The need for up to date maps

Once disasters impact on island countries like Haiti or Japan, existing maps no longer reflect the reality on the ground. You hear of whole towns swept away by a tsunami but there will be hope for survivors. Survivors who need care as soon as possible if they are to survive.

Getting that care in place and on time depends on many factors and one puzzle that needs solving is how to get there. After the earth quake in Haiti, satellite pictures were made available and people from all over the world helped by creating up to date maps in OpenStreetMap for the disaster relief effort.

The value of such maps is raised when local people can use the maps. The good news is that for Japanese the localisation is already quite good. It is gratifying to see people volunteer now to work on the Japanese localisation of OpenStreetMap.

When you compare this with the localisation status for Haitian Creole, you will find that the disaster maps are still not usable in the local language. This while the effects of an earth quake in Haiti have proven to be so much more destructive. Disaster can happen again, so we would love to be prepared for wherever a disaster will strike next.
Thanks,
      GerardM

A special offer from #Wikia for the Gheg localisation community

When 750 new core messages are localised at #translatewiki.net , Wikia will import them into their system. There is more to this story. There has been major flooding in Albania, and as a consequence many open source applications are in use to provide disaster relief.

MediaWiki is used for disaster relief. There is a Wikia Wiki that will benefit from support for the Gheg language so we hope that this will entice people to work on the MediaWiki core messages.

This is a great and welcome offer, however the biggest need at this moment in time is localising OpenStreetMap when it is ready, it will stimulate even more people to put their place, their streets, their infrastructure on the map. This will help the people of Albania most at this time.
Thanks,
     GerardM

The 2010 #flooding of #Albania

The January flooding in Albania was massive. Torrential rains, melting snow and overflowing artificial lakes resulted in a disaster for a country that is the poorest of Europe.

This map shows the extend of the disaster, the text explains that the road infrastructure is not complete as data from OpenStreetMap has been used. This lack of available information did hamper the relief effort. Maps were made available for the relief effort in Haiti, not in Albania. This has probably everything to do that the Albanian flooding did not get major news attention; even Wikipedia does not know about it.

I had a word with someone involved in the OSM project for Albanian relief, I informed him about translatewiki.net and I am happy with the first localisations in the Gheg Albanian language. It seems so obvious that maps are useful and needed and available when everything is back to normal. The people for whom these maps are important do not necessarily speak English..
Thanks,
      GerardM

An earthquake and a tsunami in Chile

The English #wikipedia article about the earth quake is being written as the situation develops.

As you can imagine, depending on the size of the waves, the Tsunami can create havoc in the many countries that border on the pacific. The recent earth quake and tsunami in Haiti proved to be a disaster because it was not expected and, the buildings proved to be too fragile resulting in too many fatalities.

As there was no infrastructure and a lack of decent information after the quake, people turned to OpenStreetMap to create the much needed maps. The BBC has a great photo presentation about this ..

OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

This video shows "a year of edits" and indeed it shows how awesome OpenStreetMap is. One of the lessons of Haiti is that it is important to have such maps and, that it is best to have those maps when disaster strikes.

The current tsunami may do a lot of damage in the pacific. I hope that OSM maps will not be necessary and I certainly hope that they need not be created. What I do know is that you can localise OpenStreetmap at translatewiki.net. I am sure that great useful maps are needed by local people everywhere even when there is no disaster.
Thanks,
GerardM

#MediaWiki is used for the Haiti relief effort

#Crisiswiki.org is a MediaWiki wiki building a "yellow pages" with everything that is relevant for the Haiti disaster response. This project is organised by Crisis Commons, an organisation that not only aims to provide relief when needed, but also stimulate people all over the world to prepare for an un-hoped for disaster. There is a wiki for that as well.

On their website, you find many geek organisations that have involved themselves in the relief effort. Translatewiki is not that geeky, then again I am biased, but we have already identified two applications that are used for the Haiti relief effort, MediaWiki and OpenStreetMap. Both can do with a massive effort to localise these applications in Haitian Creole

We welcome Open Source applications that are used for disaster management and disaster relief.. When many applications are supported at translatewiki, our community will be strengthened by the people that come specifically to lcoalise this software but equally important, it gives us something real to do, something other then giving money and hoping for the best.
Thanks,
     GerardM

More on the Haitian relief effort

#OpenStreetMap is used extensively in Haiti, more then the other geo locations. There is a great article in the Guardian that extols the virtues of OpenStreetMap in Haiti. What makes this article so interesting is that it talks about the many relief support applications that are currently in use.

Software like Sahana that helps people find people, managing aid, managing volunteers, tracking camps and liase among the many people and organisations involved. It is the kind of software that should be ready for wherever it is needed.

There is more software that is used, read the article for that.. My point is, that when disaster strikes, you want to be ready. Disaster can and will strike anywhere. When you are prepared, when your software is ready for deployment in the whole world, when it is localised for the people that are there, they can actually use it.

I am happy to learn that we may get people localising OSM at translatewiki.net. I would love it when all the software mentioned is ready to be used when disaster strikes in my backyard,
Thanks,
GerardM

#OpenStreetMap is used in Haiti

When a disaster strikes, good information helps understand the situation, it helps the planning and execution of the relief work needed to bring some normalcy back.

On OpenGeoData there is an article that explains how the Fairfax County Urban Search & Rescue Team uses OSM maps on their Garmin units. It is a happy situation that these maps are there for everyone to use.

When you look at the localisation statistics for OSM, you find that Haitian Creole is missing. There is a Haitian Wikipedia so there is support for this language at translatewiki.net. It would be good if we find people willing to work on the OSM localisation as well; this will make the maps useful to the people of Haiti as they are rebuilding their country.
Thanks,
GerardM