Digital Volunteerism and Multi-Sector Collaboration
Melanie Gorka, Heather Leson, Christine Crowley and Brian Chick will give an introduction to volunteer technical communities who have partnered with international NGO's, the UN, the World Bank and crisis response organizations and have leveraged the power of crowd-sourcing in times of need.
Thousands of digital volunteers have been utilized after disasters in Haiti and Chile, and more recently in New Zealand and Japan. Participants collaborate within a number of volunteer technical communities including: CrisisCommons (CrisisCamp), Crisismappers, Ushahidi and Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK). We will present stories of global crowdsourcing, mapping and hackathons.
People and communities innovate for crisis response and global development through technology tools, expertise and problem solving. The various groups collaborate in an open environment to aggregate crisis data, map situational awareness, develop prototype tools, run hackathons for social good and train people on how to use technology tools in new and inspiring ways.. Each of us build partnerships with government organizations on how to use crowdsourcing and digital volunteerism in emergency preparedness.
This panel will discuss the future of digital volunteerism in Canada and around the world and the way in which these tools can be used for social good in collaboration with local, federal and provincial governments.
