Download the Word Doc:
Haiti Technology Community Situation Report – 17 Jan 2010

Read it online below:

Technology Community Sit Rep: 17 Jan, 2009
Prepared by Luke Beckman, National Response Liaison, InSTEDD, +1-650-740-5853, Beckman@instedd.org

*** If info not on SitRep, it may be on prev. ones since I want to include the newest, most current efforts without making the SitRep too long, or I don’t know about the info***

Coordination is key. We must continue to work together and do a better job of it every day.

Great Aggregators

http://inventory.ict4peace.org/Haiti+Earthquake+-+January+2010

http://haiti.sahanafoundation.org/prod/

o Sahana looking for translation support http://translate.hfoss.eu/wiki/Translation
o Collaboration and to-do lists posted here #sahana irc.freenode.net for collab. Our TODO is hosted at http://bit.ly/sahana-haiti-todo

Ushahidi
o http://haiti.ushahidi.com/
o Real time situation room http://sitroom.ushahididev.com/

Open Street Maps (OSM)
o http://haiti.openstreetmap.nl/ Best map of the situation on the ground I know of. Hundreds of volunteers working around the clock doing mapping on the ground.

US SOUTHCOM online civ/mil coordination community. http://community.apan.org/

In Haiti? Text 4636 (If outside of Haiti: 447624802524) on Digicel with your location and need. Report emergencies and missing persons .

Lessons Learned

• The military needs a process of moving imagery from the previously classified national assets to the NGO community. APAN has many positive attributes but what has been suggested for faster speeds is an FTP site that can be turned on and off to make downloads as rapid as possible.
• The humanitarian community needs a robust way to rapidly outsource local knowledge.
• People can become extremely drained when they deviate focus away from their area of expertise to small tasks. There is an inflow and outflow of tasks they are dealing with. Focus on maximizing rate of outflow.
• Crowdsourcing the fastest way to get any information. It frees people in the field to put that info into a “mechanical turk” (task list that assigns things to people). Send critical, large requests to people with high bandwidth. They answer. Goes back to the field very fast.
• NGOs and the open source community need protocols for interacting with the government, military, and UN all together (there is no API for interacting with these entities as one).
• How do NGOs and “techies” word things and work within a system that the government is familiar with.
• May agencies have a single point of contact as liaison between their group and external sectors. This information is critical to all involved but often it is not made public within the community because those POCs will get more overloaded. Is there a way to multiply POC power? If a group is willing to share POC information, where is it located for people to see? Many suggest Sahana (open source). The Virtual OSOCC has that information but that is inaccessible to many. Certainly needs further discussion.
• We need a system to map human network dynamics. Who knows who? Who are the key information and information-sharing hubs? Who is not communicating? Can we put it on a map and have offline access. We are starting to work on this.
People Finder Update
• Ushahidi and HaitianQuake.com were some of the original databases for missing persons
• Pablo and others at Google helped set up a Person Finder system using the PFIF standard that was developed during 9/11 and Katrina: http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/
• Everything started to be merged to this central Person Finder repository, starting with http://www.haitianquake.com/ pointing there and making sure Ushahidi person reports were directed there
• The US. State Department is directing to the Person Finder: http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/ha/earthquake/index.htm#finder
• Yesterday we worked with the NYTimes to help import their missing persons data into Person Finder and use PFIF
• Today work with CNN is helping to import their CNN iReport data into Person Finder
• We are also now pulling in the Red Cross Family Links data into Person Finder
• Person Finder has an API: http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/developers
• Facebook App is out and very close to feeding into the Google database. http://apps.facebook.com/haiti_survivors

Sahana

• The Sahana team has developed a Request Management System in Sahana. We currently have a beta system running at http://haiti.sahanafoundation.org/dev/rms/index. We can then structure these requests. Please assist us to move this to production ASAP.
• Note, the Request Management System for agency to agency contact. http://haiti.ushahidi.com/ is for individuals reporting what is happening on the ground. Agencies can send in SMS messages or use the web interface to make a request. Others can respond.
• We require feedback from end-user agencies so we can target our effort to meet your needs. Please refer tohttp://trac.sahanapy.org/wiki/HaitiRMSToDo. Feedback is best via IRC: #sahanarms irc.freenode.net.
Citizen Outreach
• Example of rapid crowd-sourcing. At 12:12 AM, the head of UNDAC came to InSTEDD FOB with information about how trapped people were sending messages to family and friends in the US and elsewhere in Haiti. The UNDAC leads had virtually no information other than a seemingly vague location. InSTEDD team outsourced this information to team at The Fletcher School in Boston. At 12:22 the team had location answers that had been first identified as specific places and addressed by Haitians in the U.S. who were working with the teams. This address was then translated into Lat/Long in multiple formats to the UNDAC and USAR teams. Second sources had confirmed the location in the message by 12:27. Because it was night time, the teams had to wait until this morning. At least one person was confirmed alive by these teams later on. LET’S LEARN FROM THIS!
• EIS system sent two broadcast messages out to about 700 people. One was about a hospital and the other about the Red Cross center for missing people.

