Technology: Tools For Volunteers

Through my work at Idealist.org and FROG, I’m ever fascinated with mass communication technologies that allow communities to work together to quickly coordinate action and respond collectively in a crisis.

Thoughts of using these technologies for organizing as a Peace Corps volunteer had hardly crossed my mind. By my close-of-service in 2005, tools like InSTEDD, Ushahidi, FrontlineSMS and OpenStreetMap were mostly outlines on someone’s scratch pad.

In the four years since I left the service technology has changed significantly and while internet access is still a luxury in much of the developing world, cellphones with access to SMS have proliferated globally. Tools such as FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi, are leveraging cellphones to greatly impact emergency response strategies in a number of developing countries.

I realize Peace Corps has a lot to straighten out policy-wise, but knowledge of these technologies on the part of a volunteer and implementation by an NGO or local government, communities can prepare for an emergency and respond effectively.

In January of 2005, flooding incapacitated a densely inhabitated section of the Guyanese coast. While radio and television are effective tools for communicating with the public, most folks quickly grab their cellphones and wallet and head out the door in emergency situations; coordinated SMS and mapping technologies would have greatly helped during the crisis.

Let’s take a look at the tools I mentioned above.

InSTEDD combines cell phones and the internet to “communicate, share and analyze information more seamlessly, make better decisions, and take more effective action in the face of a public health threat or natural disaster.”

Ushahidi is a “simple website mashup, using user-generated reports and Google Maps, created to gather citizen generated crisis information after the post-election violence in Kenya.” Some of their past work -

Kenya: The initial mashup, used to track reports of incidents of violence around Kenya.
South Africa: Used to map xenophobic attacks perpetrated against non-South Africans.
Vote Report India is a collaborative citizen-driven election monitoring platform for the 2009 Indian general elections.

FrontlineSMS is “free software that turns a laptop and a mobile phone into a central communications hub. Once installed, the program enables users to send and receive text messages with large groups of people through mobile phones.” Some uses for FrontlineSMS -

Human rights monitoring
Disaster relief coordination
Natural resource management
Emergency alerts
Field data collection
Health care info requests
Agricultural price updates
Mobile education programs
Coordinating fundraising efforts
Providing weather updates

OpenStreetMap “creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.” Check out the list of projects that use OpenStreetMap.

By sstadum in Peace Corps on April 16, 2009