Girls In Tech

This press release comes directly from Crisis Commons, who are doing such great work that we wanted to share them with all of our Girls in Tech. To learn more, or get involved, check out their site and follow them on Twitter.

Hundreds of CrisisCamp volunteers are gathering in an expanded number of cities to collaborate on information technology projects in support of disaster relief for post-earthquake Haiti. Initially launched last week in six locations in response to the crisis, the volunteer technology effort has rapidly grown to 12 cities in four countries.

CrisisCamps are in-person meetings of a new grassroots movement called CrisisCommons (http://www.crisiscommons.org), with a mission to share best practices for crisis response.

Montreal and Toronto in Canada,  as well as Bogota, Colombia, join London, UK as international locations. US gatherings will take place in: Boston; Denver; Los Angeles; Miami; New Orleans; Portland; Seattle; Sunnyvale, California; and Washington, D.C.

In just one week, CrisisCamp Haiti volunteers in five cities collaboratively conceived of and created “We Have, We Need” (http://www.wehaveweneed.org/) an online service to support the logistics of matching donors and relief organizations. CrisisCampers have also assisted organizations such as Ushahidi, Sahana and OpenStreetMap to generate free detailed basemap information for Haiti. The detailed digital maps have been useful to rescue teams by locating NGOs on the ground, source of available water and the locations of evacuee camps. Additionally, volunteers built and contributed data to mobile phone applications to allow those on the ground to report vital information such as the location of hospitals or missing persons. Nontechnical volunteers have been instrumental as well, as with one project requested by the United Nations that generated a definitive list of news sources covering the Haiti earthquake.

Development on these projects has continued even after CrisisCamp events are over through open source online collaborative tools, such as MediaWiki, Drupal and Internet Relay Chat. Projects underway include Language & Translation, Mobile Disaster Assessment Mapping, Family Reunification and Haitian Skilled Worker Retention. CrisisCamp creations are released under a free license, allowing anyone to use, copy or modify any volunteer efforts.

All of the applications and project descriptions can be found on the CrisisCommons website. Listed on the site are “Simple Tasks Anyone Can Do” with screencasts and step-by-step instructions to teach the Internet novice how they can participate.

“We are witnessing the development of a transformational change in how an average citizen can participate in the crisis response effort,” says CrisisCommons co-founder Noel Dickover.  “Previously you could only send money.  Now, you can directly help in the response. An existing social network of national and international first responders, web 2.0 developers, and NGOs had been established, so the immediate response was just a matter of galvanizing existing relationships.”

About CrisisCamp
CrisisCamp is a open, collaborative event held in “barcamp” style to provide local and international responders, community leaders of affected areas and non-governmental organizations an opportunity to engage with operations on the ground during a crisis. Tools and resources created by CrisisCamp volunteers are designed to enhance responders’ decision-making capability, transparency and collaboration.

About CrisisCommons
CrisisCommons brings together domain experts, developers, and first responders to develop technology and practices for humanitarian crisis management and disaster relief. CrisisCommons is part of a global movement that unites volunteers, academia, non-profits, companies and government officials in sharing best practices and lessons learned to advocate for further use of technology and telecommunications to assist citizens and communities during crisis.

Founded in March 2009 through an impromptu meetup of Twitter users at the Government 2.0 Camp, a small band of idealists and innovators gathered to discuss the idea of a creating a common community through a mash-up of citizen volunteers, crisis response organizations, international humanitarian relief agencies, non-profits and the private sector. Within minutes, the CrisisCamp concept was born to unite communities, seek common ground and cultivate innovation in the use of technology for mobility and efficiency during crisis.

Learn more about the movement at http://www.crisiscommons.org/