Medical

• USS Comfort about 24 hours out from 2030 hours Jan 18.
• HHS mission, to provide support for at least 8 severely damaged hospitals and/or health centers, is presently delayed, awaiting security and transportation from Port-au-Prince points inland to provide relief.
• Majority of medical equipment caches awaiting military transportation (in Martinsburg, WV); flights sporadic.
• Incident Response Coordination Team (IRCT) setting up in country; coordinating with USAID/DART and US Embassy.
• Hospitals in the Dominican Republic are at capacity and no longer accepting patients.
Ground Truth- DHS
• The priorities are Security / Law Enforcement, evacuation, commodities distribution, debris removal, road clearing, search & rescue, and aid to the injured.
• Embassy Port-au-Prince reports security is “pretty good” with sporadic outbreaks of violence.
• Federal Aviation Administration officials arrived in Haiti and are conducting runway and air traffic assessments.
• FEMA reports the DHS Integrated Response Team is activated in Haiti; initial objectives are to refine communications in the Embassy compound, provide staff support to the USAID Director, determine status of resources, gather location information on 14 United Nation (UN) commodity distribution sites and facilitate efficient transfer of response efforts by US entities to UN led long – term recovery efforts.
• The CRIMSON CLOVER (roll on / roll off barge) is in PAP and has begun unloading operations. US Coast Guard (USCG) reports eight ports are fully operational, and two ports are partially operational.
• Department of State reports 904 American citizens (AmCits) departed PAP 17 Jan, with a total of 2,723 AmCits evacuated to date.

Logistics

• Santo Domingo (SDQ) is the main entry point for humanitarian cargo destined for Haiti by both sea and air, while Port-au-Prince (PAP) sea port is not operational and the airport is congested.
• The main issue is to organize onward transport from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. WFP is securing two landing craft and a fleet of trucks to support road and coastal solutions for onward movement of transport from SDQ and Barahona to affected areas.
• Receiving services will be set up in Port-au-Prince and replicated in all hubs, including set-up and management of mobile storage units (MSU) and cargo tracking.
• In response to dwindling fuel resources, WFP has signed a fuel contract with Shell in Santo Domingo to shunt 10,000 gallons into Port-au-Prince. A total of 10,000 gallons of diesel was dispatched from SDQ today. Organisations are reporting that the shortage of fuel is a major concern, also with regard to implementation of the Logistics Cluster ConOps.
• Search and rescue teams extracted 13 more live rescues on 16 January bringing the total by these teams to 71 people, a record amount. A small number of additional rescues were reported today.
• Fuel remains an issue for humanitarian operations. Fuel restrictions are now in place. Some 10,000 gallons were trucked in from Santo Domingo today.
• The port remains unusable; incoming vessels are being re-directed to Cap-Haitien.
• The Port-au-Prince airport is heavily congested.
• Four distribution sites will be established at Petionville club, two soccer fields in Delmas, and Place Dessaline on Champ de Mars.
• Tents and shelter material will be required for temporary shelter sites in the coming week. At least 20,000 tents will be needed with only 3-4,000 tents already in country.
• The Secretary-General, the Emergency Relief Coordinator and other senior UN officials visited the disaster affected areas today and met with Government and UN counterparts.
• Early on January 16, three USAID/OFDA water treatment units arrived in Haiti on DoD C-130 aircraft. The units have a combined capacity for providing 300,000 liters of safe drinking water each day. USAID/OFDA is arranging a second flight carrying an additional water treatment unit, as well as kitchen and hygiene sets for distribution to affected families.
• The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has authorized $20 million in overseas humanitarian and disaster assistance appropriations in support of the Haiti earthquake relief effort.
• In addition to the five clusters previously announced, the U.N. country team in Haiti plans to mobilize clusters in agriculture, protection, nutrition, education, emergency telecommunications, and early recovery, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
• Fuel for humanitarian operations will only last 2 to 3 more days before operations will be forced to cease. A fuel distribution mechanism is required urgently.
• USAID/OFDA has established an air bridge with DoD for daily transportation of emergency relief supplies on multiple flights of C-130 aircraft.

