View source for More about Sandy Response, and also cool presentation tools

facilitated by Willow Brugh

http://prezi.com/0tky5lswrnbn/fema-field-innovation-team/

==About Geeks Without Bounds==

* Geeks Without Bounds links makers and hackers to humanitarian organizations. http://gwob.org/about
* It is not their policy to deploy employees and members directly to disasters, but some members do so on their own.

==The GWOB Response to Sandy==

* Willow is one of these members who chose to go, and volunteered with the FEMA Innovation Team.
* She was there with people from Health and Human Services, Burning Man infrastructure, along with Department of Homeland Security search and rescue and military assistance.
* GWOB tends to think of the affected population as the "end users", as opposed to traditional response, which views the first responders as the end users.
* FEMA has tons of oversight and is therefore clumsy.
* Community resiliency = better connections with neighbors!
* Putting people in weird, formal situations where they are required to stand in long lines = confusion.

==After Sandy==

* Channels of communication were limited - in some places, cables were physically severed in the storm.
* Many gas pipes were also busted, so people were without gas, electricity, phone, internet, t.v., etc.
* People flock to success, which can actually result in too many people and resources in one place!
* Once a response site is up and running smoothly, send successful people from that site to get a new site running somewhere else (coms, dispatchers, etc.)
* Google docs were an essential tool.

==Rules of thumb learned from the response==
# People need predictability.
# Bring stuff to people, not people to stuff.
# Manage volunteers well. Know what is needed FIRST. Vet the volunteers first, then put them to work.
# The best and easiest online donation management tool was the Amazon wedding registry to keep track of needs and then be able to ship donations where needed. You "need a header file" for people and objects.

==Volunteer cycle==
* Hear about response!
* Go somewhere!
* Get assigned!

==What can go wrong in the cycle==
* A volunteer gets bum advice and gets misassigned.
* A volunteer is otherwise confused about where they are supposed to go.
** The task may already be complete, so they get pulled into a different set of efforts
* After too many cycles of confusion, they burn out.

==How to prevent burnout==
* Celebrate the hodgepodge nature of civil defense work!
* Get good report backs from the people you've assigned work to.
* Help everyone stay involved!
* Celebrate the work of people, involve them in the celebration

=How did Occupy Sandy come about?=
* Started on googledocs and Interoccupy
* Based on the idea that Occupy is mutual aid, not just protests!
* More a hippie feeling than the "black block hard heads".
* They were able to mobilize more quickly than many other groups due to extensive experience in person-to-person interaction.
* Faith-based orgs came later in some places, but fit in well.

=Preparing for the next storm=

* Relationships with other NGOs are already in place for the next disaster!
* The next disaster, they will be more ready to respond.
* Moving from Word docs, Excel, pivot tables, etc., to [http://sahanafoundation.org Sahana], open source disaster response software.
* Open sharing standards are needed so that different tools can be integrated and interact with each other.
* The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) has started using HXL, a humanitarian markup language! There have been hackathons done on improving this language, and there is so much interest that it will be run into the ground (in a good way)!
* Normally, people wait for the International Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) or the International Organization of Standards (ISO) to set the standards.
* However, in order to have agility, you need to be able to make up standards as you go!
* Now is "ramp up time". Activists need to be planning ahead right now for the next storm or other disaster.
* Scenario planning is happening at Camp Roberts Relief with support from STAR-TIDES at National Defense University.
** It's like a trade show for defense people to practice disaster relief. But without the trade (no sales allowed).
** They are now bringing in civilians and ad hoc groups as well.
* Other crisis camps can also give you the chance to practice for disaster before it hits.
** Pitch it as zombie planning!
** Great place to get new ideas and information
* Special hardware needed in a disaster:
** Pirate Box
** Chargers
** Backup drives
** MOSH networks
** ASYNC networks

=What place does activism have in disaster response?=
* This is the big, main, essential question!!!
* Sometimes there is conflict between full-time pros and the occasional support people.
* An analogy of why both are needed is a professional vs. volunteer fire department.
* Don't replicate bad social relationships.

==Where activists fit in==
* Ad hoc groups don't wait - they get there first.
* They focus on helping the poor, not just the suburbs.
* They fill in the gaps and deficiencies of government, military, and big NGO groups.
* ''Make your activist tools capable of asynronous interactions and they'll work in disaster situations, too.'' Great opportunity to get more people on your platform. 

==Examples of activist achievements==

* National Guard and Occupy working together
* Voter engagement concurrent with community and disaster response!
* Getting info to "low-info" folks (important caveat, make sure you are receiving good information as well as transmitting it)

==Why government and NGO response isn't enough==

* Since FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, it got fucked up under Bush.
* Things like evacuation can't move quickly enough in a "top down" structure. Technically agile activists can get it done much faster.
* In big NGOs, the top and bottom of the org is usually filled with good, hardworking people, but the middle management gets in the way.
* It's good to come at a disaster with different languages, world views, etc., since the victims will be a cross section of cultures.

==Helping people transmit info==

* Good design and infographics are essential to help people understand maps and charts.
* On crisis maps, people need to know:
** Where to get water and food
** Where to charge their phones or other essential electronics
** Where they can upload their own info
* ASYNC transmission is very helpful on temporary networks.

=More about Willow=

* College transhumanist
* She "got tired of white privileged white kids sitting around talking about a future, so got involved with maker spaces so it was privileged white kids '''building''' a future."
* Has been involved with Occupy, women's groups, etc.
* Involved in Space Federation (http://schoolfactory.org/spacefed), a hacker-maker coalition dealing with finances, law, zoning, etc.
* Then joined Geeks Without Bounds (http://gwob.org)
* Main skill set is organizing, facilitating, and public speaking.