I wasn’t able to make to this week’s class and hear this week’s speaker. So, I decided to blog about what I have read about Edward Granger-Happ and his work. I learned that Mr. Edward Happ is the Global CEO for the Red Cross humanitarian organization. Mr. Edward Happ also is also working with Red Crescent Societies. He has recently helped with humanitarian needs in Haiti. All-together he has over thirty-plus years of professional experience.
From what I have read about in the class blogs, it sounds like Mr. Happ spoke about humanitarian organizations needing invest in more up-to-date technologies, much like the majority of the rest of our speakers. Thus far, all of our speakers have said that humanitarian organizations are lacking in communication technologies. It is difficult for organizations to know who needs help, where they need help, and what exactly they need help with during a disaster. Some people think Facebook and Twitter would be a great resource to allow people call out for help. This might not be such a great idea using these social networks. Like we discussed in the class a couple of times, there are always people who will falsify information to get what they want. For example; if someone’s house is destroyed and they think one of their family members are trapped inside, they could tweet their location and that they have a family member trapped inside, even though they aren’t really sure if anyone is actually trapped inside. If everyone is tweeting they need help, it is almost impossible for the responders to decide who actually needs the help and who is falsifying information. I feel like this type of example is a situation that would automatically rule out using social networks for people to call out for help.
On the other hand, these types of social networks could be used for humanitarian organizations to “check-in” to places. When an organization like NetHope is in a disaster location trying to coordinate response efforts, they tends to be so many organizations in the area trying to help that it seems to be nearly impossible for organization like NetHope to coordinate who is where and what they are doing. With social networks like twitter and facebook, the organization would be able to “check-in” where they are at and what they are doing. This would make NetHope or anybody who is coordinating response efforts jobs a lot easier. I feel like I got a little off topic about Mr. Happ but I think it is important to know and understand that there are technologies they may or may not be out there that could significantly help the humanitarian organization in their response efforts. I think the biggest problems are how can people call out for help when during a crisis or disaster? Do you think twitter and Facebook are an efficient source for people to call for help, or do you agree is seems nearly impossible to determine who would actually needs help and who is “crying wolf?”
I enjoyed watching some of the videos of Mr. Happ's channel on youtube. Below is the link.
Hey Zack,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the videos you posted from Mr. Happ’s YouTube channel, and I also thought that you hit Mr. Happ’s general message to the class dead on. During class he definitely spoke about how NGOs need to start adapting new technologies into every day uses, and how it would be extremely beneficial to multiple NGOs including the Red Cross and the U.N. He used the example of the United Nations getting a Facebook page; it took them two years of debating back and forth to decide on finally getting a Facebook page. In contrast, when individuals decide to make a Facebook page it generally takes about twenty seconds of back and forth debate to decide to make one or not. I agree with you, our speakers have all said thus far that more communication technologies need to be invented and implemented if they already exist; which also presents many problems in and of itself. Overall, I thought that your blog was great, and it did mention various points that Mr. Happ pointed out in class. To answer your question though, I don’t think that social media would be an efficient source for people who want to seek help.