CHF International Report on PaP and areas OUTSIDE of PaP

Within PaP
• Water trucks delivering water – many companies open for private delivery (to homes and such); smaller trucks along the road giving free water to Internally Displaced People (IDP)
• A lot of “agua gratis” – Dominican company – stopping at random places giving free water
• Small water distribution centers are open for business
• Transportation to the Dominican Republic (DR) running
• Not a lot of traffic on the road – public transport running as usual
• Market ladies on the street on the street cooking and selling
• Haitian National Police out in larger numbers today than before
• People on the street – people still in shock; blank stares; – going about daily business
• Rescue efforts by private citizens still ongoing
• Many people at US and Canadian embassy gates
• Another observation: one of our staff hear said that he observed a distribution of essential items by UN soldiers on Place Boyer – one of the public squares in Petion Ville turned into an IDP camp. He said he has never seen such an orderly distribution in Haiti. Everyone in lines. No hostility. No violence. No fighting.
We are all encouraged to hear that there is food and water reaching an increasing number of people, and that the private sector is still functioning on both the formal and informal level to some degree – a key to getting Haiti back up and running. Also incredibly encouraging, in spite of media reports of violence, are reports of quiet and orderly aid distributions.

Areas beyond Port-au-Prince
CHF received a huge number of information of areas beyond Port-au-Prince from our Field Director Bob Fagen. Bob and his entirely Haitian team based in Petit Goave have been supporting the Boy Scouts and Red Cross with a donation of tools such as wheelbarrows and shovels, plus loads of facemasks, shirts, hats, and gloves. The Boy Scouts have been key to rescue efforts in the city and showed an impressively organized response to the earthquake in Petit Goave. CHF is proud to be partnering with them.
Bob was able to travel beyond Petit Goave to Grand Goave and Legoane. Some of his observations are below.

Grand Goave
• The main Catholic Church on the Place Publique in the center of town and its rectory were both destroyed. We were able to speak to the priest who had survived and he is in good spirits, in spite of the destruction
• A tent city has been erected on the Place Publique. At night it swells to 5,000 people. There are 5-6 similar tent cities throughout Grand Goave, each with 3,000-5,000 people at night.
• Grand Goave, while battered by the earthquake, is not as visibly devastated as either Petit-Goave or Leogane. However, Grand Goave depended on Petit Goave for much of its potable water, and the shortages in Petit Goave have significantly affected Grand Goave. Considering the tent city phenomenon and the lack of water, it is only a matter of time before disease becomes an issue in Grand Goave.

Leogane
• MINUSTAH (UN mission in Haiti) were undertaking g a protein cookie distribution in front of Leogane City Hall to mostly women and children.
• Much of Leogane, both downtown and the surrounding area, was flattened by the quake and unconfirmed estimates put the death toll as high as 100,000. We sincerely hope this is far higher than the reality.
• Between Leogane and L’Acul we passed a destroyed water pump that is indicative of the below-the-surface damage that has crippled many wells and reservoirs in the region. Potable water is and will continue to be a major issue for the region until water supplies can be repaired or replaced.
• The Ecole National Anna Karina, a high school in the city center of Leogane, was flattened completely. Tragically class was in session at the time.
• Churches appear to have suffered extraordinary damage from the quake, with most crumbling, especially the larger structures.
• The financial system in affected cities has been paralyzed by the earthquake. While some supplies are available, prices have skyrocketed and people simply do not have access to what little money they have in the bank.
• We saw collapsed wooden houses on stilts, common in historic Leogane, a city of approximately 134,000. Many of the multi-level Leogane homes fell to the ground after the stilts and supporting beams collapsed underneath them. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 80-90% of Leogane was destroyed by the earthquake.
CHF plans to work with relief agencies in these hard hit areas and wants to draw attention to the plight of the Haitian people outside of Port-au-Prince, who are suffering the same privations and tragedies.

Mapping

• ESRI Overview of all GIS http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/earthquakes/resources.html
• Early collaboration around all data sources http://geonode.org/
• Google Repository http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/geoeye.html
• Crisis Commons Wiki http://crisiscommons.org/wiki/index.php?title=Haiti/2010_Earthquake

For coordination/collaboration questions or issues, please contact Luke Beckman, National Response Liaison, InSTEDD +16507405853, Skype: lukebeckman, Email: Beckman@instedd.org.
Coordination also is ongoing in conjunction with STAR-TIDES (linwells@gmail.com,+1202 436-6354)

If you want to help, get in touch with Luke Beckman: beckman@instedd.org

Anyone who texts into us will also receive from them.

