Ushahidi geo-locating service for Haiti Earthquake response

Ushahidi means witness in Swahili.  In 2008, software designers built this open-source product to track elections in Africa and protect civilians by allowing volunteers to report areas of violence so that the population could avoid these areas.   

In January 12, 2010 the Earthquake in Haiti brought a whole new use to this product.  People were trapped and needed a way to ask for help.  In increasing numbers, they turned to their cell phones.  Text messages, Twitter Blogs, Facebook posts….social networks were exploding with requests for help and reports of people in need.  But who would see these messages?  Who would get this information to the rescuers on the ground?  How do you put all this data together? 

Patrick, a Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy PhD student who was involved with the Ushahidi project immediately saw an opporunity to combine the power of the Internet and the the powerful mapping and geo-locating ability of Ushahidi.  The US Government had just declasified and released Global Hawk images that were immediately combined with maps.  10-year old mapping data, Lonely Planet Guide books, OpenStreetMaps (OSM) and Google Images were combined with information from hundreds of student volunteers who scoured the internet for social media and reports. The Haiti diaspora volunteered thousands to help translate Kreole messages into English and provide local knowledge of the land and localisms.  People came together to add software solutions to combine with the human brain power that became the network that was critical in deciphering the bits and pieces of information as people tried to get help to their loved ones.  The Ushahidi Platform system relied heavily on all this information.  Crowd sourcing helped drive reliable twitter reporters to limit the false alarms.  The US Government and other aid agencies then began to rely on the pooled information that Ushahidi was providing.  Several partners on the ground set up a 4636 text number that could gather the messages.  The damage was done in Haiti.  The power of volunteers fought to save lives. 

Through volunteers combing the Internet in a basement cell at Fletcher School, and others spread across the world, information was correlated, confirmed, and then delivered to the rescuers to save lives.  This was the first time this tool was used in this manner.  And the timing was critical.  The UN was completely wiped out, hundreds stationed in Haiti died when one building collapsed.  The experts who would have been relied upon to provide the critical knowledge needed to expedite the relief effort were the ones who needed relief and were not able to help. 

Thanks to Fletcher volunteers, many of those lives were saved.

(c) Dylan Monaghan

Shu & Creams

Don’t let her good looks fool you–Shu is not just the leader of the band, she is also a cream of the crop Electrical Engineer by day who leads a band of talented Aeronautical Engineers in designing and building the latest and greatest avionics for aircraft systems!

Today, Shu & Creams will be performing at “Live Musica 2010″ and they will be er…live… at the “Welcomeback” just a short one minute walk from the Otsuka Train station on the JR line.  Shu & Creams will be the main act following two opening gigs by a couple of other bands.    

Be sure to check them out!  Mar 7, 2010 at the Welcomeback.  Doors open at 1230; the music starts flowing at 1250.  The show will probably be wrapped up around 1600 so don’t be late!

There are 365 days in the year. This translates into just over 52 7-day weeks in a year, or 26 14-day weeks. There are exactly 26 letters in the English alphabet! Coincidence? I think not! So in my calendar, there will be 26 months identified a-z and each month will have 14 days. Military Folks can identify the months with their Alpha-Beta-Charlie identification, Travel agents can name cities and states like Alaska-Berlin-Cairns. And since each month will start on the same day of the week, everyone will always know that the 1st is a Monday. No need to check the calendar to be sure. You would send an e-mail to a friend to meet on Monday Alpha 01 or Monday Alpha 08. No one would ever make a mistake on the day of the week ever again. Easy right? When is my birthday? Tango 03. Would be the same day of the week every year. O.K., someoone is asking about the extra day. What do I plan to do with the extra day?
Easy, that is just an extra Sunday. Leap year? Two extra Sunday’s The Extra days will always be Zulu days. So you could have Zulu 15 or Zulu 16, but they would always be Sundays. So you could have 3 Sundays in a row. But Alpha 01 would always be a Monday.

26 Months in the Year. A simple idea who’s time has come. Remember, you heard it here first!

D

And one of my major complaints about the iPod is the way I get the music into the little box.  In order to play CDs that I own, I must sync my iPod to a single computer, and spend hours ripping the hundreds of CDs into that machine.  Further, if the album is duplicated in the CD database, or if it is stored in a manner that is not to my liking, I have to spend some time editing the entry, genre, album name etc. I just don’t have the desire to spend this kind of time.  I wish someone could just take all of my CDs, put them into a memory storage device, with the album covers, and then send me the whole device.  Ultimately, this device would be portable and plugable.  I should be able to copy these tunes to my car, my home stereo, my office desk, and anywhere else I might want to listen to music.  I don’t want to be tied to an iPod.  I don’t want to carry my iPod. I don’t even want an iPhone.  I want to go as simple as possible…

And while walking around one of the shopping centers in Den Haag, I found a Bang & Olfsen store.  For those of you not familiar with this high-end brand of audio equipment, don’t bother price shopping.  This brand comes up with some of the best fidelity, and truly unique style of music machines.  I loved their vertical CD player. 

I walked into the store and told the salesman what I was looking for.  He walked me right over to the $8,000 digital music system.  I fell in love the instant I heard the concept.  They take my CDs, covert them to a lossless format, upload them to a box, and then give me a stereo system that would meet most of my needs.  Most, but not all.

I found the organization system great.  The concept of matching songs was neat–you pick the first song, the machine picks all other songs that match the beat and style and unending music begins to play in a way you’ve never heard before.

I like this system!  But I want an iPod price…

 D

http://www.bang-olufsen.com/beosound5