Standby Task Force

See the following -

11 Ways To Get Involved With Humanitarian FOSS

Lending a digital hand for humanitarian projects is just a click away. Whether you have five minutes or a few hours, you can make a difference with a variety of Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) projects. The level of skills required vary from web search, verification, mapping, translation, training, and open source software development. Along the journey of changing the world, you can meet like minds and hone your skills. The key is to ask yourself: What do I want to do? How can I get started? How can I find the right project and community?

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Disaster-Mapping Project Helps Spread Reports Of The Czech Floods

Molly Jane Zuckerman | Net Prophet | June 13, 2013

The Krizová mapa Česka, or Crisis Map Czech, an online disaster-mapping project created by a Czech television channel, has provided Czech citizens with up-to-date information about the flooding in the Czech Republic. Read More »

How Open Government Is Helping With Hurricane Relief in Puerto Rico

Just weeks after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, two more "unprecedented" hurricanes made their way to the southeastern United States. Although changes in Hurricane Irma's path spared Florida from the bulk of the damage, both Irma and Maria directly hit Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hurricane Maria was particularly devastating for the more than 3.5 million American citizens living in these U.S. Caribbean territories. The CEO of Puerto Rico's sole electric company indicated that the grid had been "basically destroyed." Without electricity, communications were severely limited. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, embracing open government principles—such as open data, collaboration between citizens and government, and transparency—can save lives.

Open Source for Humanitarian Action

Brandon Keim | Stanford Social Innovation Review | December 1, 2012

In the days following the Jan. 10, 2010, earthquake in Haiti, chaos prevailed. Transportation was limited, if not impossible. Lines of communication were broken. A few radio stations continued to broadcast, but the disaster’s scale was overwhelming. Only one form of mass communication remained relatively intact: cellular phones. Even before the disaster, there had been only 108,000 landbased telephone lines in the country, compared with 3.5 million mobile phones. After the earthquake, mobile communications, particularly text messages, were one of the few means by which people could report their needs and location...

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Working the Crowd: How USAID Leveraged Free Labor to Map a Loan Program’s Effectiveness

Joseph Marks | NextGov | June 29, 2012

The crowd can be a great source of free labor, as long as you’ve done most of the hard work in advance and you’ve given those volunteers a good reason to participate, officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Geocenter said Thursday. Read More »

Disaster Crowdsourcing Exchange - FEMA's Disaster Hackathon

Event Details
Type: 
Conference
Date: 
October 21, 2017 - 10:00am - 5:00pm
Location: 
Federal Emergency Management Agency
500 C Street Southwest Conference Center
Washington, DC 20024
United States

Disasters like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and the California Wildfires have unprecedented impacts on our Nation, but digital volunteers can be a powerful force in helping with the disaster response and recovery efforts! Come participate in FEMA's Disaster Crowdsourcing Exchange on Saturday, October 21. Learn about FEMA's current crowdsourcing coordination efforts, participate in building new projects, experiment with new tools, and shape the future of crowdsourcing in emergency management.

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