Development Blogs.com

Short note: WorldWideHelp have got the NargisHelp Wiki up and running, packed with information goodness....

What’s interesting about the ReliefWeb Client Outreach statistics? Quite a lot. ReliefWeb is the single most information portal for the humanitarian community, so it’s worth paying attention to how that community uses online services, what sorts of information it values, and so on. It’s also interesting because ReliefWeb went through a huge overhaul a couple of [...]...

Tom asked me to elaborate on a point about NGO technology choices and (despite the fact that he’s failed to deliver the blog posts he promised, ahem) I think it’s worth putting something out there. I haven’t seen anything written about the issue of NGO technology markets anywhere else, but it seems to be a key issue given the recent development of some key applications and platforms. Basically the problem is this: the humanitarian community (but particularly NGOs) seems to make quite poor choices in terms of software. We then have to live with legacy software and all sorts of compatibility issues, while we lag behind developments such as Web2.0 and tend to deploy the sort of technology that only increases the gap between ourselves and our beneficiaries. To some extent...

An email from CEO Eric Rasmussen tells me that INSTEDD is finally flying in radar (and apparently I’m mixing metaphors, unsure of whether INSTEDD is a whale or a plane). In his words, InSTEDD has been invisible, a rumor and a ghost, for the few past months, but we surfaced today in a media call with Google.org in the launch of their first-ever Initiatives. I’ve known Eric virtually for a couple of years, although we’ve never managed to actually meet in person. He’s a very solid choice for CEO - his thinking on civil-military affairs was always more lateral than I expected for somebody in his position, and I think that it reflected his willingness to listen and learn from others. That open attitude will be the single most important tool in INSTEDD’s box, at...

Marla Petal at RiskRED emailed me following my recent post on PreventionWeb. RiskRed is concerned with promoting education about disaster risk reduction, but its most interesting project from my perspective is the DRRlibrary, a DRR resource site with a social bookmarking approach, using tags to classify useful websites and documents. When you visit the DRRlibrary, what you see looks almost identical to del.icio.us, the mother of all social bookmarking sites, with a few extra functions. Searching through the tags is quite simple - as well as being able to sort by date, title or URL of each link, there’s also a tag cloud on the main page and a browser (which works fine but is a little confusing). It’s great to see this approach being used, and I assume that Ian...

HumaniNet participated in a successful Simulation Exercise in Nepal from 1-8 October, with participants from Caritas and ADRA (as well as a couple of UN agencies) from different countries around the region. The UN Dispatch has an article entitled “How PDAs are Saving Lives in Africa“.  It isn’t nearly as dramatic as it sounds, since it’s about how PDAs are being used to carry out health surveys, but there are some lessons for humanitarian data collection in there. APDIP and APCICT released an e-Primer on ICT for Disaster Management, which includes Sahana as a case study. It’s an interesting overview, but doesn’t have much depth (that’s why they call it a primer, I guess). Mifan Careem has launched the unofficial Sahana blog at TalkSahana. This is a...

Quite a long time ago, I posted the story of a starving tribesman who emailed a bunch of people to try and get assistance. The Economist has finally caught up, as it opens this article on technology in humanitarian relief with a similar story. “MY NAME is Mohammed Sokor, writing to you from Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab. Dear Sir, there is an alarming issue here. People are given too few kilograms of food. You must help.” A crumpled note, delivered to a passing rock star-turned-philanthropist? No, Mr Sokor is a much sharper communicator than that. He texted this appeal from his own mobile phone to the mobiles of two United Nations officials, in London and Nairobi. He got the numbers by surfing at an internet café at the north Kenyan camp. The rest of the article then...

A friend recently consulted me about streaming media and video-on-demand solutions available to satisfy the requirements of a distant learning initiative to be implemented by one of his customers. While explaining to him the many options available I realized that not many people are aware of how much the streaming media ecosystem has changed in the last few years and that there are several open source platforms and solutions available for streaming audio and video over the Internet, lowering the cost of such endeavors and making the implementation of pilot and fully functional initiatives much more affordable and accessible to all kind of......

