Hi! Billy Mays here with Ushahidi (post for Dr. Patrick Meier)

Am I the only one who is left with a sour taster in their mouth after our guest speaker month? I mean some of them made some good points they really did. They all talked about their own system or organization and what they think is the best way of going about things and what their organization does well. So we got four different answers as to the right way to do things. Also it felt like I was watching a great big infomercial at times based on most of the speakers inability or unwillingness to talk about what is wrong with the system, only talking about what they do right 90 percent of the time. This was only solidified by Dr. Patrick Meier's talk which if Billy Mays were still alive he should have hired him. It was an hour long presentation about how great Ushahidi and Crisis Mappers were and how much good they were doing. If I wanted to listen to or find out how great all of the speakers organizations were I would have looked at their websites... which I believe we were all assigned to do.

Maybe I am being too critical but I reserve the right to be. I mean if we listened to half of what Dr. Tapia said over the semester thus far and even skimmed the reading she has given us then 75 percent of the talks we have been given would have been old news. I don't care about when crisis mapping has worked and how much positive review you have gotten from the UN because they still can't really use it yet. So if you want to blow smoke up my ass about how everything is working at least take me out for a drink so I will be in a more agreeable mood. This is why we are all here because things don't work as efficiently as they can and we are trying to wrap our heads around the convoluted system that is Humanitarian Aid and where all the flaws and holes are so we can fix them. My major is Security and Risk Analysis.... I wouldn't have a major if everything was all A OK on the communication front or if things didn't go wrong and there wasn't a clear need for improvement. It is going to be my job to know the dirty secrets of the system, the chinks in the armor and it will also be my job to make those seem invisible to the untrained eye and make them work more efficently. So please for the love of all that is holy don't come into this class and give me a bunch of happy stories. I don't need to feel good about how things are. I know there are problems everywhere in every system, I am in this major to make a difference to help enact change. I beg you please don't waste my time and try and make everything seem like an episode of Barney out there when I know it's more like Dexter where there are people out there waiting for their opportunity to screw things up.

Dr. Tapia asked a question to Dr. Meier about what happens if Ushahidi is used for nefarious purposes and he for all intents and purposes deflected the question... this is the kind of question that must be asked that anyone in our major would ask and he deflected it. If the Humanitarian system and the organizations involved in it really want a change you have to let us know how screwed up it is. You have to let us know exactly what is failing where and how. But alas I know it's working fine because peoples lives are being saved. You know what that is bull you can always save more lives you are never running at optimum efficiency and there is always room for improvement. We want to make that happen but they just don't want to let us in as much as they need to. I sit with my head in my hands most classes, I know all of you have seen me at one point or another because of how frustrated I am by the lack of answers to the problems and the lack of acknowledgement of the problems themselves. Yes they are starting to acknowledge the problems but it's a day late and a dollar short in my book. So we are going to give it our best shot throw and idea in Mr. Happ's funnel of ideas and hope it doesn't get flushed out the other side. I guess that's really the philosphy of these problems is throw some shit at a wall and see what sticks. Just don't make it stick too well because then they would really have to enact change and they don't want that. They just want it to look like they are changing.

Just keep listening to all of the speakers and all of the articles we read, the problems aren't as big as they seem, and all the upstart tech companies have all the answers the UN and other organizations just wont listen. No one wants to find a common ground and compromise and no one can even decide where to start that process. I know this is nothing more than a rant but this class makes my head spin and makes me want to just run into a wall. Maybe I am a pessimist, maybe I am a realist, maybe I am a cynic, to me they are all the same damn thing. I just know that it may not be broke but it sure needs fixing.

For making it this far I leave you with a pallet cleanser and how I feel right about now (I am Ren by the way) Happy Happy Joy Joy

NetHope the Greasers to the Humanitarian Socs... (assigned post Mr. Happ)

First of all I would like to thank Mr. Happ for giving me probably the favorite talk of our series thus far. He was a little bit of all over the place and very in depth and I really enjoyed it. Now onto the title, he quoted Robert Frost in his presentation in my defense. I had to bring it back to the Outsiders it seems perfect. A bunch of tech companies and workers on the outside looking in at the Humanitarian world just trying to be accepted and get some solid footing. It truly looks like a great underdog story, these companies only getting roughly two percent of the budget and trying to make a difference in what could possibly be considered the most important part of the future of Humanitarianism and crisis informatics even if the established way doesn't see it as such. The thing that stuck with me most through the talk was the collaboration section and more specifically why NetHope is so successful.