Currently InSTEDD team in Haiti is setting up 5-10 local SMS gateways for outgoing SMS, just waiting on SIMs

Download it as a Word Document:
Technology Community SitRep Haiti 6 Jan 2010

View it online below:

Technology Community Sit Rep: 16 Jan, 2009 as of 2359 hours
Prepared by Luke Beckman, National Response Liaison, InSTEDD, +1-650-740-5853, Beckman@instedd.org
*** If info not on SitRep, it may be on prev. ones since I want to include the newest, most current efforts without making the SitRep too long, or I don’t know about the info***
Coordination is key. We must continue to work together and do a better job of it every day.

Great Aggregators

http://inventory.ict4peace.org/Haiti+Earthquake+-+January+2010

http://haiti.sahanafoundation.org/orgs

o Sahana looking for translation support http://translate.hfoss.eu/wiki/Translation

Ushahidi
o http://haiti.ushahidi.com/
o Real time situation room http://sitroom.ushahididev.com/

Open Street Maps (OSM)
o http://haiti.openstreetmap.nl/ Best map of the situation on the ground I know of. Hundreds of volunteers working around the clock doing mapping on the ground.

US SOCOM online civ/mil coordination community

http://community.apan.org/

Best Practices
• SOUTHCOM International Disclosure Office confirms the intent of the Command is to share all unclassified information that will assist the provision of assistance as widely as possible.
• CrisisCamps sprung up around the U.S. and worked around the clock building technology applications for current and future response efforts. Hundreds of people mobilized supporting real needs on the ground.
• http://crisescomm.ning.com/
o Trying to improve the dialogue between disaster affected communities and the agencies that seek to assist them.

Citizen Outreach
• Out of DC Crisis Camp- coordinated by Josh Nesbit, Exec Dir FrontlineSMS:Medic, Brian Herbert of Ushahidi, and Robert Munro a Haitian Shortcode is up and running. Anyone in Haiti can text their location and message to “4636” and hundreds of volunteers will be sorting through and analyzing information to better inform response and recovery efforts of REAL needs on the ground. A media and social outreach campaign is already underway.
o This number currently only works for Digicel. Comcel will be up soon.
• Large media campaign started for http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/ . They are still trying to coordinate with ICRC to sync missing persons data with http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/web/doc/siterfl0.nsf/htmlall/familylinks-haiti-eng?opendocument. No luck yet.

Medical
• WHO/PAHO (medical lead) estimates that the number of dead ranges between 40,000 and 50,000 people. A mass burial of 3,000 bodies was reported yesterday.
• At least eight hospitals and/or health centres have collapsed or sustained serious damage. This includes: the UN clinic at the Christopher Hotel (collapsed); Martissant emergency room/centre [managed by MSF] (damaged and unstable, all patients evacuated); Solidarité maternity hospital [MSF-managed] (severely damaged); Trinité trauma centre [MSF-managed] (severely damaged); HUEH University Hospital (damaged); new hospital on Delmas (damaged); Eliazard Germain hospital in Petionville (damaged); Petits freres et soeurs (damaged).
• At least nine hospitals are functioning: Hospital St. Espirit, Hospital Pere Damien, Clinique Hospital Le Messie, Le Nouveau Ventre Medico Hospitalier, Hospital Sacre Coeur, Hospital Sacre Coeur, Hopital Albert Schweitzer, and the Argentine military hospital.
• Major health concerns include untreated trauma wounds and infection of wounds. Health threats increase due to threats of infectious diseases, diarrhea, lack of safe drinking water and sanitation. Damage to health facilities means that routine treatment will be disrupted for people with pre-existing conditions such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes and cancer.
• Massive U.S. hospital network (1,000) standing by to deliver Haitian doctors, supplies, water- anything that is requested. No way to get supplies in due to ATC load and no ground or air transport once in Haiti. These guys have STRONG local contacts. How do we act on this?
• About 40% of Haitian population is under 14 (CIA World Factbook)- be considering when thinking long term rebuilding and reconstruction
Ground Truth- UN
• Estimate that 200,000 families (up to one million people) are in need of immediate shelter and non-food assistance.
• Fuel for humanitarian operations will only last 2 to 3 more days before operations will be forced to cease. A fuel distribution mechanism is required urgently.
• A joint UNDAC/EU/WFP assessment found 80-90 percent of the buildings destroyed in Leogane and 40-50 percent in Carrefour and Gressier.
• Force Protection must be a priority for supply distribution. MINUSTAH is assuming the responsibility to provide protection for distribution
• The tankering of water began today with 250,000 liters of water being distributed to 52 water distribution points in 17 zones with the assistance of the private sector.
• PaP port will remain closed for some time.
• A dedicated WFP civil/military logistics coordination officer is now operational in Port-au-Prince. Coordination priorities include tasking of assets, assigning flight/convoy slots and clarifying procedures. (Who is that?)

