From: Fran B. <fr...@sa...> - 2014-11-12 17:08:51
|
On 12 November 2014 15:22, <sa...@br...> wrote: > Hi I'm new to your project, but it looks interesting. Hi Sam, Welcome :) > I had a bit of a chat with someone in your IRC. I believe that was me ;) > It seems to me there is a core question at the moment: Why isn't Sahana > (yet) being useful in the Ebola fight? Indeed. We have had a *lot* of interest from a number of aspects. We've been highlighted as one of the 29 ideas worth pursuing out of 606 on OpenIdeo: https://openideo.com/challenge/fighting-ebola/highlights Njala university in Sierra Leone were charged to set up an Incident Response System & they see Sahana as being the most likely tool to use currently: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/Deployments/Ebola#Communications Red Cross are an obvious partner as they already use our system, however the local teams are keen to stick with spreadsheets currently - this is in general a major issue for many responders...sticking to familiar tools which they can adapt themselves to their requirements. HXL, recognising this, has switched from an RDF-based standard to a spreadsheet one, although I don't find it helping too much yet as the big issues are standardising names of Locations & Orgs which are unaddressed here. > I may misunderstand the scope and intention of your software, but at first > glance it looks like it's been designed for a single NGO, or small > consortium of NGO's to manage their logistics. That's certainly one use-case, with the prime example of that working being Philippines Governments's DSWD who manage all their emergency logistics using the tool. However there are many other usecases...in fact the original aim & still some usecases are more about coordinating between agencies...which actually makes it even harder to deploy as then who will take ownership? & how do we get multiple agencies to change their workflows to make use of it!? > At present no NGO has asked for an instance, so it remains un-deployed. This is indeed the major reason why we've not deployed....traditionally Sahana doesn't self-deploy but rather deploys when requested by a responding agency. This is both to ensure that we have people making use of the system & also to avoid confusing already busy people with yet another system. A classic case was the Katrina response where there were 3-4 competing missing persons sites which doesn't help the situation. > Below are some random thoughts about how you could broaden that scope, to > become a global platform & data source for disaster response globally. > This mail probably seems a bit presumptuous, I just think (hope) it's > sometimes useful to get an outside perspective. Certainly fine to have input - we're open to that :) Although as you say: > I realise that many of these > things are probably constrained by volunteer time and resources Indeed, this is a major limitation. >, at the same > time sometimes having ambitious goals can attract resources & volunteer > time.. Maybe ;) Certainly you're welcome to come & help fill holes here :) We have just completed a Strategic Planning process, which is output here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xz8ACUr6aq1yezCpyJRTPaQ6_Rb34fnc54Khburca1U/edit This doesn't mean to say that new things can't be pushed by community members :) > ==Open SAAS== > It looks like Sahana is a bit of FOSS software. This is great but it > severely limits it's appeal in 2014. I think people want a sexy online > platform that's already deployed. Obviously being FOSS it's a great > opportunity to create a permenent SAAS platform of global scope. Is this > something you are planning to do? > (an example of this is https://www.odoo.com/ which used to be Open ERP, they > deployed their software on the internet and made it look nice) It's something that we've discussed for a long time, and would like to do, however we've traditionally thought of this as being like Crowdmap: i.e. we make is easy (even easier) for people to get their own instance running...but they still control it. I have just more recently started looking at trying to build a system to be up permanently which would be run by us and have global scope. The codename for this project is currently 'Magnu'. My initial focus is to deploy a system for the Central African Republic to where I will soon be deployed. During this process, it has reminded me that such a system works best if it is customised to the usecase. CAR's needs aren't the same as everyone else's. We have a very strong ability to customise different instances & we even have experience of a multi-tenanted system (IFRC) where different organisations can see different things...not just data, we have that for sure (realms), and not just modules, which we have via roles, but also within modules, which fields display, how they're labelled, and even what are the busienss rules for defining what an 'Active' volunteer means... What we don't yet have polished (although we started it with EUROSHA) is the ability to have different views depending on which context one is working in...i.e. when I sign-up & say that I am working in CAR then I should get the CAR-specifics. This is currently a secondary priority for me over just getting a system which works for CAR: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/Deployments/CAR To setup our own global-scope SAAS, we first need to define exactly what we are (& hence what we're not) & traditionally this has been *very* difficult for us as we are so many different things to so many different people. This is part of our discussions on '1.0' & 'default template'. What we do currently is we offer personalised support for individual deployments - the most recent example (other than Ebola) is Kashmir where a local group defined their requirements but we have managed the installation/customisation. Of course there is only a limited amount that can be done here on volunteer resources, but it can get a project to the proof of concept point where it can identify if it's viable. NB There will also always be usecases for internal deployments...e.g. LA City's EMD can't use any cloud services...they need to host everything inside their earthquake-proof EOC...luckily we can offer that too (even though most deployments are cloud for obvious reasons) > ==Open Data== > You already leverage the work of OSM and their disaster mapping team. I > think it would be interesting to expose as much of your data as possible > (privacy permitting) via an open API, So that other developers could use > your data. We do have an extensive Open API: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/S3/S3REST/URLFormat We have a strong Import/Export ability including Sync...take a look at those docs if interested. We do have a production deployment for OCHA which is about data, although that's private (mainly