Typhoon Haiyan

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Crowdsource Mapping Helps Recovery Efforts In Philippines

Staff Writer | Here & Now | November 15, 2013

The United Nations says 11 million people are affected by Typhoon Haiyan, which hammered the islands a week ago today. The death toll is now more than 3,000, and the survivors are still struggling to get the food and water they so desperately need. Read More »

Drones for Healthcare Powered by 'Open Source'

About a week after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, one of the Direct Relief partnering organizations called Team Rubicon sought to determine the operational status of the Carigara District Hospital, located northwest of the city of Tacloban. Travel along damaged roads was difficult and slow. Yet, the assessment team was able to provide local officials and aid groups with a rapid and highly accurate visual analysis of damage to the Carigara District Hospital by deploying the latest in close proximity aerial imaging technology, using a Huginn X1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or civil surveillance drone. 

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FrontlineSMS In The Philippines And The Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) Response

Laura Walker Hudson | FrontlineSMS | November 17, 2013

In the aftermath of devastating Typhoon Haiyan, we’re working with networks of aid agencies to support the international response any way we can – but we know that the first and most important responders are already in the Philippines. Read More »

How Online Mapmakers are Helping the Red Cross Save Lives in the Philippines

Robinson Meyer | The Atlantc | November 12, 2013

It will be months before we know the true damage brought about by super typhoon Haiyan. The largest death tolls now associated with the storm are only estimates. Aid workers from across the world are now flying to the island nation, or they just recently arrived there. Read More »

How We Brought the Internet to Standing Rock

Last spring a group I follow on Facebook started sharing information about an oil pipeline, called the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), that was planned to go in the ground in North Dakota, and the Water Protectors, teenagers from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation who were standing up to try to stop that from happening. As I watched the story unfold over the next few months, I knew that I wanted to go out there and see how the nonprofit organization I work for, Geeks Without Bounds, could help...

Mobile Phones Are Now As Crucial As Food And Water In Emergency Aid

Heather Timmons | Quartz | November 13, 2013

Foreign aid is streaming into the Philippines from around the world as the news of the devastation wrought Super Typhoon Haiyan spreads, but it’s no longer just food, water and shelter: Before the storm even made landfall, a team from non-profit Télécoms Sans Frontières was on the ground, carrying satellite phones and laptop-sized BGans, which enable voice calls and internet connections via satellite. Read More »

Online Army Helps Map Guinea's Ebola Outbreak

Hal Hodson | New Scientist | April 11, 2014

Health workers responding to an Ebola outbreak in Guinea had no maps to go on, so they turned to the internet for help

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Online Volunteers Map Philippines After Typhoon Haiyan

Alex Hern | The Guardian | November 15, 2013

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team coordinates mapping effort after enormous storm devastated country Read More »

OpenStreetMap Response To Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda

Pierre Beland | Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) | November 17, 2013

The Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda in Philippines is the worst ever registered. The Humanitarian OpenSteetMap Team (HOT) has activated to provide geographic base data in areas affected by typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan in the Philippines. Currently we are supporting the active OpenStreetMap Philippines community. [...] Read More »

The Disaster Response Innovation Fund Is Open for Applications

Press Release | GSMA | September 7, 2017

Since the inception of GSMA’s Disaster Response programme in 2012, we have worked with our GSMA members, humanitarian partners and the wider private and humanitarian sectors to drive the creation and adoption of coordinated, impactful solutions and practices that leverage the ubiquity of the mobile technology. Since 2015 we have done this under the umbrella of the Humanitarian Connectivity Charter, a global initiative which now has over 115 Mobile Network Operator (MNO) signatories across 78 countries...

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Turning Mobile Devices Into Emergency Tools

The strongest recorded storm to ever hit land slammed into the Philippines at 195 miles per hour just over a year ago, on 8 November 2013...One of the problems in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan was the failure of mobile phone networks. Many base stations were damaged or ran out of power, rendering the tools — which could otherwise have enabled separated families or health workers to communicate — powerless. But there are simple and affordable tweaks that handset manufacturers could introduce to make their products more resilient and useful in disasters, according to Wladimir Alonso, a global health researcher at the US National Institutes of Health...

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