Coordination
• Need to stress importance of civ/mil cooperation. Reports from UN are that they NEED military support, esp overland transit and coordination. Navy reports air assets with few supplies to deliver. Let’s make it happen.

• Current priorities for air movement are medical supplies, then food and water, and then personnel.

Mapping
• ESRI Overview of all GIS http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/earthquakes/resources.html
• Early collaboration around all data sources http://geonode.org/
• Google Repository http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/geoeye.html
• Crisis Commons Wiki http://crisiscommons.org/wiki/index.php?title=Haiti/2010_Earthquake

Communications
• Undersea fiber cable between Bahamas and PaP destroyed
• Main internet basestation for PaP has 48 hours left of fuel.
• Digicel Haiti executives are putting in marathon effort. CEO has personally been seeing to each on the ground need.

For coordination/collaboration questions or issues, please contact Luke Beckman, National Response Liaison, InSTEDD +16507405853, Skype: lukebeckman, Email: Beckman@instedd.org.
Coordination also is ongoing in conjunction with STAR-TIDES (linwells@gmail.com,+1202 436-6354)

Technology Community Situation Report 15-Jan, 2009 as of 2359 hours
Prepared by Luke Beckman, National Response Liaison, InSTEDD, +1-650-740-5853, Beckman@instedd.org

Download it as a Word Document here:
InSTEDD_SitRep_15-Jan-2009

Read it online below:

***If you don’t see information on this SitRep, it may be on earlier ones since I want to include the newest, most current efforts without making the SitRep too long, or I don’t know about the info***

Coordination
• Virtual OSOCC up and running http://ocha.unog.ch/virtualosocc/VODisaster.aspx#t1136
• US SOUTHCOM has stood up “HAITI HA/DR” Community of Interest (COI) on All Partner Access Network (APAN) http://community.apan.org/
o Signup for an account then request access for “HAITI HA/DR”
o POC ricardo.arias1.ctr@hq.southcom.mil
o SOUTHCOM has been terrific in working to respond and coordinate. CONOPS and TTPs to follow later
• Sahana- Great Disaster Response Portal. “Who’s On the Ground” http://haiti.sahanafoundation.org/orgs/
• Some small wins today- emergent collaboration was successful in delivering satellite phones to the President, Prime Minister, and other top officials when they previously had zero comm

Other SitReps
• CrisisMappers 15-Jan SitRep. Must be a member of the crisismaping network. Email meier.patrick01@gmail.com
o http://groups.google.com/group/crisismappers/browse_thread/thread/ea869abc7b72446a/988d0ca1ffbace7c?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=sit+rep

Ushahidi
• Data Sharing
o RSS – http://haiti.ushahidi.com/feed
o Bigger RSS – feed http://haiti.ushahidi.com/feed?l=200
o API – http://haiti.ushahidi.com/api
o API Doc – http://wiki.ushahidi.com/doku.php?id=ushahidi_api
o SitRoom- http://sitroom.ushahididev.com
• Submitting Reports
o Online: http://haiti.ushahidi.com/reports/submit
o Voice: +1 646-502-4124 Enter pin: 61623
o Int’l SMS: +44 762.480.2524
o Local SMS: Coming soon

Medical
• List of shots and medical precautions for deployment to Haiti
o http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/content/news-announcements/relief-workers-haiti.aspx
• Hospital Layer in Haiti http://finder.geocommons.com/overlays/20338

SOUTHCOM HAITI HA/DR APAN
CONOPS and TTPs for use of HAITI HA/DR:

- Use “Blog” tabs to post SITREP, SIGACTS/Events or Announcements
- Use “Forum” tabs to post questions/RFI’s
- Use “Files” tabs to post, or download/view, documents, pictures, imagery or graphics
- Use Wiki to post Incoming Augmentation and Tracking Persons in Haiti
- Look for links to interactive GIS mapping tools and feeds, use these to increase Situational Awareness
- Look for link to join Haiti HA/DR APAN Chat Room, visit it frequently and check for conversation treads
- Look for link to add your POC information (if playing an external coordination role) to the HAITI HA/DR POC List
- Use “Conversation” tab (top of the page menu) to have private, one-on-one, conversations with other members
- Click on other user/member names to see profiles, to “follow” them, to learn about them, or to add them as colleagues to your network; click on “Add as Colleague”
- Visit “Blog”, “Forum” “Wiki” the GIS map, and the HA/DR APAN chat room frequently to develop situational awareness
- Rate content and use tags frequently
- Click on “support” tab on upper menu (in any page view) to get help or learn more about using APAN. Tab takes you to “APAN Connect”, itself a community or group with-in APAN
- Explore early and explore often
IMPORTANT: for adding content (Files) or starting a new Blog or Forum, look for the “+New Post” link/button (right side of page).

