Today a guest post of mine appeared on “Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like”. It’s something I wrote a while ago while still in Liberia and cursing the lack of bandwidth more than once per day. You can read the whole post about the importance of having internet access on SEAWL.
New project: Social Media in Emergencies Guidelines
On January - 5 - 2012
2 Comments
Two weeks ago I left Liberia and moved back to Germany. My next project: developing “Social Media in Emergencies Guidelines” for a UN agency. It’s a project I’m really looking forward to, particularly since the focus is not fundraising but on story telling, advocacy and outreach.
Use of technology in the 2011 elections in Liberia
On January - 2 - 2012
0 Comment
I just noticed a post on Mobileactive.org on how technology was used by different organizations to follow the 2011 presidential elections in Liberia. The article focuses on the differences between election monitoring and crowd sourcing and also give some insights in the specific challenges that the organizers were faced with in Liberia. It’s worth reading: Technology in the 2011 Liberian elections: mobiles, monitoring and mapping
From collaborative “crisis mapping” to “crisis feeding”
On November - 29 - 2011
0 Comment
As many of you know, I’m quite critical when it comes to how to the impressive information gathering possibilities of crisis mapping tools turn into actionable information for responders. On LinkedIn someone shared a video with me today where Ushahidi’s Patrick Meier addresses some of these concerns.
Gun trafficking for good?
On November - 27 - 2011
0 Comment
Last week the newsletter from Good.is contained an article titled: “Gun Trafficking for Good: How to Get AK-47s Out of Africa”. The idea is to turn AK-47s into cufflinks, earring and other jewellery. I have a few problems with this concept.
Rollercoaster ride to repatriation: why “restoring family links” is so rewarding
On November - 20 - 2011
2 Comments
The last three weeks were a mix of very intense ups and downs that left me frequently frustrated, sleepless and banging my head against a table, but ultimately gave me a sense of satisfaction that cannot be found in many other jobs: the knowledge that I had a very real, positive impact on the lives of people – and not just of an anonymous group of beneficiaries, but individuals whose names and histories I know.
Lack of communication fuels panic during riot
On November - 13 - 2011
0 Comment
Those of you who follow the elections in Liberia have probably heard about the violent incident that took place in Monrovia last Monday. A local paper has an interesting article on how the simultaneous outage of one of Liberia’s two mobile phone networks affected people who were close to the riot.
Liberia: Eggs from India
On November - 8 - 2011
0 Comment
I have written about the logistical challenges in Liberia before, however I was not ready for what I found out today. It turns out that the eggs we buy in Sanniquellie are not from here (no big surprise there) or even from Liberia (surprising) but are imported from India (very big surprise)!
