PowerPoint Presentation

Digital Humanitarians in the SkyHeather Leson October 13, 2015EOScience 20 Frascati Italy

Event - http://eoscience20.org/

Thank you to the European Space Agency and Pierre for the honour to share this research and community work. Today I will talk about activating research with global communities and provide some insight into how I think research communities could support these efforts. I will share details about the work of Qatar Computing Research Institute and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team to illustrate the power of the right tools and people for humanitarian response.

Photo of Globe at Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Venice Italy 1

How can we match skills, learning journeys with research and work that requires more brain capacity?

These are some of the skills that happen across the various communities. Each person has a specialty or learning journey. In order for any digital humanitarian research or software to be functional, it needs some if not all of these components. Im keen to help people get involved in their world. Right now it is fairly niche to be part of this space. We need more training programmes, more research on all the topics and most of all a deeper understanding on how this can reshape aid and development. The science programmes you are sharing here show some of the potential. But this type of data people are often worried about breaking the internet or hurting someone These are very much weighty topics. 2

The Digital Community has organized itself into teams of organizations. During humanitarian emergencies, each community and the wider network of technology business, and humanitarians work tirelessly to curate information products to help.

Digital Humanitarians provide online digital skills in times of crisis. They aim to provide support for humanitarians (eg. Information Officers) who manage all the data from multiple sources during a disaster. The Digital Humanitarian Network was formed a few years ago. This network of various communities collaborates directly with the United National Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). It is a global community network that use their digital skills to help Humanitarians get data, maps, insights and technology. They provide surge support capacity to manage the influx of so much information during times of crisis and emergencies. Each has their own community, skillsets and priorities. They work as a team and are activated based on the needs assessment identified by the UN.

http://digitalhumanitarians.com/

http://digitalhumanitarians.com/resources

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Research at QCRI and types of social and new data.

The Social and Data source ecosystem is expanding. Qatar Computing Research Institutes Social Computing group aims to share insights across the various social media tools and dataset. Imagery, sensor and open data like OpenStreetMap provide the ability to see the data ecosystem to make decisions. Each of these datasets and networks provide thousands of data points during an emergency. While the infographic shows layers of data, it is actually a web of interconnected data points and communities. QCRIs Social computing team has created tools to do microtask which can result in an aggregated, curated analysis to inform decision making. About qcri qcri.org.qa

Infographic Created with Infogr.am.

QCRI Introduction, MicroMappers and AIDR machine and human computing

QCRI has created AIDR and MicroMapppers to provide insights into these datasets. AIDR is Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response. The tool allows users to cite keywords then search twitter or sms. Many keywords or tags can formulate a classifer It uses machine learning which means that users can train the tool to learn which types of keywords are important. The goal is to have the algorithm learn emergency keywords. Reviewing thousands of tweets is not sustainable. We created MicroMappers which combines uses human computing to make quick decisions about the content. All the decisions are vetted by at least 3 people. Then, the data is aggregated into information insights.

Join MicroMappers.org to participate in future activations

MicroMappers Curate Damage Assessment Data

People can do small little things requiring no technical skills or larger more complex items. MicroMappers is a partnership of Qatar Computing Research Institute, UN OCHA and the Standby Task Force. We wanted to make it simple for people to contribute by making quick decisions about social media (text, pictures, videos) and aerial imagery. We defined keywords with official responders using AIDR Artificial Intelligence of Disaster Response. This feeds into data insights which are shared with responders. In fact the Standby Task force shared this information with the UN OCHA and hundreds of other groups. They were part of an online network of digital responders who worked with Humanity Road and Kathmandu Living Labs to have items that needed action given to the right parties.

More about QCRIs work - http://www.slideshare.net/heatherleson/humanitarian-innovation-52253051

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Timeline2010 QCRI Created2012 QCRIs Social Innovation Programme

2013 AIDR Development startsMicroMappers Development startsUaviators CreatedTyphoon Haiyan Response with UN OCHA

2014 MicroMappers - Coconuts for Computer VisionUNICEF AIDR SMS - ZambiaTyphoon Hagupit Response

2015 WoRDE prototype with Translators without BordersCyclone Pam (Vanuatu Response)Nepal Earthquake Response

QCRI has been researching and creating humanitarian software and new science since 2012. This is a brief overview of some of our key projects and some of the data from our activations with partners. The key is quality citizen data and close partnerships.