A pleasant break from all this GIS-related blogging, the World Bank Private Sector Development Blog has tipped me to a new Open Source application that the World Bank has just released. I know, I know - when I read that last sentence it doesn’t make sense to me either, but I imagine that project lead Pierre-Guillaume Wielezynski pushed quite hard to get this out there. Given that it’s the World Bank, the app is not what you might imagine. In the words of the site, We developed the BuzzMonitor, an open source application that “listens” to what people are saying about the World Bank across blogs and other sites in order to help the organization understand and engage in social media. So it’s full speed ahead on the Web2.0 bus at the World Bank! The jury seems...

One of the projects I’m involved with (as a Board member and general layabout) is HumanLink, the brainchild of Jonathan Thompson. Jonathan decided that not enough is being done to develop technology solutions for the field, and decided to use his expertise and connections to set up an organisation to do just that. That new HLink website is now up and running (and looks good - well done, guys!) and we recently had a link in from the smart fellows at Ogle Earth, with a few links on to some new imagery in Tagzania. Good news all round, and hopefully the momentum behind HumanLink will build from here to expand the service delivery. (Jonathan and Jeff Allen have also been playing around with Clark Connect, a Linux server gateway which I didn’t know much about previously, but...

TAVOS Media Network is a trail-blazing venture based in Palo Alto, California, that empowers people in underserved communities around the world through local media services. Our vision is to build a global network of local media microfranchises to give voice and promote the life and prosperity of every......

Apparently they both suffer from really rubbish web apps. Our pals at the NGO Security Blog link to a fascinating article about how US intelligence agencies are using technology that was really cool back in 1983, but hasn’t really moved forward since then. (Frighteningly it sounds a lot like one of my all-time favourite films, War Games.) In particular, the information sharing database Intelink sounds particularly scary, and by scary I mean absolutely useless - I’m glad it’s not my tax dollars at work. The blog suggests a number of possibilities that the new technology has created for security management in the aid industry: Picture a wiki where anyone could post up-to-date security information organized by country and city, or an informal global network of security...

Great news from the Philippines: The National Disaster Coordination Council (NDCC), Philippines is the highest governmental body in Philippines responsible for advising the President of Philippines on the status of disaster preparedness program and disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts at the national level. The implementation of Sahana is part of their Disaster Management Strategy for Philippines. You can find a customization of Sahana from the homepage at http://ndcc.gov.ph down on the left navigation under the section title “VDOCSAHANA” This is a real coup for Sahana, and could point the way to success for other country deployments such as Indonesia.  Well done everybody, and hat tip to Chamindra....

Start: Friday, June 23, 2006 8:00 am End: Sunday, June 25, 2006 5:30 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Event Details: The iCommons Summit will bring together leaders in creativity, science, and knowledge who want to work “towards a global digital commons” in these fields. The sessions will focus on bringing these respective communities together to learn from each and start the framework so they can start working together collaboratively. Through formal presentations, roundtable working groups, practical workshops, and community drive program slots, attendees will discuss and learn about tools, policies, and experiences that can help support and expand the development of open content around the world. The summit is hosted by the Fundação Getúlio Vargas...

Start: Thursday, June 29, 2006 9:00 am End: Saturday, July 1, 2006 12:00 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts Event Details: Entitled “Democracy & Independence: Sharing News & Politics in a Connected World,” this conference will center on the future of journalism in the internet age and how it can make democracy work better. The conference will provide a venue for people who rarely get together. Traditional journalists, citizen journalists, political strategists, educators, bloggers, developers, and researchers will all come together at the conference to talk about the impact of internet technology on their respective fields. The end goal is that these groups can learn from each others’ experiences, find ways to collaborate, and ultimately use...

Start: Monday, June 19, 2006 9:00 am End: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 5:30 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: Paris, France Event Details: This conference, which is being sponsored in part by the The Rockefeller Foundation, a member of the IFN community, will look at the relationships between creators and users, and will seek to identify common interests and ways they can better work together.A major theme of the conference is supporting innovation, and sessions will look at ways the creative community can earn a profit while consumers are able to access affordable works. Specific areas to be discussed include music, film, academic writing, software, and medicine. Sessions will also look at how innovation changes when the public are content producers, and how to put a price on knowledge...

Start: Friday, June 9, 2006 8:30 am End: Saturday, June 10, 2006 5:30 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: Montreal, Canada Event Details: This symposium, held at McGill University, will examine the relationship between technology and citizenship in both a historical and present day context. The event will center on the themes of human technologies and usability, technology in community, technology in education, and knowledge and technology.Participants are invited to submit presentation proposals and written papers for possible publication in the International Journal of Technology, Knowledge, and Society. The deadline papers is May 31st. For more information, visit the Technology Symposium website....

