From: Alan Babcock <[email protected]> SXSW ECo needs help to design this year’s element of the NGO Toolkit. While we encourage you or your organization to attend in person, we are well aware of budget and logistical challenges. Therefore we are inviting you to sign up and participate through the Google Hangout we are setting up to facilitate wide stakeholder input. For more details, please contact the team below.
*SXSW Eco NGO Toolkit* The SXSW Eco NGO Toolkit is a new project that brings together a diverse working group of engineers, software programmers, M&E specialists, donors and other stakeholders to design and build usable tools for NGO field practitioners. All tools built as a part of the SXSW Eco NGO Toolkit will be opensourced to ensure universal access. *Open Source** **Crisis Response App*** Challenge: When crisis strikes, emergency responders are deployed to the affected area. During this time, the most difficult obstacle is to determine who is affected, and where they are. Without this information, the relief workers, donors, governments, etc. do not have the capacity or the ability to fully understand what people need, or how to get it to them. This app will help us to understand how and where to start when something terrible happens. The Crisis Response App will then remain useful after the emergency response phase, and into the development phase. One of the most important elements is to use the GPS function(s) in the phone/tablets to upload to crowd source maps! *Basic Format of The Crisis Response App:*** This app will be configured with the general data points required in all emergency response situations, as well as an additional set of data points that can be configured to address specific situations. These may include: Name, Age, Gender, Place of Origin, client/individual ID (ie photo, thumbprint, etc), as well as for the client’s family members. There are many additional data points that are to be determined by the SXSW Eco NGO Toolkit working group (ie medical data, income level, education level) that will be built into the app so as to ensure maximum configurability and utility in a wide variety of situations. The Crisis Response App will include the ability to link to the camera (still/video), gps and time/date stamp of the phone/tablet, as well as algorithms to compare signatures, photos, fingerprints and other identifying data to ensure non-duplication of registrants and verifiability during distributions. The app will be initially released into the Official UN Languages which are Arabic Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian and Spanish, with localizations to follow One of the most important features will be the ability to export collected data in multiple formats to ensure that data can be uploaded into any applicable database This app will be built with future capabilities in mind (i.e., a way to export the data from an individual device to a safe database [ability to connect to a satellite phone], multi-layer encryption, fingerprint/signature reader/scanner [hardware]). The Crisis Response App is to be released under the General Public License (GPL) to ensure open-source integrity, which will avoid both ownership and exclusion challenges, while promoting the potential for universal access to this tool. *Who is at the table?*** • App writers/software developers • Monitoring and evaluation experts (likely academic) • NGO Field Practitioners (possibly via Skype or Google Hangout) • Donors (if possible - both new and traditional donor models) • Hardware developers (if deemed necessary) • Students from local universities (to challenge traditional thinking), including the University of Texas, St Edwards University, Texas State University, Huston-Tillotson and Austin Community College • NGO Board Members (if possible) • Coordinator/follow up(possibly R&D from Google, Apple, etc) For more information, please visit us at sxsweco.com. If you have any additional question, please contact: Chris Sonnier ([email protected]) Leslie Uppinghouse ([email protected]) Carolyn Harrold ([email protected]) [email protected]
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