NSL Blog

Crowd aid exchange, peer to peer crisis innovation

February 26, 2013

Last week I popped into the Humanitarian Centre in Cambridge part of the Cambridge University to meet Richard Dent who is working on what I think is an exciting and important project. Being part of the advisory board at Ushahidi, I was very interested in what Richard was up to. Ushahidi is a case study in No Straight Lines.

We had a long conversation about the hows and the whys, and the design of this innovative platform.

Richard explains in his post Introducing Crowd Aid Exchange

Recent climate change models predict an increase in extreme weather events. Governments and NGOs around the world face mounting pressure to provide disaster relief to many vulnerable communities. Events in the USA, like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, have shown that emergency services don’t have the capacity to reach everyone in need. In developing countries like Haiti the situation is even more desperate. How can mobile network technology and social networking help isolated people?

Crowd mapping platforms such as Ushahidi and social media sites like Twitter are already being used by thousands of people during disasters. Inspired by these applications, Crowd Aid Exchange is part of a long-term vision to create an international humanitarian project that uses the full potential of social networking and mobile technology.

Crowd Aid Exchange is a peer to peer social networking application that is customised to safely connect people to each other during and after disasters. This enables individuals to share resources, find lost people and stay updated on the most critical information from response teams. Crowd Aid Exchange has a number of features that increase chances of surviving and rebuilding after disasters.

Well worth a read if you interested in innovation, and innovation in crisis management.