Developers Harness Technology to Tackle Global Emergencies

Communities
of
developers
are
increasingly
leveraging
technology
to
address
critical
global
emergencies,
ranging
from
wildfires
to
refugee
crises,
according
to

The
GitHub
Blog.

Watch
Duty:
Real-Time
Wildfire
Alerts

One
significant
initiative
making
waves
is
Watch
Duty,
co-founded
by
John
Mills.
This
community-led
organization
provides
real-time
alerts
for
wildfires,
often
ahead
of
traditional
emergency
services.
Mills
noted
that
wildfires
can
turn
deadly
within
the
first
hour,
yet
emergency
alerts
typically
come
too
late.
Watch
Duty
bridges
this
gap
by
utilizing
volunteers
who
monitor
radio
communications
and
disseminate
critical
information
via
social
media.

“Most
wildfires
turn
deadly
in
the
first
hour,
yet
emergency
alerts
don’t
usually
show
up
until
it’s
too
late,”
Mills
explained. “We
are
a
community-led
organization
run
by
volunteers
who
used
to
operate
individually
but
now
work
together.”
The
platform
has
even
gained
recognition
from
emergency
services
and
utility
companies,
which
now
purchase
Watch
Duty’s
data
to
enhance
their
own
response
strategies.

UNHCR
and
The
Hive:
Supporting
Refugee
Camp
Management

On
an
international
scale,
the
United
Nations
High
Commissioner
for
Refugees
(UNHCR)
is
leveraging
technology
through
its
innovation
lab,
The
Hive.
Led
by
Seema
Iyer,
The
Hive
uses
data
science
and
technology
to
support
forcibly
displaced
people.
One
of
their
current
projects
involves
using
drone
imagery
and
machine
learning
to
map
refugee
camps
in
Kenya,
a
project
supported
by
Microsoft’s
AI
for
Good
Lab.
These
tools
help
UNHCR
manage
resources
and
plan
more
effectively
within
the
camps.

“UNHCR
has
a
global
mission
to
protect
forcibly
displaced
people
around
the
world,”
Iyer
stated. “The
Hive
harnesses
the
power
of
data
science
and
technology
to
raise
awareness
about
refugees
and
design
solutions
to
address
their
needs.”
Open-source
models
developed
as
part
of
this
initiative
are
available
on
GitHub,
enabling
other
organizations
to
replicate
and
build
upon
their
work.

The
Role
of
Open
Source
in
Emergency
Response

Both
Watch
Duty
and
The
Hive
recognize
the
critical
role
of
open
source
in
their
missions.
While
Watch
Duty
operates
partly
as
an
open-source
platform,
it
maintains
some
proprietary
elements
to
sustain
its
operations. “We
are
open
data
on
a
lot
of
things,
but
we
can’t
just
give
everything
away,”
Mills
noted.

Similarly,
The
Hive
uses
open-source
projects
to
engage
the
broader
community
and
encourage
innovation. “We
curate
ways
for
people
who
are
curious
about
our
mission
to
learn
about
the
topic
and
apply
their
skills,”
Iyer
said.
This
approach
not
only
fosters
collaboration
but
also
ensures
that
solutions
can
be
adapted
and
scaled
to
different
contexts.

Building
and
Sustaining
Communities

Both
leaders
emphasized
the
importance
of
community
in
their
work.
For
Mills,
the
impact
of
Watch
Duty
lies
in
its
ability
to
turn
volunteers
into
heroes
who
provide
critical
information
during
emergencies. “It’s
really
amazing
to
watch
people
engage
with
solving
real
problems
like
this
and
see
it
become
their
life
force,”
he
said.

For
Iyer,
community
engagement
is
about
creating
pathways
for
civic
technologists
to
contribute
their
skills. “We
need
to
curate
those
pathways
of
knowledge
sharing,
which
is
what
our
organization,
The
Hive,
is
trying
to
do,”
she
explained.

As
these
initiatives
demonstrate,
the
intersection
of
technology
and
community
can
drive
significant
progress
in
addressing
global
emergencies.
With
over
100
million
developers
on
GitHub,
even
a
small
percentage
leveraging
their
skills
for
good
can
create
substantial
change.

To
learn
more
about
these
initiatives,
visit
Watch
Duty
on
their

website
and
USA
for
UNHCR
on
their

website.

Image
source:
Shutterstock

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