Good To Know
• Presentation: Overview of Earthquake and situation http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec36681/index.htm
• InSTEDD CEO Eric Rasmussen is on the ground in Santo Domingo ready to support and coordinate many efforts down range. Rasmussen@instedd.org

Mapping
• ESRI Overview of all GIS http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/earthquakes/resources.html
• Early collaboration around all data sources http://geonode.org/
• Google Repository http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/geoeye.html
• NASA Imagery ftp://8.17.170.176/ali_l1g/2010/015/EO1A0090472010015110P0_ALI_L1G/
• Crisis Commons Wiki http://crisiscommons.org/wiki/index.php?title=Haiti/2010_Earthquake
• KMZ from the HIU based off data from DHS/FEMA, UNOSAT, GeoEye post imagery, personal imagery analysis, and open source reporting http://rcpt.yousendit.com/804198764/bb85cd406dc7be31ffca37a80851c7f6
• http://www.gdacs.org

Communications
• Cell Infrastructure as of 1200 hours: Voila & Haitel at 75%, Digicel is at 50%
Open Street Maps
• http://openls.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/osm-haiti/
• Merging Data: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Haiti#Ithaca_Import
• Exporting Data: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Haiti#Using_OpenStreetMap_data
• Actual Map http://haiti.openstreetmap.nl/

Missing Persons Database
• http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/
• http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/
o Migrated to Google Servers for more efficient coordination and development
• http://www.icrc.org/familylinks
o Main database- starting tomorrow, should be in sync with haiticrisis

Coordination:
• CrisisCamp DC Info, happening 16-Jan http://haiti.crisiscommons.org/atrium/home
• From Stuart Gill @ World Bank:
o The World Bank will be doing a damage and needs assessment, but ours will be coordinated with the UN about 1-2 weeks after the event. It is focused more on long term reconstruction (as you pointed out) rather than humanitarian response. At this stage the UN is taking the lead with the immediate needs assessment.
o That said, the GFDRR has released over a million in immediate funds, the CCRIF has released over 7 million and the Bank in general has pledged 100 million in immediate relief funds. We are also potentially setting up a multi-donor trust fund to help coordinate the financial pledges.
News Sources
• Reuters AlertNet team on the ground, deploying EIS tomorrow (Emergency Information Service) with InSTEDD technical support. Details to come throughout the day
• HELP HAITI – Please Redistribute “Tweak the Tweet” instructions: http://epic.cs.colorado.edu/helping_haiti_tweak_the_twe.html

For coordination/collaboration questions or issues, please contact Luke Beckman, National Response Liaison, InSTEDD +16507405853, Skype: lukebeckman, Email: Beckman@instedd.org.
Coordination also is ongoing in conjunction with STAR-TIDES (linwells@gmail.com,+1202 436-6354)

InSTEDD’s team of Luke Beckman and Nico di Tada are creating situation reports for both their organization and SOUTHCOM. These are comprehensive reports of the ongoing technical groups working on the Haiti earthquake response, and cover everything from mapping to communications to gaps where there are still needs to be addressed.

It’s available here as a Word document for download:
Summary_for_USSOUTHCOM_on_Open_Source_1-14-10a

Read it online below…

SitRep Hait Earthquake 0300 14-Jan, 2009.Open Source/Technology/NGO/CrisisMapping Community. Prepared by Luke Beckman, National Response Liaison, InSTEDD, based on request from STAR-TIDES

Overview: This network is many-in-one (International Network of Crisis Mappers, Crisis Camp, Crisis Commons, Random Hacks of Kindness [RHOK haiti-quake2010@rhok.org], Open Mobile Consortium [OMC], RELIEF participants, Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software [HFOSS] network ). All participants are centered around technology, and some are direct responders who have backgrounds in technology or mapping.

Collaboration: The network is coordinating through Skype group chats, wikis, and project workspaces. All are free and open to anyone who is willing to contribute. The group is holding a series of conference calls daily for the next several days to assess current efforts, coordination, and progress.

