Help Map (Russian Fires) Crisis Mapping Case Study
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Transcript of Help Map (Russian Fires) Crisis Mapping Case Study
Help Map (Russian Fires)Crisis Mapping Case StudyAlexey SidorenkoPrague, March 9th 2011
Prerequisites for Wildfire Crisis in Russia, 2010
1. Unusually hot period; 2. Degraded system of wildfire protection; 3. Almost simultaneous outburst of wildfires
in different Russian regions;4. Raise of activism on the background of
government’s inability to cope with the disaster;
What’s the Story of Help Map?
• Idea of implementing digital tools wasn’t new;• Two persons publicly suggested usage of Ushahidi in their blogs;• One of them, Gregory Asmolov, proposed to try to install Ushahidi;• First reaction: “It would take at least a month” (MEH!) • Second reaction: “This is actually quite easy! THIS
COULD WORK!”
• Third reaction: IT WORKS!!!!• Result: Ushahidi deployment in 2-
3 days;
Difficulties
• Poor support for Cyrillic fonts;• Inactive community support -> necessity to fix all
the bugs by ourselves; • Poor documentation / difficult customization of
the platform;• Unexpected high load of the server (10-15
thousand unique visitors daily) -> necessity to move to a new hosting really fast;
Our Main Principles At That Time
• CROWDSOURCING. We crowdsource everything: message moderation, PHP/JavaScript programming, server optimization, server hosting, design;
• TRUST. We trust all volunteers, we don’t have time for background checks – dangerous but necessary;
• CREDIT. We credit everyone who helps us – people need to know and feel that their effort is taken into account;
• NEUTRALITY. we don’t support with any political organization;
Help Map1.The First
Ushahidi implementation in Russia;
2.Stage 1: Monitoring of various sources concerning wildfires;
3.Stage 2: Coordination of volunteers and victims of wildfires;
Information Coordination• Connecting random initiatives
together -> creating synergy;• Connecting those who asked for help
and those who could provide help; • Providing information on the abilities
of private initiatives.
Information coordinationPozar_r
uIgor Cherski
y Doctor
Liza
Russian ChurchVolunteer
groupsRandom Citizen
Initiatives
Work of Coordination Center• Moderation of reports;
• Monitoring of sources;
• Coordination of the work of remote moderators;
• Site maintenance;
• Phone “Hot Line” maintenance;
• Coordination of help.Фотографии ottenki_serogo
Full cycle of helpClothe
sTransport
ation«We have some spare clothes”, Moscow
«I have a car. Mazda 3, I am available to lift people or food to any place in the Moscow or Ryazan region.
Victims«In Vladimir region we need (August 14, 2010):• Утюги - 50 шт• Тонометр – 1• Глюкометр (+тестполоски) – 1•...»
Help Report
Trip report: we brought food and clothes to …
Weak sides of the project• Limited information flow from the cell phones;• Limited number of sources (mostly from the bigger cities);• Mapping as a process was unusual for some less computer
literate users;• Technical instability; • Lack of interactivity on the basis of the platform; • Limited feedback functionality (volunteers and victims
couldn’t connect with each other without the help of moderators);
• After the crisis is gone the future of the platform is unstable;
Perspectives:• Upgrade of the platform to version
2.0 + change of design to our own platform;
• Integration of aerial photographs; • Information support in endangered
regions ;• Better cooperation with the NGOs
Thanks!
Alexey Sidorenko• [email protected]• Twitter: @sidorenko_intl