The Intersection of Search, Media, Technology and Humanitarian Aid

Emergency in Haiti: Where Medics, Missionaries and Militaries Collide.
Seminar delivered by The Humanitarian & Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) 6pm to 8pm, 26 February 2010, University Place, The University of Manchester

This presentation by Dr Eric K. Noji looked at the future of crisis management information systems and consider how our rapidly changing socio-technical environments are affecting the ways we respond to disasters, emergencies and other humanitarian crises. Dr Noji remarked on the use of the four most popular social-networking, person to person communications via smart-phone, chat, iTV, IM, SMS, mobile tele-health, cloud computing, information search engines and micro-blogging services that were used for rescue efforts following the Haiti earthquake in January and for fund-raising to help stabilize and rebuild the country. Because they are at the vanguard of this new interconnected world we live in, the future, and thus the unknown and feared, I call them the "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" - FB, Twitter, Skype and Google. Noji discussed their performance in the context of the set of humanitarian information management principles articulated at the ReliefWeb Symposium in 2007. These include accessibility, inclusiveness, interoperability, impartiality, and sustainability. I have added one criteria of my own. Potential. That is, what is the potential of these services to improve disaster risk reduction, humanitarian preparedness, crisis response (especially in areas of destroyed critical infrastructure), recovery and reconstruction. Noji discussed several innovative uses of these services such as the ability to monitor global operations in real time, holding internet-based meetings, immediate sharing of experiences and best practices with colleagues, electronic dissemination of large information files such as "just-in-time lectures and other training material previously not possible, and much improved centralized financial accounting.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• mobile health
• apps-epidemiology
• cell phones
• DigiCel
• mHealth