When a PhD student at Tufts University couldn't verify if a loved one was alive after a 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti, a movement that would transform big data's relationship to humanitarian response was born.
Five years ago, rather than waste time worrying, Patrick Meier and a few colleagues got to work. They built a real-time crisis map using data collected via SMS and social media, as well as an open-source mapping program called Ushahidi (the word means "witness" in Swahili: The program was developed in Kenya to map incidences of violence following the disputed 2007 election)
Within weeks, hundreds of volunteers around the world joined in to add locations of emergencies, infrastructure damage and immediate threats, and FEMA's top administrator had tweeted that it represented the most comprehensive picture of the situation on the ground. Read more...
More about Red Cross, United Nations, Haiti Earthquake, Disaster Relief, and Big Data
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