how crowdsourcing changed disaster relief forever

How CrowdsourcingChanged Disaster

Relief Forever.

FOSS4G

8 September 2010

(time machine sound)

FOSS4G2008

bestconference

bestconferenceallyear

bestconferenceeveryyear

youareawesome

yoursoftwareis awesome

yoursoftwareis useless

withoutdata

data

(meanwhile, backin 2010...)

=

=

+=

“Crowdsourcing”

Coase's Penguin

YochaiBenkler

YochaiBenkler

Ronald Coase

YochaiBenkler

Ronald Coase

Free Software

Commons-BasedPeer Production

Commons-BasedPeer Production

● Non-monetary motivation

Commons-BasedPeer Production

● Non-monetary motivation● Discrete, multi-sized pieces

Commons-BasedPeer Production

● Non-monetary motivation● Discrete, multi-sized pieces● Low-cost integration

“Crowdsourcing”

12 January 201016:53 (GMT-5)

9,000,000people in

Haiti

3,000,000 affected

“there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number.”

Centre National de l'Information Géo-Spatiale

(CNIGS)

12 hours later...

TelaScience

HaitiCrisisMap.org

275 editors

500,000 objects edited

600 editors

1,000,000 objects edited

“... the best source of transportation information that we have for Haiti … everybody is using OpenStreetMap.”

- UN OCHA aid worker

“We used OpenStreetMap on a daily basis... Usually, it is impossible to get this information.”

- UNOSAT technical staff

“I wish you could see [the team's] faces light up when I ... tell them that I'm going to give them street level detail maps.”

- Fairfax County, VirginiaSAR team leader

“Without a doubt, OpenStreetMap has helped to save lives.”

- MapAction coordinator

“Crowdsourcing”

FAIL?

(time machine sound)

GIS and the Neogeographer

Schuyler Erle <sderle@metacarta.com>

GIS and the Neogeographer

GIS is ...● Analytical● Precise● Deliberate● Money is at stake● Lives are at stake

GIS and the Neogeographer

Neogeography isn'tmuch like that

at all.

GIS and the Neogeographer

Neogeography is...● “Mashups”● “Web 2.0”● “Red Dot Fever”● Hacks● Imprecise● Fast

(meanwhile, backin 2010...)

FAIL?

yoursoftwareis useless

withoutdata

(time machine sound)

(meanwhile, backin 2010...)

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap

Team

mapkibera.org

“No map of the world is worth a look if the land of Utopia isn't shown there.”

If you have worked on...

GDAL

MapServer

Mapnik

GeoServer

PostGIS

TileCache

OpenLayers

… then you have helped save lives.

How CrowdsourcingChanged Disaster

Relief Forever.

How You Changed Disaster

Relief Forever.

Schuyler Erle@schuylerschuyler@simplegeo.com

With special thanks to:Stuart GillErica HagenMikel MaronJesse RobbinsChristopher SchmidtRobert Soden

Tom BuckleyKate ChapmanNicolas ChaventSteve CoastErdem ErginGalen Evans

http://hot.openstreetmap.org/