This is what really made my Outsiders reference stick in my head. These are a bunch of highly educated people who believe in what they are working on and believe they can make a difference but they are also together because of a common background and because there are not enough resources to go around on their own without each others help. They are trying to maximize productivity for the least amount of money. The Greasers in the Outsiders were a bunch of kids with no one to rely on but themselves and though they didn't know where they were going they knew they needed to stick together and have each others backs if they wanted to survive and thrive as best they could.

This is what I feel like NetHope is doing right now. They are just going, they know the importance of what they are doing and working on and know it will be beneficial even if the higher ups at organizations don't understand it right now or know what to do the with the solutions and technologies they are working on. It all comes down to the five points Mr. Happy talked about: trust, hunger, common need, value, time. The common need is the easy part at this point with everyone on board with NetHope understanding the importance of ICT. The value and the time I feel both contribute to the trust. The trust is what makes them such an efficient and close nit group which is crucial because they have loyalty to each other and their work together over the individual companies. This also leads to the hunger. The budget is nearly non-existent and if one person or project fails it could have a domino effect so everyone must be chomping at the bit and working as hard as they can every second of every day to prove their worth. The worth of their projects and the necessity to fund them better must be a constant motivation.

Honestly, mostly I just wanted a chance to gush a little bit about some people who clearly have their heads on straight. Their are a bunch of companies working together not just for money or money at all but simply for the sake of innovation and to help those in need. They will usher in the future of the Humanitarian system whether the system is ready or not. They may be the Outsiders of the Humanitarian world right now; misunderstood and under-appreciated. On a world scale though it is people like the UN who are falling behind the times because we all know of technologies importance and how ingrained it is on society as a whole at this point so let's "poke them in their eyes," to quote Mr. Happ and make them re-think their system.

I get really excited when collaboration happens for collaboration sake and talking about NetHope made me look forward to the possibilities of what is to come when the rest of the Humanitarian world is ready to join us in the technological age. "Nature's first green is gold," and I think this Robert Frost quote can perfectly describe the direction in which I hope informatics is going, the route of collaboration better be the future. If it isn't I would hate to see what happens. Maybe a tech cold war or an even greater discrepancy between the haves and have nots. Also relief aid would become obsolete because they would be so slow in response times and their data would not be as reliable. Tech and collaboration are the ways of the future.

Not my usual edgy change everything, everything is poo post I know but I gotta keep you on your toes.

I leave you with some more words of wisdom by Robert Frost

My Humanitarian Aid is Evolving

I want to start by thanking Andrew Alspach for coming to talk to us and more importantly being frank and open with us. He allowed us an insight that I feel few have had that aren't active members of the Humanitarian community. Now onto the heavy stuff... he was pretty frank with some of the shortcomings of the aid process and they are all things that are evolving and must evolve if Humanitarian aid does not want to fall farther behind. There are many independent communities popping up as we have read about all semester to try and help with the relief and aid process by collecting information. Too much information according to Mr. Alspach for the UN and other agencies to handle. This will not end they and we must find a way to adapt and make this work. People are using technology to have access to more information that ever in their everyday lives. I read an article today that a shopping market in Mass. set up an app on smart phones that allows people to pay for groceries as they shop so they don't have to use cashiers.... it took the UN two years to agree to have a twitter. They must catch up before they are rendered obsolete. Yes I know they will never be obsolete but they will never be as driving a force as they once were if they do not evolve and find a way to make technology adapt.

Anyone who has played Pokemon knows that Eevee can turn into just about any type of Pokemon ever and therefore is one of the most versatile. Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Relief is at the point that it needs to adapt and evolve and be the jack of all trades that it used to be but it needs to do it within the confines of the technological realm. The cluster model for Emergency Management is really good in theory but in actuality it is a slow process. Particularly when it comes to the person part of the funnel and trying to convince your partners to share. There are money concerns and secret concerns that must be hurdled. At times it feels like your partners may only be sharing the tip of the iceberg and only the least relevant of the information and who knows they might be. That is not what I am here to talk about tonight as I have already handled this topic in a few of my other posts. Tonight is about the IM Continuum and the parts of this continuum that Mr. Alspach said and I believe need the most work. Which in his eyes was the Collection of info and Analysis of it I believe the whole process needs work which will include the Processing and Dissemination of the info.