due to lack of resources to fund the bandwidth/hosting rather than real content privacy). In our strategic plan, you can see that we plan to setup our own system for raw data....initially just to replace this page: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/GIS/Data This is potentially all that we'll get to for a global deployment...certainly a raw data site is much easier to setup than one which asks people to engage in workflows... I am currently the lead for this strand of the plan...I'm not yet sure whether this will be part of Magnu or a separate thing..we'll see how Magnu evolves... > ==Crowd data== > It seems there is a lot of interest in helping when disasters strike. Could > user generated content be used in your system? You might want to have > authenicated (NGO?) users verify it before it's used operationally. But it > could be worth considering? > EG. > A project to map of all the hospitals in the world: http://healthsites.io/ This is actually where Sahana Eden first started: Crowd sourcing the Organisation Registry & then Hospitals for the Haiti earthquake. This worked very well & our efforts were well-recognised. However we've moved somewhat away from Crowd-sourcing sicne then...it didn't work for Pakistan Floods...partly due to a lack of volunteers. HumanityRoad had a Sahana instance when they first started but they eneded up sticking with spreadsheets...just like HXL has. As you know when I saw healthsites.io my reaction was "Why reinvent the wheel?" It certainly seems like it would be very easy to deliver that using a Sahana template I see our real strength in the Crowd-sourcing arena is at the intersection of the Public & 'Offical' though...we have strong data security so can have some data delivered by & provided to the crowd & yet retain others more securely...with verification as you say...this can then link to workflows...something which is beyond the scope of Ushahidi for instance. > A map of the 2g/3g connectivity in the world: > https://mobiledevelopmentintelligence.com/network_coverage Coverage maps are an area of great interest for me, especially at the moment where my CAR job includes setting up VHF Radio Repeaters for the NGO community, so being able to publish coverage maps would be great. I can generate them using Radio Mobile, although can currently only output BitMaps which have limited usage (I could maybe make a GeoTIFF to serve via GeoServer). > These layers could be imported into your SAAS platform We certainly do a lot of layer aggregation. Either simply Displaying or actual Imports where this is useful. I couldn't actually see any API for the 2G/3G connectivity? (& for CAR they only have a single provider out of the 3 anyway...but still I am keen to get that data visible...it was already on my roadmap :) ) >, individual POI could be verified by trusted users? This is certainly a workflow that we support & advocate to our users, buit not quite something that is live....we do have it for Projects/organisations working in DRR at http://drrprojects.net: Users can add Orgs/Projects but these aren't published until Approved. This stuff has first-class framework support so can easily be applied to any resource. > ==Mobile== > Do you know of http://geoodk.com/ It would allow offline data storage on a > phone, then uploading when connected. GeoODK is new...I saw you add the link to the Wiki. We have an XForms interface to support ODK, although it does need some work. Our Mobile developers are looking at alternate systems currently. Red Cross Honduras want us to fix the ODK support, so it's likely that will happen. > ==SMS Interfaces== > http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/opengeosms I know Slayer et al very well & have been to Taiwan to see the folks. They built us an OpenGeoSMS Android app & we have routines in our Messaging library to encode/decode: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/BluePrint/Messaging/OpenGeoSMS > ==Partnerships== > Some people it might be good to talk to: > This seems like the crucial one to me: > http://www.logcluster.org/logistics-cluster have you had any conversations > with them? They have a load of maps on their site. Perhaps these could be > layers on a Sahana SAAS instance? I already do have some of their Data for CAR ;) There are definitely usecases, like LogShare, where the Logs Cluster would be the best people to engage, but so far we've had little success...part of the problem is that WFP is a huge organisation...we have our champions within it, but there are also people less keen. Actually WFP were our first commercial client, also as part of the Haiti response, and they also sponsored the Philippines deployment with DSWD, so we've had some successes there :) > http://ictemergency.wfp.org/en/web/ictepr/etc/services-usage-policy Also > interesting as responsible for comms in disasters. They have a load of maps > on their site. Perhaps these could be layers on a Sahana SAAS instance? I will be working as part of the ETC team in CAR > Amazon? Digital Ocean? If you are interested in becoming a SAAS it will have > hosting & Scaling challenges. Would Amazon or someone give you free scalable > hosting? We've already talked to Amazon...nothing solid yet....if you have a good contact...? > https://commotionwireless.net/about/ Building mesh networking for the > developing world (working with Serval) > http://www.servalproject.org/ Android mesh networking, integrated with > Commotion. Store & forward message system. I saw you post that on the Wiki...interesting, but at a lower level than Sahana normally works...store & forward suggests we could build a Messaging Channel, much like SMS. Very happy to see a community member do that...feel free to draft a BluePrint: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/BluePrint > http://www.ushahidi.com/ - look to be doing interesting stuff in this area. We have some Ushahidi integration (although it's very much limited by their API & the fact that every deployment has different category<>ID mappings) and they've been very succesful at getting deployments (especially since Crowdmap), although for most of these I think "& so what?" - they're a classic case of measles maps for their own ends ;) http://www.clickhole.com/article/we-put-700-red-dots-map-947 > http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/ Industry promoting GSM. Could > operators provide zero rated access to Sahana platform like Wikipedia Zero? That is very unlikely ;) I do have contacts within GSMA (e.g. through CDAC) & they're certainly up for copoeration, but free access is unlikely to us. More likely for a partner like IFRC... Thanks for your thoughts...hopefully you have a few more pointers to go away & see where you can best gets tuck in :) PS I am also based in UK (Oxfordshire), so not infeasible to meet up in person. Best Wishes, Fran. |