Assigned Blog #5

Last week we listened to a speaker via teleconference and his name was Gisli Olanffson.  He is the Director of Emergency Management for NetHope and he spoke about the technologies used for emergency response.  He mentioned a few books and frequently references them throughout his presentation.  He also mentioned a book that I was specifically interested in, Wikinomics.  He said the book goes into great detail about how most of the humanitarian organizations were established during the industrial era.  He said that it is time for the older people (like him) to stop ignoring the new social technologies and take advantage them.  These new technologies can be used to modernize response efforts for disasters and crisis.  Mr. Olanffson also said the Wikinomics went into detail about “clusters.”  The book described a cluster model as begin basically different groups that want to help during disasters; groups that provided medical, construction, food supplies, etc.  The problem is there used to be six or seven health organizations that wanted to help and currently there are nearly six hundred of these groups that are offering their help.  The book stated that they need to “cluster” these groups and organizations together to provide a more efficient response.

Most of the presentation was Mr. Olanffson speaking about seven key terms. This first term was innovation and he explained how we need to have new innovated ways to respond to disasters.  Today, we are still using the old ways to respond to disasters and it is important that we explore new technological methods.  One of his examples was about his recent trip to Kenya were 63 percent of the population owned or used mobile phones.  The Kenyans get their food with paper vouchers that cost about $1.60 to print and Mr. Olanffson said they could get rid of the vouchers and use new mobile techniques and it would only cost 6 cents. 

His next key term was collaboration, which isn’t happening between humanitarian organizations and instead is causing disorganization and ciaos during responses.  It is a shame that these humanitarian organizations spend more time fighting for publicity on media networks when they should be spending time helping those who are in need.  It’s a shame these organizations are battling each other while people are suffering.  Openness was the next term Mr. Olanffson described and he stated that “the best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness…”.  I think he does a good job summarizing the terms openness collaboration.  Organizations should be open with each other and share information in order to provide the most efficient response to people in need. 

He also talked about interdependence and had a good suggestion about the clusters of organizations helping.  He said instead of sending separate specialized clusters all over, only one organization should cover a geographical area and then be held accountable for every need in that area.  Integrity was another important term Mr. Olanffson spoke about.  He said it is about doing the right thing when nobody is looking.  So, instead of the humanitarian organizations fighting for publicity when the cameras are around, they should be helping people.  Integrity would be helping people even when the camera isn’t rolling.

Last but not least, he spoke about sustainability.  He compared putting a band aid on a child to managing disasters; if you don’t educate the child on why they got hurt or how to prevent it, it is likely they will continuously need the band aid.  Much like a disaster or crises, if you don’t educate the people who were affected, it is likely you will have to go back and help them again. So, we need to spend time educating people after the fact, after the disaster.