When it comes to Digital Networks and the future of the internet, this is where it should point. Patrick, thank you for leading in the Crisis mapping and #SMEM world, your efforts should inspire most of us, to turn to volunteering, in saving lives.
The UN activated the Digital Humanitarian Network (DHN) on December 3, 2012 to carry out a rapid damage needs assessment in response to Typhoon Pablo in the Philippines. More specifically, the UN requested that Digital Humanitarians collect and geo-reference all tweets with links to pictures or video footage capturing Typhoon damage. To complete this mission, I reached out to my colleagues at CrowdCrafting. Together, we customized a microtasking app to filter, classify and geo-reference thousands of tweets. This type of rapid damage assessment request was the first of its kind, which means that setting up the appropriate workflows and technologies took a while, leaving less time for the tagging, verification and analysis of the multimedia content pointed to in the disaster tweets. Such is the nature of innovation; optimization takes place through iteration and learning.
Microtasking is key to the future of digital humanitarian response, which is…
View original post 438 more words
Castillo Risk Management 
Why are the institutions worrying mainly on disaster response only on hurricanes or typhoons when damage from fires are much worst, and it worrys people during summer months, how can world organizations prepare the world. Remember, it hurts water resources, forrests and soil and humankind.
Thanks
Roberto
Disaster response is only one part of Comprehensive Emergency Management; preparing and mitigating for fire season should be a first step. Including the surrounding communities in the efforts to mitigate, prepare, and recovery from fires, is also another step.
Preparing for fires takes much effort, communication and money (equipment & human resource), hopefully Public and private sectors start investing together in these efforts.
But, having only the emergency management agencies deal with fires & wildfires, is not ideal for anyone.