How are Wikipedia/Wikimedia volunteers supporting disaster management? What role does their engagement all around open source and open data play? What are the latest developments and innovations in humanitarian contexts and how are they defined and addressed?
These questions were discussed in the first block of the Disaster 2.0 seminar last week. Daniel Mietchen, Biophysicist at the University of Virgina and active Wikimedia supporter, provided an overview of developments in data sharing in regard to public health emergencies over the last decades and provided insights into current trends and practice. Learn more about his work and his presentation here.
We already organized a joined workshop with Daniel in March where potential ways to integrate Wiki and OSM contributions and facilitate further exchange of the communities in disaster and humanitarian activities were discussed. These efforts will also be introduced and shared with the wider OSM community at the upcoming State of the Map conference in Milan.
Pete Masters, previous Missing Maps coordinator for MSF and now Medical Innovation Adviser for MSF, furthermore joined the seminar remotely and shared insights into latest projects, challenges and approaches of the innovation. What, where, who and how? And also, how can we from Heidelberg support these efforts?
A big thank you to our presenters and also the seminar attendees for great discussions and exchange! We are going into the next seminar round tomorrow and are very looking forward to taking these discussions further.