Large concentrated effort built around Ushahidi- http://haiti.ushahidi.com/
o An ad hoc, leaderless group is coding and translating the server real time

GeoSpatial
o Open Street Map: Editing data for a base map. Making geospatial data available. Conducting Yahoo! map tracing.
o Google: GeoSpatial data is up and providing KML/MapMaker http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-imagery-layer-now-available.html
o ESRI: Providing assistance, software and imagery via web site
o GISCorps: 1,700 technical volunteers who can assist in geospatial projects. 21 volunteers can speak/write French.
o GeoCommons: Open Street Map Wiki (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Haiti) is up as well as the Crisis Commons Wiki (http://crisiscommons.org/wiki/index.php?title=Haiti/2010_Earthquake)
o Topo maps of Port au Prince (PaP): > >http://www.gelib.com/maps/haiti-earthquake/Source/PAP-Topos.zip. Also available in Google Earth fromhttp://www.gelib.com/haiti-earthquake.htm

Family Reunification
o Lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina; People Finder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katrina_PeopleFinder_Project) is a way to assist
o People Finder Interchange Format- lesson learned from Katrina: http://zesty.ca/pfif/
o International Red Cross the lead on reunification – Family Links system (http://www.icrc.org/familylinks)
o Building a common People Finder System, built by volunteers, very solid- http://www.haitianquake.com/
• By midday 15-Jan, should be able to use pictures from phones to sync with names and to pool pictures of unidentified people that can then be sorted.
• This can pull feeds and sync with Sahana and Red Cross Family Links system.

Disaster Resource Systems
o Sahana making a public instance of their software available to the public
• USAR teams will be using Sahana
o Relief Web has UN OCHA data, look at this resource: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm
o Relief Web Map Center – (http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/AHAA-7ZP2TK?OpenDocument)
o Review/revision opportunity of the Hurricane Information Center Ning (http://gustav08.ning.com/). NPR looking for assistance enhance as a resource
o Recommended for NGOs to have a domain/Haiti
o Hands on Disaster Response (http://hodr.org/) deploying and will be conducting assessments ASAP
o GeoChat: geochat.instedd.org-Group Name “HAITI” – extremely useful for field-to-HQ comms and when comms are weak. Can be done via Twitter, webpage, email, or SMS. Currently being meshed with Sahana and Ushahidi
• Wikis for aggregation ground info and help
o http://mobileactive.org/earthquake-haiti-how-you-can-help-and-learn-more (by MobileActive.org, well populated)
o http://globalvoicesonline.org/specialcoverage/haiti-earthquake-2010/ (by the hugely respected Global Voices, updated regularly)
• Crisis Information Management Providers
o http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2010/01/13/haiti-earthquake/ (Ushahidi’s efforts to respond to the earthquake)
o http://wiki.sahana.lk/doku.php/haiti:start (wiki to help set up Sahana in Haiti)
• Mapping data / Imagery etc
o http://crisiscommons.org/wiki/index.php?title=Haiti/2010_Earthquake (set up by Crisis Commons)
• ICT4Peace Foundation (www.ict4peace.org). Sanjana Hattotuwa from Sri Lanka is providing e-mail updates on useful sources.

Coordination:
• The UN now has a GIS operation center in the UNHQ
• Lead- Ms. Alice Chow (+1 212 963-5001), chowa@un.org
• Mr. Olav Koenig (+1 917 367-2604) is the desk officer
o They are the primary points of contact for all issues in terms of data, staff, service, deployment, etc.etc.
• Ms. Tahmina Latif is Chief GIS in Haiti, who will lead all GIS related issues on the ground.
• Seven members of the USAID/DART, the 72-member Fairfax, VA, USAR team, and four support staff arrived in Port-au-Prince at 1615 hours on 13 Jan. The teams immediately began offloading light USAR equipment from the passenger aircraft. The remaining members of the USAID/DART departed Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with an expected arrival time of 1700 hours (1/13) in Port-au-Prince. Word from Sam Stover is that six more FEMA USAR teams are deploying, first staging in Florida.
• USAID has the lead for US Government emergency response. They have a Response Management Team (RMT) set up

Commonly Referenced News Sources:
Reuters http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/60167/2010/00/13-135859-1.htm
Relief Web http://reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc108?OpenForm&emid=EQ-2010-000009-HTI&rc=2
RSS Aggregation from Development Seed http://haiti.managingnews.com/
Haitian News Organizations- many are running out of fuel for generators so may not be up long.

http://www.radiokiskeya.com/

http://www.metropolehaiti.com/

http://www.signalfmhaiti.com/

http://www.radyoginen.com/

http://twitter.com/LesNews (Twitter of LesNewsfr.com)

http://www.kidon.com/media-link/ht.php

Data Repositories:
• http://crisiscommons.org/wiki/index.php?title=Haiti/2010_Earthquake
• http://www.un-spider.org/?q=page/3166/un-spider-update-haiti-earthquake
• OCHA Virtual OSOCC http://ocha.unog.ch/virtualosocc
• UN Logistics Cluster site http://www.logcluster.org/ops/hti10a/haiti-earthquake-update
• GoogleEath Library Haiti Earthquake maps and Data http://www.gelib.com/haiti-earthquake.htm
• Open Street Map data http://labs.geofabrik.de/haiti/

