Social Media 4 Good » Recommended

Serious game: inside the Haiti earthquake response

Timo — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 09:18:35 +0000

On Wednesday, it will be one year since a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. And while there are a lot of things that can be criticized and should be learned from, I’m afraid that a lot of the criticism will fall short of the mark and instead will be of the “It’s not that difficult. You simply have to …”-kind. In most cases you can’t blame people for that kind of view, though I think you can blame journalists when they are falling into this trap – after all it is their job to try to understand issues.

Doing their homework

One team of journalists who have really made an effort is the team behind “Inside Disaster Haiti”, which will air as of Tuesday in Canada. They had already been in touch with the Canadian Red Cross for a whole year prior to the earthquake, wanting to film a response operation. When the earthquake happened they were able to deploy with some of the first emergency response units and they came back a few times afterwards to film the progress.

Inside Disaster Trailer from PTV Productions on Vimeo.

Serious game gives a glimpse behind the scenes

An offshoot of the film is the “serious game” Inside the Haiti earthquake where anybody can play the role of a survivor, a journalist or an aidworker. It’s done fairly simply: you get shown a scene and then have to pick one of multiple choices, which will influence how the rest of the story progresses. But since it is based on professional-grade documentary material, I think that it actually leaves quite an impression and can help people to get at least a glimpse of the decisions that need to be made at in an operation like this.

I have worked as a journalist for almost ten years and found that part quite realistic. As for the aidworker-scenario: in the beginning I was really upset because their protagonist is someone who spontaneously decides to go to Haiti with some random, donated goods and without any training or useful skills, i.e. exactly the kind of person that most big organizations don’t want to see on the ground. But they actually manage to take this lack of experience and include it as part of the scenario. Which is brilliant because, after all, the people playing the game will have no experience.

And while it isn’t trying to give you an in-depth perspective by any means, I still think that it might open some people’s eyes to the complexities of the work. So, all in all, a big “thumps up” from me:

Check it out and play “Inside disaster the Haiti earthquake”.

No related posts.

My new best friend: pocket-sized wireless router

Timo — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:00:53 +0000

I’m probably the last person who doesn’t have an iPhone or Android phone yet – and I also want to keep it that way. At the same time I have to admit that I was always a bit jealous of the ability to quickly look stuff up on the web. After all, I already have a number of web-enabled devices.

True, there are USB stick that you can use to connect your laptop to the web, but to me that always felt like a crutch . Then, the other day, I discovered what I had been looking for all the time: a wireless router that is small enough to fit into a pocket. And I love it!

Connects up to five devices

Fit's in the palm of my hand - the Hauwei E5 wireless router.

It’s called “Huawei E5” (marketing clearly had no say in this) and I bought it through my local mobile phone provide for 120 Euros. In addition you need a SIM card and obviously some kind of data-plan.

What I like about it is that it is not SIM-locked so I can easily switch this SIM card for another if I’m abroad.

I can connect up to five devices to it, which is great if you are meeting for an impromptu work-session with someone in a cafe where there is no wifi.

The maximum download speed is 7.2 MBit but that depends on what kind of wireless signal you have at your location. If HSUPA or 3G is not available, it’ll switch to whatever speed is. I tried it while being in the train and it was still good enough to browse the web (slowly) and send or receive emails.

Meager battery life

The only negative thing I can say about it is that battery life is not great. It’s only good for about four hours. Considering that it’s basically just a small transmitter the batter life should be much better than that. But it charges through USB and wall socket so it’s not a huge issue.

I’ve had it for around for about a week now – always in my carrier bag – and I think it’s great. In Germany O2 is selling it, but you can fit any SIM card into it so there is no reason to be tied to a specific provider.

No related posts.

Haiti – six months after the earthquake

Timo — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:00:08 +0000

I have been meaning to update this blog far more often while in Haiti, but between working seven days a week and sleeping, there is simply no time.

