exchanging business cards before the next disaster

Exchanging Business Cards Before the Next Disaster

Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives

Heather Blanchard / @poplifegirlwww.iamheatherblanchard.comAmerican University of Paris

Open World Forum October 12, 2012

Monday, October 15, 12

http://www.iamheatherblanchard.com


The Question


Are we truly connected? Or....

Individual Informal Cooperative Institutions

Are we only connecting to those who we have shared interests, events or values?


Today• Aren’t as connected as we think

• When we make a decision to connect, we form informal cooperatives

• The space between informal cooperatives and institutions is the collaboration sphere

• There are kernels who catalyze these spheres

• These sphere attract participation and can lead to collective action, experiential learning, projects which can fork into new institutions




“Best time to exchange business cards is before the disaster.”


Informal CooperativeParticipants

Kernel

Kernel

Kernel

Collaboration Sphere


Common Interest?


Shared Interest Shared Experience Shared Value

Call to Action


Source: Facebook.com Photo Sharing Explosions

Before


Collaborative Sphere


The sphere between informal cooperatives and institutions is valuable

Individual Informal Cooperative

Act of Joining Others

Institutions


Three Worlds of Participation


Individual Informal Cooperative

Act of Joining Others

What lies between being an institution and working with others and being on your own?

Acting Alone / Acting as an Informal Group / Acting as an Institution

Institution

SystemsProcesses

GovernanceRegulation


It Begins With The Self


Individual

I just want to help


Informal Cooperative


Informal CooperativeCommon interest, event or values

I’m a GIS professional

I can search for missing persons information

I can speak their language


Node Alone?


Institution

Like Interest/Value

Unknown Interest/Value

Everyday we manage disasters.


Inside the Node


We are crisis management practitioners

On my day off I help my community prepare for

disasters

I’m interested, but this topic is not my day job


Challenges



I have a 80% solution.

Institutions

Like Interest/Value

Lack of policy

Not my job, or 20% of jobWe don’t know what we need

We can’t accept free help

We don’t know what we need

We are professionalsI don’t know you

I have a map filled with requests, where does this go?

I have 50 developers who want to help.

You are “unaffiliated”


Challenges



I’m doing this for biz dev

opportunities

Institutions

Like Interest/Value

Our lawyers need to review it

Need one person to work withI want to share in a protected space

We are experts


I don’t know anything about disaster management

I can only help an hour, two days a week

We don’t have staff to work with you

I can’t commit the agencyCompetition with others

You don’t understand our needsThat tool is blocked from our systems

We can’t manage IP



Informal Cooperative

We need to find all the information about the school that

collapsed.

Institution


The Value Between

Collaboration SphereWe can help!

UnderstandingNeutral

Ability to take risksInformal

Idea to prototypeExperiential Learning

EmpathyTrust

GroundtruthInsights


Collaboration Sphere• Informality is the rule

• People can meet and network

• People can break things

• People can participate “not in their official capacity” but their participation provides gravitas and legitimacy to the sphere

• Take risks, work with people they don’t know or wouldn’t have know were interested

• Enabling the ability to fail; high tolerance for riskInvesting in value between institutions and informal cooperatives


Collaboration Sphere• Some institutions rely on the sphere for their R&D and to

demonstrate proof of concept

• Informal cooperatives leverage to build personal or network reputation, provide “learning by doing”

• Institutions leverage the sphere for “on the street” trends, identification of talent, establishment of new relationships, build trust and reputation

• Institutions leverage the sphere’s tolerance for risk to collaborate with people and work on projects they can’t sell or do inside the organization because its not viable



2nd Time!• Aren’t as connected as we think







Crisis Collaboration Sphere• The 2010 Haiti Earthquake

• Concurrency: Official response, community response, diaspora response and informal cooperatives

• Challenge: Disconnected from the groundtruth

• Challenge: Disconnect from official response systems

• Challenge: Disconnect from local community & culture

• Challenge: Inability to harness talent offered

• Proof of concept: People skills to productive use



Observations• Time to work together is before the disaster

• Institutions need to recognize that they won’t know who they are working with at times

• Institutions need to invest in kernels who connect with informal cooperatives, or those who are likely to catalyze them

• Institutions have vested interest in the collaboration spheres that are friendly to their work

• Informal cooperatives are like artist studios, they thrive on creativity, independence and freedom

• Informal cooperatives have a vested interest to maintain independence from influence

• Informal cooperatives ebb and flow, sometimes they aren’t meant to live forever

• Informal cooperatives are organic, but they also have to be protected



Illustration of Gaps• Inability to leverage affiliated or public sensory data for operational

decision-making

• Inability to use technology in the field to provide the 3W’s of “who is doing what where”

• Inability to use three pillars of crisis data to make operational decisions (traditional, affiliated and public)

• Inability to collect, parse and contextualize public data to make operational decisions

• Absence of a formal liaison to external entities: private sector, academia, informal cooperatives to leverage their resources

• Inability to deliver public requirements of needs on the ground



Soft Power of Informal Cooperatives

• High energy, high motivation = media attention

• Ability to convene people who would normally not participate

• All opt-in participation, no one is there because they have to be

• Allows people to remove the veil that “I’m not here in an formal capacity”

• Influential to institutions and policy makersInvesting in value between institutions and informal cooperatives


Why Does The Collaboration Sphere Matter?• The lubricant of the ecosystem. Without an independent, open

collaborative space, the ecosystem can become static and polarized

• Establishes weak ties which open potential for future dialogue and cooperation

• Allows sunlight into projects and issues which may require access or insights from those within them

• Attracts people who want to do something, they are highly motivated

• Allows institutions to use the sphere as a test bed for ideas, to connect with new talent and innovate with people who aren’t like themselves



The People Between• Somewhere between museum curator,

cruise director and evangelist

• Born diplomat; speaks languages of the community

• Connected to what’s happening “on the street”

• Empower new catalyst kernels

• Firestarter within their own cooperative or institution; decision-maker

• These positions are missing today



3rd Time!• Aren’t as connected as we think







Exchanging Business Cards Before the Next Disaster


Heather Blanchard / @poplifegirlwww.iamheatherblanchard.comAmerican University of Paris

Open World Forum October 12, 2012




Credits • fromthelyonsden.com

• listsoplenty.com

• cdc.gov

• facebook.com

• Voice of America

• Lolzcats

• educat.com


exchanging business cards before the next disaster

Documents

informal cooperativesmonday

informal cooperativestoday

informal group

informal cooperativesi

expertsi dont

systemsyou dont

collaboration spherewe

free help