Comments on: Tech Community Sitrep (Jan 22, 2010) http://sitroom.ushahididev.com/index.php/2010/01/24/tech-community-sitrep-jan-22-2010/ real-time communication and coordination point Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:04:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Erik Hersman http://sitroom.ushahididev.com/index.php/2010/01/24/tech-community-sitrep-jan-22-2010/comment-page-1/#comment-263 Erik Hersman Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:04:25 +0000 http://sitroom.ushahididev.com/?p=261#comment-263 Great point Sanjana. It's one of the constant mysteries for me, why data isn't published in a format easy to get to, mix and reuse for multiple purposes. Don't even get me started on PDF maps as the only format on some websites... Great point Sanjana. It’s one of the constant mysteries for me, why data isn’t published in a format easy to get to, mix and reuse for multiple purposes. Don’t even get me started on PDF maps as the only format on some websites…

]]> By: Sanjana Hattotuwa http://sitroom.ushahididev.com/index.php/2010/01/24/tech-community-sitrep-jan-22-2010/comment-page-1/#comment-262 Sanjana Hattotuwa Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:35:30 +0000 http://sitroom.ushahididev.com/?p=261#comment-262 Dear Eric, You said that "Decision-makers on the ground still do not have access to accurate, real-time data." In addition to points noted by you as to why this is the case, the format the data is published on also comes into play. One example is the hugely valuable master contact list in Haiti published yesterday by OCHA and available on the OneResponse website as a ZIP download containing a Excel 2007 format spreadsheet with multiple tabs. Far more simpler would have been to just upload this information to the web for people to access and search? In fact, what I did was to save each tab in that huge spreadsheet as a separate file, upload it to Google Docs, publish them as webpages and link to them on the ICT4Peace Foundation wiki, referenced above. Simple, effective, efficient. VBW, Sanjana Dear Eric,

You said that “Decision-makers on the ground still do not have access to accurate, real-time data.” In addition to points noted by you as to why this is the case, the format the data is published on also comes into play. One example is the hugely valuable master contact list in Haiti published yesterday by OCHA and available on the OneResponse website as a ZIP download containing a Excel 2007 format spreadsheet with multiple tabs. Far more simpler would have been to just upload this information to the web for people to access and search? In fact, what I did was to save each tab in that huge spreadsheet as a separate file, upload it to Google Docs, publish them as webpages and link to them on the ICT4Peace Foundation wiki, referenced above. Simple, effective, efficient.

VBW,

Sanjana

]]>