Presentation made to the ICRC around the use of new media, in 2011.

1. New media: Potential for the
ICRC

2. Good progress: Nargis to Japan
• Based, inter alia, on UN Reliefweb media monitoring, from 4 to 25 May 2008
(Nargis) and 12 January to February 2010 (Haiti earthquake)
– Greater emphasis on ICTs and information provisioning as part of relief efforts
on the ground.
– Greater emphasis on collaboration and coordination between UN, NGOs,
government and military
– For Haiti, the global scale of volunteerism was far greater and more diverse
than Nargis.
– Many more CiM providers for Haiti, rapid deployment. Nargis only had UN
OCHA’s HIC platform.
– Mobiles and web visualisation central to Haiti response. Telecoms didn’t come
into play post-Nargis.

3. Old relief information model
Ground truth / Event
Aid worker
Members
states / Media
Agency /
UN system

4. New aid information networks
Even refugees are empowered using mobiles
Event / Issue
Aid worker
Witness Citizen media
Agencies /
UN system
Members
states /
Global / Local
audiences

5. What lessons for ICRC ?
Enduring technical challenges
• Inadequate sense making: systems are islands of information,
leading to unnecessary duplication, fragmentation and significant
frustration
• Proprietary data formats: which leads to information lock-in and
data scatter
• Accountability: plethora of actors leads to multiple decision making
points, with no clear crumbtrails
• Coordination: lack of information sharing mandates, despite
available ICT platforms

6. Enduring ethical challenges
How to be sensitive to trauma ?
• Disaster-affected communities remain largely passive recipients of
information. Where is the resilient, sustainable tech that gives them
voice?
• Using disasters to field test new ICTs, services and platforms is to
use victims as test subjects. Mercenary, marketing and other
parochial considerations trump sensitivity to trauma.
• It is often unplanned as to how ICTs deployed soon after a disaster
will be sustained over the long term. Cost, culture, leave behind &
sustainability considerations are important.
• Who owns the data ? Private enterprises or the ICRC ?

7. Still overdue
• The development and up-to-date population
of easily accessible datasets with essential
information shared across UN and other aid
agencies, to help prepare for, mitigate and
recover from disasters.
• Interoperability still an issue

8. UN CiM strategy
Led by UN ASG / CITO and supported by us
• Vision: “Recognising the need for credible, accurate, complete
and timely information for managing crises, the United Nations,
working collaboratively with its stakeholders, strives to improve
crisis information management capabilities to protect people,
property, human dignity and the environment affected by crises.”
• UN CITO, in cooperation with ICT4Peace Foundation and
representatives from DPA, DPKO, DFS, DESA, OCHA, OICT,
UNHCR, UNDP, UNICEF and WFP created CiMAG
• UN CiM strategy part of UN core ICT strategy (A/65/491)

9. ICT4Peace crisis information wikis
wiki.ict4peace.org | Responding to need / gap

10. ICT4Peace crisis information wikis
• Wikis created in 2010 for Haiti earthquake, Chile earthquake, Gulf Oil Spill, Kyrgyzstan
humanitarian crisis, Pakistan floods. In March 2011, at the request of Standby Volunteer
Task Force, a wiki was created for Libya Uprising. In general all the wikis contain,
• Comprehensive curated list of crisis information including UN OCHA situation
reports, comprehensive briefing kits from Reliefweb, ETC sit reps and other vital
information
• Key background documents, including converting Office 2011 docs to Google
Docs (e.g. 3W information)
• Curated links to Twitter feeds, Facebook groups, Flickr photos and other social
media sites
• Comprehensive list of mapping resources from Google and other sources
• Google Translate based translations of key vernacular resources including media

11. some ideas for ICRC
from web based social networks and platforms

12. Matrix plugin for Ushahidi
Source reliability / Information probability

13. Leverage private enterprise
Use the reach and power of volunteers using private enterprise platforms

14. Leverage social networking
Adapt FamilyLinks database to access social networking reach

15. Leverage innovation
Use the reach and power of new groups with shared goals

16. Leverage UN system
Use the reach and power of UN system, e.g. UNICEF Innovation

17. Leverage image recognition
Use the reach and power of image recognition for refugee databases

18. Leverage image recognition
Use the reach and power of image recognition for refugee databases

19. Leverage image recognition
Use the reach and power of image recognition for refugee databases

20. Harness infographics for IHL awareness
http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/stunning-infographics-and-data-visualization.html

21. Use ‘serious games’ for outreach
Against All Odds, developed by UNHCR
Against All Odds, is an online serious game that was developed by UNHCR to teach adolescents
about the plight of political refugees. This forty-five minute web-based game is targeted for children in
middle and high school

22. www.ict4peace.org