I sat in on a presentation by members of this group. They have a very large and skilled network of volunteer collectors, analysts and others that do a very impressive job of getting in, setting up comms (SM, computer networks etc) where governments and aid organizations cannot. Many of the volunteers are local "hackers" good sources of real time, information not "filtered" by any government. Their networks are in place in areas that may be of interest. I am guessing you folks already know about them but, just in case.
Noslack
The International Network of Crisis Mappers is the largest and most active international community of experts, practitioners, policymakers, technologists, researchers, journalists, scholars, hackers and skilled volunteers engaged at the intersection between humanitarian crises, technology, crowd-sourcing, and crisis mapping. The Crisis Mappers Network was launched by 100 Crisis Mappers at the first International Conference on Crisis Mapping (ICCM) in 2009. As the world's premier humanitarian technology forum, we now engage 6,000+ members in over 160 countries, who are affiliated with over 2,000 different institutions, including over 400 universities, 50 United Nations agencies & projects, dozens of leading technology companies, several volunteer & technical community networks, and disaster response and recovery organizations.
Dr. Patrick Meier & Dr. Jen Ziemke are the Network's Co-Founders & Co-Curators.
Crisis Mappers leverage mobile & web-based applications, participatory maps & crowdsourced event data, aerial & satellite imagery, geospatial platforms, advanced visualization, live simulation, and computational & statistical models to power effective early warning for rapid response to complex humanitarian emergencies. As information scientists we also attempt to extract meaning from mass volumes of real-time data exhaust.
• 6,363 = Members of Crisis Mappers Network
• 3,000+ = Member Organizations/Affiliations (List) including 400+ Universities, 50 UN Agencies/Programs, dozens of leading technology companies, several Volunteer & Technical Community Networks & Disaster Response NGOs.
• 162 = Countries where Members Currently Work
• 194 = Countries where Members have actively worked
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• 7,194 = Emails since 2009
Join our Google Group to participate in the latest discussions, ask questions, share & brainstorm, add yourself to the member map, learn what Crisis Mapping is all about, and view our list of member affiliations to learn about who we are. Pursuing other avenues for involvement? Visit our friends at the Standby Task Force & the Digital Humanitarian Network.
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5th Annual
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
of CRISIS MAPPERS
ICCM 2013
18-22 November 2013
Nairobi, Kenya
AGENDA
ttp://www.blackhat.com/html/bh-us-11/bh-us-11-