

Response also will change as groups continue to plan better for the future.  One example of this is the CrisisCamp and the Random Hack of Kindness this weekend.   Another was the Understanding Risk Conference at the World Bank earlier in the week.  I’m still participating in capacity building for OpenStreetMap in Haiti with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.  Data will continue to be available on GeoCommons when other events occur such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  And technology will continue to improve making collaboration easier.