Short Description: Disease surveillance is an important aspect of any public health-care programme that serves two essential purposes, one of which is monitoring the progress of ongoing medical interventions for disease reduction, and the other is for the early detection of outbreaks to initiate investigative and control measures. Disease Surveillance is also a basic tool for the field epidemiologist as surveillance data provide a scientific basis for implementation of an appropriate health-care policy, disease control decisions, the evaluation of the efficacy of surveillance initiatives, and for the allocation of resources in the primary health-care system....

Short Description: Disease surveillance is an important aspect of any public health-care programme that serves two essential purposes, one of which is monitoring the progress of ongoing medical interventions for disease reduction, and the other is for the early detection of outbreaks to initiate investigative and control measures. Disease Surveillance is also a basic tool for the field epidemiologist as surveillance data provide a scientific basis for implementation of an appropriate health-care policy, disease control decisions, the evaluation of the efficacy of surveillance initiatives, and for the allocation of resources in the primary health-care system....

Start: Friday, June 9, 2006 8:30 am End: Saturday, June 10, 2006 5:30 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: Montreal, Canada Event Details: This symposium, held at McGill University, will examine the relationship between technology and citizenship in both a historical and present day context. The event will center on the themes of human technologies and usability, technology in community, technology in education, and knowledge and technology.Participants are invited to submit presentation proposals and written papers for possible publication in the International Journal of Technology, Knowledge, and Society. The deadline papers is May 31st. For more information, visit the Technology Symposium website....

Start: Thursday, June 29, 2006 9:00 am End: Saturday, July 1, 2006 12:00 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: Amherst, Massachusetts Event Details: Entitled “Democracy & Independence: Sharing News & Politics in a Connected World,” this conference will center on the future of journalism in the internet age and how it can make democracy work better. The conference will provide a venue for people who rarely get together. Traditional journalists, citizen journalists, political strategists, educators, bloggers, developers, and researchers will all come together at the conference to talk about the impact of internet technology on their respective fields. The end goal is that these groups can learn from each others’ experiences, find ways to collaborate, and ultimately use...

Start: Monday, June 19, 2006 9:00 am End: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 5:30 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: Paris, France Event Details: This conference, which is being sponsored in part by the The Rockefeller Foundation, a member of the IFN community, will look at the relationships between creators and users, and will seek to identify common interests and ways they can better work together.A major theme of the conference is supporting innovation, and sessions will look at ways the creative community can earn a profit while consumers are able to access affordable works. Specific areas to be discussed include music, film, academic writing, software, and medicine. Sessions will also look at how innovation changes when the public are content producers, and how to put a price on knowledge...

Start: Friday, June 23, 2006 8:00 am End: Sunday, June 25, 2006 5:30 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Event Details: The iCommons Summit will bring together leaders in creativity, science, and knowledge who want to work “towards a global digital commons” in these fields. The sessions will focus on bringing these respective communities together to learn from each and start the framework so they can start working together collaboratively. Through formal presentations, roundtable working groups, practical workshops, and community drive program slots, attendees will discuss and learn about tools, policies, and experiences that can help support and expand the development of open content around the world. The summit is hosted by the Fundação Getúlio Vargas...

Start: Friday, March 31, 2006 4:00 pm End: Sunday, April 2, 2006 3:30 pm Timezone: Etc/GMT+8 Location: St. Charles, MO Event Details: From March 31 to April 2 network developers, community experts, and technology and policy experts will meet to discuss ways to build community wireless networks that are affordable and inclusive. The summit will focus on new technologies, strategies to change federal regulations, and the opportunities and challenges facing the construction of community wireless networks. Presenters at the summit will include representatives from Fiber for Our Future, Consumer Federation of America, Media Access Project, Free Press, Civitium LLC, Center for Neighborhood Technologies, New America Foundation, NYC Wireless, Muniwireless.com, and others.For more...

 Attached is a New York Times article from Davos about Microsoft's response to the One Laptop Per Child project by MIT's Negroponte. They propose using a cellphone as a computer connected to a TV and a keyboard. I don't know about the feasibility of Microsoft's proposal but the fact that they have one demonstrates the power of OLPC, open-source and market dynamics....

The free online resource Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica, a study shows. From BBC, 12/15/05 The full story can be found......