[HOT] 1st Activation Working Group meeting report

Fri Mar 16 20:19:24 GMT 2012

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is the scope of the HOT's
ambitions to deploy into the field in the wake of disasters? Will we,
as a global community, be maintaining a global deployment capability
or supporting local OSM communities support themselves remotely?
(Note: I don't think think these are mutually exclusive)

On 17 March 2012 04:33, Reinier Battenberg
<reinier.battenberg at mountbatten.net> wrote:
>
> It sounds a bit like we would need escrow funding, where there is money parked
> in a bankaccount that only becomes available (and then immediately) when there
> is a disaster that needs our effort.
>
> It would be great if we got to a point where we knew that we could deploy when
> needed. Building up a good relation with UNOCHA (for example) while there is
> no disaster yet seems like a good idea.
>
> Until we do get that guarantee, all the preparing for off-site deployment is
> surely valuable as well.
>
> rgds,
> reinier
>
>
> On Friday 16 March 2012 11:21:57 Séverin MENARD wrote:
>> Hi Francis,
>>
>> I totally agree regarding the $, we would need to be funded for this, but
>> this is smth we could request based on these unique capacities. And
>> definitely yes regarding the qualifications + the experience on disaster
>> fields. I do not know how many of us have these capacities in the roster.
>> Maybe not many, I do not know. This is one of the reasons why we started an
>> internship program in Haiti.
>> Reading Kate's answer in the meantime, seems not many :) I agree we may not
>> be prepared for this now, but  from my experience this is smth we should
>> try to strive for. As an example, if ever a huge disaster as the 2010 Haiti
>> Earthquake or Pakistan floods occurs again, I would like to help on the
>> ground again, but having to work for some big agencies losing my time on
>> useless papermaps products rather than activate communities and HOT
>> response (even if I could do it a bit in parallel) would be really
>> frustrating. If we cannot propose a HOT deployment to a funder so far,
>> maybe we could propose to UN agencies (e.g. OCHA), when they are looking
>> for GIS consultants, to deploy one or two experienced (and vaccinated)
>> Hotties for ground activities and coordination with the remote community.
>> They normally expect consultants able to do not too crappy ArcGIS
>> papermaps, while we can provide, by combining the skills, baseline data
>> collected remotely by the volunteer effort and by local mappers, community
>> activation supported by an Ushahidi platform, trainings, imagery, specific
>> tools, etc., etc.
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 10:14 AM, Fran Boon <francisboon at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On 16 March 2012 13:36, Séverin MENARD <severin.menard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > > Soory I missed this chat but will be present to the next one.
>> > > Remote response apart, what should be our potential ground
>> > > deployment ?
>> >
>> >  I
>> >
>> > > think a ground team who would activate and train quickly the local
>> > > communities, could drive the HOT remote support, provide imagery
>> >
>> > feedbacks
>> >
>> > > (precise GPS coordinates, interpretation, etc.) or even imagery
>> > > itself
>> >
>> > taken
>> >
>> > > by a drone (some tests are ongoing in Haiti) would make sense. IMHO
>> > > HOT's kind of uniqueness is to be able to provide coordinated
>> > > ground and remote response.
>> >
>> > Hi Severin,
>> >
>> > What you outline sounds great, however it requires an essential
>> > element which remote support doesn't: $
>> > A remote support can be done using relatively little volunteer time to
>> > set up & then it's up to the community how much they're able to engage
>> > in the actual work - as HOT we cannot be responsible for that - we
>> > just set up the infrastructure and make the call (being careful not to
>> > abuse this so we don't get volunteer fatigue).
>> >
>> > Ground support would either require HOT to have it's own funds or else
>> > to have the requesting Organisation sponsor it (even if the time was
>> > all donated).
>> > I agree that we should have a clause in about this and this can start
