Humanitarian Emergencies: Searching for Open data

Anahi Ayala Iacucci

Senior Innovation Advisor

aayala@internews.org

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What’s Open Data?

“Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike.”

OpenDefinition.org

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Availability and Access: the data must be available as a whole and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably by downloading over the internet. The data must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form.

Reuse and Redistribution: the data must be provided under terms that permit reuse and redistribution including the intermixing with other datasets. The data must be machine-readable.

Universal Participation: everyone must be able to use, reuse and redistribute – there should be no discrimination against fields of endeavour or against persons or groups. For example, ‘non-commercial’ restrictions that would prevent ‘commercial’ use, or restrictions of use for certain purposes (e.g. only in education), are not allowed.

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Why Open data for Humanitarian emergencies?

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Information is Power!

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1. People affected by unfolding tragedy need more than physical necessities: They need information.

2. Timely and accurate information for disaster affected people, as well as effective communication between populations and aid providers are still omitted during humanitarian responses

3. Information can help to save lives, reduce suffering and enable people in the midst of a disaster to take an active role in their own survival and recovery

4. If we pretend to know and to be an active part in our government decision making processes, we need also to DEMAND the same transparency and participation for affected communities during disasters.

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Are affected communities less than citizens?

What are the issues involved in accessing information from

governments and the UN during emergencies and crisis?

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Dadaab, Kenya

(August 2011)

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Privacy and confidentiality

Difficult does not mean impossible!

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Verification

Lack of trust?

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Access

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what can we do?

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Information saves lives!

1.When the entire infrastructure collapse, people get back to the basics: human interactions and …Radio and news paper.

1.Building resilient communications infrastructure and restoring connectivity should be at the heart of disaster management planning.

2.Verification and fact checking has been the job of journalists for years. Social Media and Internet is not different.

2.As new humanitarian responders such as the private sector and volunteer technical communities increase, these groups and their tool should be more integrated within formal disaster management and response structures.

Moving Forward

• Security, Privacy and Protection

Moving Forward

• Security, Privacy and Protection

• Creating new processes and new ways to work with the new actors in this space

Moving Forward

• Security, Privacy and Protection

• Creating new processes and new ways to work with the new actors in this space

• Research, investigate, questions your assumptions

Moving Forward

• Security, Privacy and Protection• Creating new processes and

new ways to work with the new actors in this space

• Research, investigate, questions your assumptions

• Listen!

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Communication is aid

Thank you!

anahi ayala iacucciSenior Innovation advisor &

humanitarian technology advisoraayala@internews.org

@anahi_ayala @info_innovation

http://innovation.internews.org