This slide deck is being used in the HumanityRoad and Crisis Commons joint training on the basics of Crisis Inormation Management.

1. Basic Crisis Information Management
HumanityRoad All Hands Training – December 1st, 2010

2. Who Am I?
Gisli Olafsson
Emergency Response Director
NetHope (http://www.nethope.org)
Twitter: @gislio
Skype: disasterexpert
Email: gisli.olafsson@nethope.org
Blog: http://blog.disasterexpert.org
Other hats:
• ICE-SAR team leader
• UNDAC Member
• IFRC Delegate
• EU/UN/IFRC Trainer
• Disaster Management Consultant
• Former Microsoft Disaster Advisor

3. Why is information important?
noise becomes data when it has a cognitive pattern
data becomes information when its assembled into a coherent
whole which can be related to other information
information becomes knowledge when its integrated with other
information in a form that is useful for making decisions and
determining actions,
knowledge becomes understanding when related to other
knowledge in a manner useful in anticipating, judging and
acting,
understanding becomes wisdom when its informed by
purpose, ethics, principals, memory and projection
Dee Hock, 1996

4. The Information Management Chain
Input
Collect
Throughput
Process
Output
Disseminate

5. Sources of Information

6. New Sources

7. Data Collection Issues
• Information coming from multiple sources
• Information coming through multiple paths
• Information coming in multiple formats
• Some information digital, other analog
• Reliability of information
• Conflicting information
• Information Gaps
• Getting information from everyone is hard

8. Consider the volume of data
DATA VOLUME =
# of Forms Collected x Number/Type of Questions x Periodicity
(Frequency of data collection)

9. Well organized information
Incoming
data
Incoming
phone
calls
Incoming
emails
Data Processing

10. Format
• Enter data
• Reformat
• Clean
Collate
• Compile
• Collate
Verify
quality
• Cross-
reference
• Request
information
• Triangulate
Storage
• Track
• Store
• Assign
metadata
Archiving
• Back-up
• Retrieval
Data Processing Framework

11. Format
• Structured vs. Unstructured
• Electronic vs. Paper vs. Word of Mouth
• Spelling
• Number format
• Date format
• Currency format
• Database vs. Spreadsheet
• Geo-tagging

12. Collation
• Identify different sources of data to compile
from
• Agree methodology with ALL team
members
• Identify Priorities EARLY
• Capture information about people and
organizations into 3W
• Collect information into charts, matrixes,
tables, etc.
• Ensure enough human resources to process
• Establish a reporting systems / forms
• Document what you are collating
• Try to compile information into one repository

13. OPERATIONAL
IMPORTANCE
TIME / EFFORT INVOLVED TO PROCESS DATA
High
Low
Easy Medium Hard
PRIORITY #1
PRIORITY #2
PRIORITY #3
Prioritization Graph
Courtesy: UNHCR

14. Prioritizing and Processing Messages
„There are 5 people trapped in the Caribbean Market“
• Where is the Caribbean Market?
• When was this reported?
• Who reported it?
• How can we contact the person reporting?
• Has this already been reported?
• Has this been acted upon?
• Are the people alive?
• Is this a trust-worthy report?
• What happens if we ignore this report?

15. Processed and Prioritized Reports
• 5 people can be heard alive in the Caribbean
Supermarket which is at the corner of 5th and Park (Lat
Long). Source of this report is American Embassy. This
has not been reconfirmed by other reports. No teams
have been reported going to this area. Supermarket is a
reinforced concrete building.
How do we get to this improved report?

16. Quality Assurance
• Verification
• Cross-reference
• Request information
• Triangulate

17. Verification
• Make sure to record source & other metadata
• Add a ranking to assess credibility (1-High; 5 low)
• Different quality control needed on different types of data

18. Cross-reference
• Requires baseline data
• Are we all using the same common baseline data?
• Are we seing similar data from other sources?

19. Feedback loop
• If something doesn‘t seem right – can you reach back to the
source?
• If you publish the data to those who report it they will usually
provide you feedback
• Social media has been shown to be very self-correcting due
to its openess with the data

20. Triangulate
• Are there more people affected than live in that area?
• Do the numbers add up?

21. Dissemination

22. Situation Reports
Compare and Relate
Group and Locate
Summarize
Qualify
Make sure to compare to previous state
Utilize administrative boundaries to group
information
Describe patterns and trends instead of
individual cases and reports
Make sure to qualify the information as much
as possible
„Cholera outbreaks are on a rapid increase in Leogane with 100 new
cases reported in the last 24 hours, an increase from 50 yesterday.
This brings the toal cases in Leogane to 250. Two hospitals are
operating in Leogane with capacity for 150 pateients. Main needs are
additional treatment facilities, nurses and purified water“.
Describe the need
Given this information summarize how it
affects the overall need there

23. Source: xkcd,
http://xkcd.com/386
/
And finally...