Thursday, July 06, 2006
Lessons Learned: My Experience at the World Wide Help Group
1. Have enough bandwidth and a robust enough site that you can take the vast hits in an emergency that your information will generate. This one gave us no end of trouble, and bandwidth is key. You have to be ready for a million page views in a few days. Preparation for this kind of intense but time-limited traffic is a really, really good idea. We found help in many unusual places, but if you could prepare for this well in advance, you would be very well advised to do so.
2. Internet connections are robust, and best suited for post-disaster information. After the tsunami all communications were lost, it seemed, but the Internet. We found isolated places in Asia that had Internet after the tsunami, places you never would have thought of. After Katrina, we had people who were communicating with us via computer using waning laptop battery power and cell phone, and this was the only way they could get through to the outside world.
3. SMS service has the potential for communication when phone calls won't go through, and when there is no Internet available. This is important.
4. You really need a fast loading mechanism such as a wiki to communicate with the entire world. A lot of people in undeveloped regions don't have the computer size of the average American computer. There are still plenty of 28.8 Kbps connections around and you need to prepare for that if you want to involve the world. You have to use a format that takes this into consideration. You also have to take into consideration the variety of operating systems and browsers in use.
5. You need an easily visible email address on the entrance to your site. Phone isn't bad either.
6. Having people based over several different continents is an incredible strength--it overcomes time zones in a compelling way.
7. People really want to help and will volunteer significant efforts in helping.
8. Access to the Internet is crucial in helping. We were unable to make much headway in our efforts after the Kashmir earthquake because that region lacks what I would term "Internet fluency." That is comprised of access to computers and the Internet, the knowledge of how to use computers, and the ability to use basic English.
9. The ninth thing we learned is that many Americans can't do much with their powerful computers machines other than email and a few light Internet searches, but they really, really want to help.
10. It really pays to have some people on board with diverse and broad ranging and advanced skills in both hardware and software. We were able always to find these people, but it also absorbed a lot of time.
11. The information provided by the World Wide Help Team likely a strong component in the future of helping others following disasters. It works. It crosses political boundaries and time zones. It bypasses the bureaucracy of both government and established NGO's. It unites diverse viewpoints and people.
12. If you use a wiki, the spam bots will eventually find you. We have developed significant expertise in controlling this problem.
13. There is enough of a repository of on-line open source code to build whatever is needed. We have added to that code and made it freely available.
14. The fourteenth thing we learned is that infrastructure can be done right with one existing server and about $5,000 for new servers and bandwidth. This makes similar project very financially feasible. Of course it helped to have people on board who (if you paid for their services, and some of our people are actively involved in consulting) would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, at least.
15. Volunteers are key. They are willing to work after the paid help has all gone home. We didn't have paid help, but our dedicated volunteers gave of their time and resources endlessly, and often until it hurt.
16. When people are actively helping others they are willing to set aside almost all political differences.
17. That there is nothing like the Internet for networking.
2. Internet connections are robust, and best suited for post-disaster information. After the tsunami all communications were lost, it seemed, but the Internet. We found isolated places in Asia that had Internet after the tsunami, places you never would have thought of. After Katrina, we had people who were communicating with us via computer using waning laptop battery power and cell phone, and this was the only way they could get through to the outside world.
3. SMS service has the potential for communication when phone calls won't go through, and when there is no Internet available. This is important.
4. You really need a fast loading mechanism such as a wiki to communicate with the entire world. A lot of people in undeveloped regions don't have the computer size of the average American computer. There are still plenty of 28.8 Kbps connections around and you need to prepare for that if you want to involve the world. You have to use a format that takes this into consideration. You also have to take into consideration the variety of operating systems and browsers in use.
5. You need an easily visible email address on the entrance to your site. Phone isn't bad either.
6. Having people based over several different continents is an incredible strength--it overcomes time zones in a compelling way.
7. People really want to help and will volunteer significant efforts in helping.
8. Access to the Internet is crucial in helping. We were unable to make much headway in our efforts after the Kashmir earthquake because that region lacks what I would term "Internet fluency." That is comprised of access to computers and the Internet, the knowledge of how to use computers, and the ability to use basic English.
9. The ninth thing we learned is that many Americans can't do much with their powerful computers machines other than email and a few light Internet searches, but they really, really want to help.
10. It really pays to have some people on board with diverse and broad ranging and advanced skills in both hardware and software. We were able always to find these people, but it also absorbed a lot of time.
11. The information provided by the World Wide Help Team likely a strong component in the future of helping others following disasters. It works. It crosses political boundaries and time zones. It bypasses the bureaucracy of both government and established NGO's. It unites diverse viewpoints and people.
12. If you use a wiki, the spam bots will eventually find you. We have developed significant expertise in controlling this problem.
13. There is enough of a repository of on-line open source code to build whatever is needed. We have added to that code and made it freely available.
14. The fourteenth thing we learned is that infrastructure can be done right with one existing server and about $5,000 for new servers and bandwidth. This makes similar project very financially feasible. Of course it helped to have people on board who (if you paid for their services, and some of our people are actively involved in consulting) would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, at least.
15. Volunteers are key. They are willing to work after the paid help has all gone home. We didn't have paid help, but our dedicated volunteers gave of their time and resources endlessly, and often until it hurt.
16. When people are actively helping others they are willing to set aside almost all political differences.
17. That there is nothing like the Internet for networking.