Two years to decide on a twitter I would say the process needs a lot more open-mindedness when it comes to technology. It does not, will not, cannot always work but neither does standing pat. What made me the most happy about out talk was that Mr. Alspach seemed to know this and was open to change provided it was done in the right way. While collecting information a lot of the info is out-dated unless it is a first world country they are kind of flying by the seat of their pants. Also it is hard to collect info on an area in crisis and to gauge how widespread the trouble is. The processing is hard and so is the analysis portion because of the sheer amount of information but to compact that problem they are running on out-dated clunky models and systems. This needs to be stream lined, simplified while still doing the same amount of work. Which I guess will be our job if we choose to undertake that task for out final project. We need these emerging technologies to sort out the information into manageable chunks and so that the responders are not responding to twelve of the same e-mail or map. Then once the info is analyzed it needs to quickly be disseminated so it can be placed into the right hands.

This can be facilitated by everyone using the same types of file or eveyone being able to use a file converter so everyone can see the files much more quickly. Also by allowing and working with the new upstarts in the tech relief world and providing them with guidelines for how to best verify and integrate their information into an already established system will make their information more useful and more likely to be given a hard look instead of being used on the periphery of the problems. I know I don't have a lot of the answers and I am sort of re-hashing what we already know. This is basically me thinking aloud. How do we get the Humanitarian community to be tech savvy and how do we get them to willingly disseminate and share info? Only when we answer those can we evolve and be as great as we know we can be.

Today I will try and be a little deeper to get us thinking on how to fix these problems I leave you with some wise words by Confucius

Your R.A.K. (Random Act of Kindness) gives me Hope, Post Week 6

We were honored to have Mr. Gisli Olafsson as a guest speaker in our class this week and he touched on a lot of the points we have been making in class but also made clear one distinction that I don't believe we have.... We are the first Technology Generation so to speak. We are the original, the guinea pigs, we live in and most of the time fully embrace our immersion into technology. The generations before us do not understand that immersion they see it as bordering on obsession and an unhealthy one at that. They don't see the need for technology when whatever system they have in place works just fine as is. This is the distinction Mr. Olafsson made that resonated with me... There will be no change unless we can make an older generation embrace technology or until they are gone and we hopefully don't loose our need to be immersed in technology.

It's kind of like the matrix to me where our generation has one of two options. We continue down this road of ever expanding technology and allow ourselves to have a dependence or we can continue to try and evolve but also separate ourselves from technology. It will still be beneficial but we wont feel controlled by it.

Right now I see what the older generation is talking about. While technology is increasing and doing some amazing things: advancements in medical technology, the way we learn in school, and how connected we are with everything going on in the world. There is also the bad: people spending more time on the internet than with their families, a certain lack of social skills in our generation as though we are loosing our ability to connect as human beings, and more importantly a lack of security on systems that we rely too heavily on, leading to identity theft or worse.

For better or worse we must push forward with technology and try and use it in the best ways we can because there will always be those out there that use it for nefarious reasons or worse reasons they believe aren't misguided like Anonymous. We see what they are capable of and this is the future if we don't improve protection of information and our communication within the technological system with departments and individuals. We can all be connected if we just want to do the work and most of the time Hackers are willing to do that and we are not so disadvantage us. We need to as I have already said beef up our security and make computers more like a global communicator where everyone has access to certain key systems like a Linux of sorts.  I am a firm believer that the only way we get through life is together and that includes whoever we are while we are on a computer or using other technology. Wouldn't you love to be able to help someone in a crisis situation and not just get good karma from that but also know those are people who would do whatever they could to help you are someone else in the future.  

It all comes down to the seven points Gisli was talking about, we need an unprecedented level of interoperability as we head into this new generation, not try and safeguard information to make more money. We have done a number on this world already and there are so many more people in the world than there have ever been it's time to start trying to take steps to form a global community even if it is only in Humanitarian response. Technology wheather we like it or not is going to propel us to that new goal and we have to remember to keep in our mind the pros and cons and figure out the best way to devlope and implement them. I don't want to end up like the Matrix but I also don't want to live in a world where I am not plugged in.

Our project sharing our information not for profit of what we find while trying to re-purpose or develop a new piece of technology has the potential to help countless thousands of people. I don't need money for that I don't need to safeguard that information if it has the potential to keep people safe. I think that is the new attitude we need. The global community and it can all start with staring at someones R.A.K. (again Random Act of Kindness you perverts) and being moved enough to do the same. I think that is how all change begins by being moved enough to help someone else and wanting to change the status quot. Our generations greatest weapon is technology and its development but we must make sure it is used properly.

We all get by with a little help from our friends