I have spoken an emailed to a lot of journalists over the past couple of weeks and now that the “6 months after”-stories are being published, it is starting to pay off. In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes that international organizations make is not taking enough time to explain to journalists why thing are complicated and take a long time.

I find it absolutely astonishing that I’m the only dedicated communications officer within the whole cluster system that coordinates the response to the earthquake for the UN, NGOs and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. And of course, I only speak for the Shelter Cluster, meaning that the 11 other clusters have no dedicated resources for communications at all! No wonder many of them feel misunderstood.

Recommended reading

The best piece I read over the last few days is the the front-page story of the today’s New York Times. This also proves that it pays off to have media that invest time and money. Deborah Sontag was in Haiti multiple times and spent a lot of time researching her article and talking to people. So, if you want to know what it’s like in Haiti, six months after the earthquake, read:

In Haiti, the Displaced Are Left Clinging to the Edge

No related posts.

Good intentions are not enough

Timo — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:00:07 +0000

I’m currently meeting loads of really interesting people. One of them is the author of the blog “Good Intentions are Not Enough“, subtitle “an honest conversation about the impact of aid.” I think it’s great and I think we need more blogs like this. Not only to make agencies accountable but also to educate individual donors about why certain things are just really, really bad ideas and why some well-meant initiatives can actually cause harm.

Check it out: http://goodintents.org/blog

No related posts.

Haiti: behind the scenes of an earthquake relief operation

Timo — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:00:37 +0000

Wired magazine just published an excellent article about the Red Cross Red Crescent relief operation in Haiti: “Organizing Armageddon: What we learned from the Haiti earthquake.” In the paper edition Vince Beiser takes 13 pages to describe what is needed to manage a major relief operation. It is an extremely well-balanced and well-informed piece. Vince was in Haiti just after the earthquake and saw everything first hand.

Criticizing the right things

On the destroyed streets of downtown Port-au-Prince. Photo: Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross. (p-HTI0383)

The article does not shy away from criticism. But it is criticism that I find fair and appropriate. Vince took the time to find out why certain things don’t work and Wired gave him the space to explain it. I wish we would see more articles like this. Disaster relief is extremely complex and these complexities cannot easily be reduced to three paragraphs, a two minute YouTube video or 140 characters.

Knowing how hard the international and local staff and volunteers have been working since January, I often can’t help but feel protective about them.

Everybody is a disaster manager

However, in most cases it is not the criticism that I mind. What I have a problem with is most of the time the people who do the criticizing don’t take the time to try to understand the issues before launching into a tirade of condemnation.

In the same way, that everybody is a football coach during the world cup, it seems like suddenly everybody is a disaster manager.

For everyone who is prepared to invest 30 minutes of his time to get a good, basic understanding of the problems and solutions that all aid agencies face in Haiti, I recommend that you buy the magazine or read the story online.

No related posts.

Social media case studies for non-profit organizations

Timo — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:30:59 +0000

I find it’s pretty rare that you come across good, fresh case studies of how non-profit organizations are using social media. And I’m not talking about “we use Facebook, too.” I mean something that shows how an NGO actually managed to get a concrete, measurable result with the help of social media.

“10 tactics for turning information into action” from Tactical Tech is such a rare example. 10 tactics is first and foremost a one hour long movie, but it’s also (watch out, here comes a buzzword) a toolkit. But in this case the name “toolkit” is actually justified. The DVD arrives with a set of cards that summarize the examples from the movie, give links to further resources and try to point you in the right direction in case you’d like to try this particular tactic yourself. The cards are also included on the DVD as PDFs.

10 tactics focuses on human rights, but a lot of the techniques can be applied in other contexts as well.

So, why don’t you get a few colleagues from your office and few more from friendly organizations close to you together and host a screening? It’s good fun, the examples are well researched and presented and it gives you a chance to look beyond what you are familiar with. And best of all, all materials are free (so far)! Check it out: http://www.informationactivism.org/

10 tactics for turning information into action (Trailer) from Tactical Technology Collective on Vimeo.

No related posts.