Unmanned Aerial SystemsAerial Sensors

SPATIAL INFO ENABLES UNPRECEDENTED COLLABORATION AWARENESS. 8

1,000 MEMBERS IN 70 COUNTRIES

There is a code of conduct now and more research everyday - http://uaviators.org/docsNew American Foundation wrote this primer on the topic http://drones.newamerica.org/primer/9

QCRI is using our MicroMappers tools to microtask curating aerial imagery. This gives people a chance to engage with the data. And, our scientists are using the data outputs of their collective efforts to create new algorithms and teach/train the computers to identify this data. 10

During this MicroMappers deployment, digital volunteers analyzed over3,000 high-resolution oblique aerial images, tracing houses that werefully destroyed, partially damaged and largely intact. My colleague Ferda Ofli and Iteamed up with Nicolas Rey (a graduate student from EPFL who interned with us over the summer) to explore whether these traces could be used to train our algorithms. Weve been able to train our algorithms to determine whether or notan aerial image includes a building with just over 90% accuracy http://irevolution.net/2015/10/12/computer-vision-big-data-uavs/11

How does this research with Computer Vision work? 12

Young Mappers in Indonesia, Bangladesh and the United States of America

Young Mappers from Indonesia are part of a preparedness program of UNESCO. They were trained by OpenStreetMap Indonesia. The students with the umbrella are field mapping in Bangladesh. While the two students in the the left corner are mapping Bangladesh while at a Stanford mapathon (USA) Thanks to Chad, Yantisa and Stace of HOT for providing the stories).

More on the OSM Indonesia project: The Establishment of Community-based Point of Interest in Flood Prone Areas in Jakarta is part of the UNESCO World POI Map Project which is implemented through UNESCO Office in Nairobi, Windhoek, New Delhi and Jakarta. - https://www.flickr.com/photos/osm-id/11701826574/in/album-72157639296892364/ Background - http://openstreetmap.id/en/pelatihan-pembentukan-point-of-interest-berbasis-masyarakat-di-daerah-rawan-banjir-jakarta-di-smkn-56-pluit/13

Kathmandu Living Labs civic tech hubs & labs support resilience

Kathmandu Living Lab is a group of young people working to harness human potential and creativity by leveraging open data and civic technology. As community mappers, they have been leading community mapping activities throughout Nepal for a number of years. The civic tech response was lead by this mighty team after the Nepal Earthquake. They connected Digital Humanitarians, NGOs, responders, INGOs, civil society groups and ICT. They used maps, data, software and, most of all, inspired a global community by their ability to navigate some complex technical, personal and professional barriers, including losing their office space. See their blog. Photo courtesy of http://kathmandulivinglabs.org/ and Nepal Vote Monitors presentation on how they delivered actionable items to responders like the Nepal Red Crescent. https://prezi.com/yhxx6j5ifoky/quakemaporg/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy14

Partnerships and Coordination

The core success was the collaboration between Kathmandu Living Labs and various governments, organizations and NGOs. It shows a pathway for other responses. Plus, it speaks volumes about the need for all the best minds to solve questions together.

Sindhupalchok District, Nepal. 5 May 2015 Captain James Borer, a civil-military cooperation officer attached to the Canadian Armed Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team and Captain Animesh Adhikari, liaison officer for Nepalese National Army, discuss with local authorities about roads status, in Sindhupalchok District, Nepal during Operation RENAISSANCE 15-1 on May 5, 2015. (Photo: Corporal Kevin McMillan, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)

Photo from: http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/news/article.page?doc=finding-the-way-geomatic-support-team-creates-maps-in-nepal/i99x64lh

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OpenAerialMap

Open Aerial Data Pipeline

Data Collection Satellite & AerialData Processing manual, tools MACHINE LEARNINGData Filtering MicroMappers/PybossaData Tasking/Mapping Task ManagerHUMAN COMPUTINGData Validation Tier Tech Support or automated?

Data Analysis / Monitoring and EvaluationMORE RESEARCH

Many of you have been talking about open data and the importance of releasing data. I am keen for the data collaboration and research. But the key to success with satellite and aerial imagery is the data literacy. Some of you may be familiar with the Open Data Pipeline. During Humanitarian Emergencies, this is the current process for map data processing. There are tools and needs within this to make improvements. This is why we are working encourage 17

The road to create new software and inspire people to get involved in community mapping is happening concurrently. This means programs, skills, research and funding are needed to keep on this mission. It is new ground, but I think worthy for scientists and researchers to get involved.

To get involved in Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team : http://hotosm.org/get-involved 19

Thank you

Heather LesonHleson@qf.org.qa @heatherlesonTextontechs.com @hotosm

Thank you

All photos by Heather Leson CCBY

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