Science and Technology Innovation Program
Events
Humanitarian Response in a Time of Mass Collaboration and Networked Intelligence
Commons Lab of the Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson Center.
Gisli Olafsson, Emergency Response Director of NetHope, will discuss how digital age technologies, like social media, are revolutionizing the way humanitarian response will be conducted in the future. He will explore the role of technology and information sharing in humanitarian response and look at how crowdsourcing, mass collaboration, volunteer & technical community self-organization, and "information to the edge" will push totally new approaches into this space.
Gisli Olafsson is the co-author of the recent report Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Usage in the Pakistan Floods 2010 and a contributor to the United Nations’ report Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies.
This meeting is free and open to the public. Allow time for routine security procedures. A photo ID is required for entry.
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Emergency Response Director of NetHope
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Lea Shanley // Director, Commons Lab
Humanitarian_Response_in_Times_of_Mass_Collaboration_and_Networked_Intelligence.pdf- Gisli_Olafsson_summary.pdf
About the Speaker:
Gisli Olaffson is the Emergency Response Director of NetHope, a consortium of 33 of the world's leading NGOs. When disasters strike, he leads the coordination of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) aspects of the disaster response for the NGO community. Between emergencies his main focus is on emergency preparedness activities, in particular those related to information sharing between organizations.
Gisli has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry, working for some of the leading companies in that sector as well as over 18 years of experience in the disaster management field. Gisli was one of the researchers of the Disaster Response 2.0 report from Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and he has worked closely with digital volunteer groups such as Stand-by Volunteer Task Force, Crisis Mappers and CrisisCommons on how to leverage digital age technologies and mass collaboration in humanitarian response. Gisli lives in Geneva, Switzerland along with his family.