Identified Challenges:
• How do we begin to coordinate translation efforts for technology (there will be many qualified people)? Is there a place to put all of these people and task them?
o GISCorps (http://giscorps.org/) offered that they have 21 GIS volunteers who speak French.
o Louisiana State University has language assistance in French/Creole.
o InSTEDD is assembling a small translation team
• We need to start thinking about the medical response NOW
o We need to learn where medical facilities are, map them realtime, and know their status as well as supply needs
o Carl Taylor and the University of South Alabama has a strong Medical Disaster Response Network

Moving Forward:
• An Emergency Crisis Camp will be held in NY, DC, and CA this coming weekend
o Where there is an interest in bringing together technologists, developers, usability experts, and communications (non-technical) volunteers to work on relief projects. Free and open to anyone who wants to participate
• To attend DC’s CrisisCamp Haiti this Saturday sign up here: http://crisiscamphaitiwdc.eventbrite.com/

Project Proposals for CrisisCamp Haiti
1. Base layer map for Port Au Prince: This project would create a new collection of imagery and a new base map for NGOs and relief agencies. Post available imagery to share with the public for open source applications.
2. Family locator systems: Uniting efforts of interested technologists, developers and communications experts to provide technical assistance.
3. Tech Volunteer Skill Matrix/Volunteers: Coordinate available volunteers/resources/needs
4. Managing News Aggregator: Provide content channel management to coordinate data feeds
5. Defining the Collective: Create what we are and conceptualize mission space. Coordinate and post historical timeline/archive for the CrisisCamp efforts. Identify those who we have yet to bring in.

For coordination/collaboration questions or issues, please contact Luke Beckman, National Response Liaison, InSTEDD +16507405853, Skype: lukebeckman, Email: Beckman@instedd.org.
Coordination also is ongoing in conjunction with STAR-TIDES (linwells@gmail.com,+1202 436-6354)

Ushahidi is working on getting a Haiti shortcode (4636, being arranged by Digicel and paid for supposedly by US State Department. Should be up and running by morning 16-Jan) to get MOs. MTs won’t probably work. They have no details on how they are going to get the messages yet.

Original envisioned process was as follows:

1. Put word out that people on the ground can send [Name location status/message]
2. SMS submitted, with varying levels of structure/detail. SMS responds with information. For all messages, there will be a tinyurl that has more info on Haiti recovery.
3. Enters database
4. Passed to a mechanical turk type outfit for structuring/tagging
5. Message is structured in the database
6. Gets passed off to orgs (via Sahana) for action

————

WE MUST HAVE THE SENDER’s number

What Ushahidi will have:

- URL is 4636.ushahidi.com
- Ability to tag and structure SMS messages (note from nico: not sure what they mean with “structure”)
- Structure= family name, given name, geotag, category of report (note from nico: same here)
- Ability to re-expose feed via geoRSS
- Data can also be output in the SMS table
- When the SMS comes in, they will see where it needs to go and deal with it on main page.

What we need from them by priority:

1 – an RSS with the sender’s number as the author of the rss item
2 – make the previous rss a Geo-RSS with the location of the sender
3 – have the crowd-sourced tags as RSS tags.
4 – Have them parse the “register” or “registre” + mobile phone and relaying that to us somehow. (Juan, any ideas on something easy for them/us?)

What we (InSTEDD/Manas) need to do ASAP:

Related to MOs

0 – Switch the EIS EC2 instance to the biggest one we can get. We can’t afford timeouts or overloads.
1 – Make sure the RSS importer recognizes the author as a mobile phone number and adds it to the list of registered phones.
2- Paginate that list (Juan, I think it’s not being paginated, and it’s gonna get big very quick).
3- Code: if the incoming item is a mobile phone number and it has a geo location, add that as the location of that citizen. (Juan, if they send us the lat/lon, we are loosing the clustering thing, we might need to reverse geo lookup to cluster them, we will see when we get there, but be ready and respond quickly)
4 – Re-test tags into Riff from RSS tags.
5 – Provide support for whatever relaying method of invitees Ushahidi gives us.

Related to MTs

1 – To Juan: It’s going to be a while probably until we get a way of broadcasting MT’s, we can test Clickatell tomorrow, but we need to figure out a way of round-robin between several LGW.