Recovery 2.0 Fiddles While Kashmir Burns: "We Don't Have the Tools" is OUT as an Excuse (Reprise)

Friend Neville Hobson urges us to Help Victims of Pakistan Earthquake. With a death toll climbing north of 20,000, the October 2005 Kashmir Earthquake knocks the entire Atlantic Hurricane season into the corner.

After the earthquake & tsunami last year, the SEA-EAT blog/wiki project -- an entirely grassroots effort --  organized and swung into action within hours. After hearing Dina Mehta describe the effort at Reboot, I wrote about it, saying "We Don't Have the Tools is NOT an Excuse".

Just as they did in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (my post here), many of the same team spontaneously assembled behind the South Asia Quake Help effort within hours of the quake:  ("News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts after the South Asia Earthquake of October 8th, 2005.")

And are doing an outstanding job. You can volunteer, by the way.

These three efforts in nine months point, unfortunately, to the sluggishness and bureaucracy already clogging the arteries of Jeff Jarvis' Recovery 2.0 effort, which is aimed at doing what the SEA-EAT team already does far better.  After weeks of talking about it, Jarvis managed to convene a meeting to talk about the project. The results of this meeting?

* We need to work on standards and APIs for the tools and data bases people create to help in disasters. The peoplefinder standard is already underway and some of the folks from Yahoo at the meeting — who had experience on the ground in Houston and also at the Red Cross network operations center — are working on improvements. At a minimum, we need to do a better job harnessing the internet to help people find each other.

* We need to meet face-to-face with government, NGOs, and business to offer help and coordinate. There is a meeting in Washington on Oct. 17 about just that.

In the meantime, the Kashmir was being leveled by an earthquake, and the South Asia Quake Help team organized itself and got to work. No meetings, no discussions of software options, no meetings in Washington.

Jeff Jarvis: You have great influence; the members of your group have great influence. Instead of reinventing the wheel, why not use your influence to push funds and volunteers into the group behind SEA-EAT, Katrina Help, and South Asia Quake Help? The money your group has spent on travel alone -- just on the BART -- could fund any of these efforts.

How about it?

Technorati tags: Recovery 2.0Recovery2.0 pakistan+earthquake

Posted by Allan Jenkins on October 11, 2005 at 10:52 AM in Citizen Journalism, Current Affairs, Katrina, Online Media, Pakistan Earthquake, Smart Communities, Society, Tsunami | Permalink

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Sometimes its boggling how misunderstanding a project can lead to more heat than light. A good case in point a post by Allan Jenkins. Ive already commented on Mr. Jenkins blog, but on reflection he deserves a more complete answer... [Read More]

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Comments

Golly, Allan - we've had a link to the quakehelp blog up since the 9th, and also to the Pakistan Quake wiki since early this morning.

Did you check the main page at Recovery 2.0 before you posted?

Aside from that, what we're trying to do is build a clearinghouse for reusable tools and standards, so that it's not a one-off kind of response. Not the same thing as the projects you mention, but a way of linking tools, groups, and people TO those projects.

Posted by: Greg Burton | Oct 11, 2005 9:16:31 PM

Golly, Greg, I sure did! You linked on the 9th, and on the 10th had the head-slapping insight to put the link at the top of the page, not buried below meeting minutes.

Recovery 2.0 is a noble idea, and I am sure everyone associated with it is doing their best.

My point is that your goals (use the internet to better share information,report and act on calls for help, coordinate relief, connect the missing, provide connections for such necessities as housing and jobs, match charitable assets to needs,get people connected to these projects - and the world - sooner) are being reached already by better organized (and I suspect less ego-driven) groups.

Why not turn your energies to moving them forward, rather than simply trying to copy what they already do very well?

Posted by: Allan Jenkins | Oct 12, 2005 6:10:52 AM

Allan, thanks much for the support for our efforts. This time i havent been able to blog much at my personal blog about these efforts since it is temporarily down.

Still, we've got our 'template' and 'network', and we self-organise. We are now working on ways to work closer with efforts on the ground - and cracking communications is a part of that effort. We also need volunteers to mine the Asia Quake blog and structure, seed and weed the wiki.

Would be glad to talk to the Recovery 2.0 team - there are several of us who they could contact, and any or all would be able to work with them, so long as we don't get bogged down by redtape and we take this to a global stage. Angelo Embuldeniya, Bala Pitchandi, Rudi Cilibrasi, Constantin, Peter Griffin, Neha Vishwanathan, are just some of the folks who are the movers and shakers behind these three efforts.

Posted by: Dina Mehta | Oct 12, 2005 8:22:04 AM

Ahem. I just found you on technorati. I am on the Quake Help Blog, though my contribution is small. I'm also part of Recovery 2.0, though again, my contribution is small. If memory serves, I am, in fact, the person who originally posted the link on Recovery 2.0. I apologize for putting it below the meeting minutes, I just put it there as soon as I got the announcement/invitation from Amit Varma of India Uncut. Greg fixed it. Tarring dozens and dozens of people working on Recovery 2.0 for my rookie mistake seems a bit harsh.

I also think I was a significant part of the East Bay contingent--that is, the contingent for whom your BART fare comment would be relevant. I happened to already be in the city, and my friend whom we drove home did, in fact, spend some money on BART, and would, I'm sure, disagree with your contention that his money was misspent. He works in disaster preparation and disaster relief day in and day out, and I think he was pleased to connect to technologists interested in making a somewhat longer term, preparatory commitment to disaster mitigation. Moreover we've contributed to the quake relief effort above and beyond BART fare.

The two efforts are not hurting each other in any way, nor are they mutually exclusive. They are simply different. When you build a city, you must first build a few houses right now so you don't freeze. That doesn't mean you never take a little time each day to collect resources and draw plans for the hospital and the library. I see Recovery 2.0 as somewhat longer term, somewhat more involved effort that is not reacting to any specific disaster but trying to create a general and robust toolkit which is motivated by and mindful of disaster. It is somewhat akin to the scientists who, while fighting World War II, kept peace time applications of their work alive in the back of their minds and in the quiet moments of lunch and coffee. We are best living our lives two ways at once--as if we might die tomorrow, and as if we might live forever.

I am sure that your diatribe was inspired by justified frustration at the horror in Kashmir. I appreciate your linking to the QuakeHelp Blog. I appreciate your insistence that things get done ASAP. It's a very necessary passion. But please don't lose sight of the long term, or even the medium term. And, I humbly request, please don't accidentally crush enthusiasm and vision by carelessly dismissing it as "fiddling." You're clearly an important, interesting, connected innovator and writer, and I would much prefer to recruit your enthusiasm than defend agaist your ire. Please reconsider your opinion.

Thanks,
Saheli

Posted by: Saheli | Oct 21, 2005 6:20:11 AM

Save lives by urging media to provide coverage for earthquake in South Asia

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/448983019

This petition is to urge the major media outlets around the world to provide coverage for the earthquake in South Asia. With 3 million homeless and more than 75,000 injured in hard-to-reach area, this is the biggest relief operation the modern world has ever seen but has been completely ignored in the media. With a harsh winter approaching, time is running out for the survivors. The media must play its role by providing extensive coverage of this tragedy.

Thank you!

Posted by: Ali | Oct 29, 2005 10:15:18 AM

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