>> > by saying 'As HOT has no funds of it's own, a ground support request
>> > would require the requesting organisation to find funds for this'
>> > What else do we need to define around this?
>> > * Role descriptions (I know Kate has done this)
>> > * Being sure we don't send people out uninsured?
>> > * Being sure that people we send out are suitably qualified?
>> > * Being sure that people we send out are suitably equipped? (which
>> > might not require very much)
>> >
>> > Anything else?
>> >
>> > F
>> >
>> > > Severin
>> > >
>> > > On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 8:00 AM, <hot-request at openstreetmap.org> wrote:
>> > >> Send HOT mailing list submissions to
>> > >>
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>> > >>
>> > >> Today's Topics:
>> > >>   1. 1st Activation Working Group meeting report (Schuyler Erle)
>> > >>
>> > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > >> ----
>> > >>
>> > >> Message: 1
>> > >> Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:22:42 +0530
>> > >> From: Schuyler Erle <schuyler at nocat.net>
>> > >> To: hot at openstreetmap.org
>> > >> Subject: [HOT] 1st Activation Working Group meeting report
>> > >> Message-ID: <D9457753-91DC-408A-BCA7-DE66B48D90A9 at nocat.net>
>> > >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>> > >>
>> > >> Hello Team,
>> > >>
>> > >> Today we had the first meeting of the HOT Activation Working Group
>> > >> on
>> >
>> > the
>> >
>> > >> IRC channel.  The meeting lasted an hour. Pierre Beland, Fran
>> > >> Boon,
>> >
>> > Andrew
>> >
>> > >> Buck, Robert Banick, Harry Wood, and I participated.
>> > >>
>> > >> The stated objective of the working group is to develop a strategy
>> > >> and
>> > >> tactics for optimally allocating HOT's resources in response to
>> >
>> > humanitarian
>> >
>> > >> crisis. We noted that humanitarian crises range quite widely in
>> >
>> > severity and
>> >
>> > >> in level of international response, and that HOT's response should
>> > >> be
>> > >> commensurate with the degree to which our services will be used by
>> > >> responders on the ground.
>> > >>
>> > >> The substance of the discussion today revolved around identifying
>> > >> HOT's possible responses to crisis (including documenting data
>> > >> sources,>
>> > acquiring
>> >
>> > >> imagery, setting up volunteer tasking services, and mobilizing
>> >
>> > volunteers),
>> >
>> > >> and working backwards to identify the triggers for those
>> > >> activities.
>> > >>
>> > >> We also discussed at length the distinction between "activation",
>> > >> and
>> > >> simply responding to requests made by partner organizations. We
>> > >> agreed
>> >
>> > (I
>> >
>> > >> believe) that prompt and reliable response to partner inquiries
>> > >> should
>> >
>> > be a
>> >
>> > >> priority for HOT and should be taken up as a subject for
>> > >> discussion and recommendation by the working group.
>> > >>
>> > >> I think that the working group members agreed to start documenting
>> > >> some>
>> > of
>> >
>> > >> these ideas on the OSM wiki for further discussion. We also agreed
>> > >> after talking for an hour to pick up the discussion again one
>> > >> week from>
>> > today, at
>> >
>> > >> 14:00 UTC on Thu 22 Mar 2012.
>> >
>> > >> The IRC log for today's meeting is here:
>> > http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Humanitarian_OpenStreetMap_Team/Activ
>> > ation_Working_Group_22_Mar_2012>
>> > >> Hope to see those of you who are interested in the subject on #hot
>> > >> next Thursday! I'll send out a reminder a couple days ahead of
>> > >> time. Cheers!
>> > >>
>> > >> SDE
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> ------------------------------
>> > >>
>> > >> _______________________________________________
>> > >> HOT mailing list
>> > >> HOT at openstreetmap.org
>> > >> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> End of HOT Digest, Vol 25, Issue 13
>> > >> ***********************************
>> > >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > HOT mailing list
>> > > HOT at openstreetmap.org
>> > > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
> --
> rgds,
>
> Reinier Battenberg
> Director
> Mountbatten Ltd.
> www.mountbatten.net
> tel: +256 758 801749
> twitter: @batje
>
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