Conflict Early Warning and Crisis Mapping
03:03, 8 January 2009
.. Posted in techculture and tech to help.. Link
Using a map to track information about anything -- maternal death rates, water quality, incidents of graffiti, permeation of schools, whatever -- creates a powerful communication tool. It's a visual representation of statistics and it's much harder to dismiss than a press release or series of statements.
With that in mind, there is growing interest in crisis mapping initiatives, which use information communication technology (ICT) to create maps that can serve as early warning systems to prevent mass atrocities, mitigate the effects of natural disasters, strengthen international aid agency coordination, improve resource allocation, develop timely policy, and help evaluate current humanitarian practices. One of these initiatives is the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), which I learned about via the online discussion group humanitarian-ict. HHI is working to catalyze a discussion between disparate groups of experts, within and external to Harvard University, in a sustained forum that will culminate refine tools and promote best practices to save lives. Their web site on Conflict Early Warning and Crisis Mapping links to several operational conflict prevention projects and lists some of the major players in this program area.
Technology is only part of the equation, of course; even more important is ways to gather reliable information for such an online system. Hope as much time is being spent on that component as the technology.
