Humanity has a long history of experiencing disasters of various kinds, responding to them, and preparing for future ones. Sharing and withholding of resources as well as collaboration at unprecedented scales have been an essential feature and recurring theme of disaster relief efforts.
With that in mind, this page collects information on open collaboration in the context of emergency response or disaster relief efforts. Open here refers to a subset of the digital response that can be characterized by
- the preparedness of accepting contributions from anyone, making use of the Web;
- results being available under open licenses, as per the Open Definition.
The list below contains two main components:
- A list of emergency events and open initiatives that were triggered by them.
- A list of organizations who have consistently provided emergency responses.
I am particularly interested in the intersection between the two, i.e. organizations that use open approaches and consistently provide emergency responses. My motivation to collect this information is two-fold:
- to advance my general understanding under which conditions open approaches are being favoured over closed ones,
- to see how my own activities as an open researcher or as a volunteer for open knowledge initiatives like Wikimedia can be integrated with emergency response activities, particularly with the digital response, as I am rarely in a position to respond on the ground.
While I started this repo in an open-ended fashion, it has since evolved a focus on data sharing in public health emergencies, which has been receiving a growing interest lately, as discussed in this paper. I have also begun to give talks on the subject, as detailed here.
- PLOS Currents: Influenza was started: "The key goal of PLoS: Currents is to accelerate scientific discovery by allowing researchers to share their latest findings and ideas immediately with the world's scientific and medical communities."
- License: CC BY
- Now part of PLOS Currents: Outbreaks
- CDC overview of the pandemic
- EHEC outbreak stats by Pozos, CC BY-SA 3.0
- crowdsourced genome analysis via GitHub
- License: CC0
- Wikipedia:Ebola translation task force
- License: CC BY-SA
- Wikipedia Emerges as Trusted Internet Source for Ebola Information
- in affected countries, Wikipedia was the most consulted source on Ebola (CFCF has references)
- Ebola teaches tough lessons about rapid research
- Data sharing: Make outbreak research open access
- Ebola treatments caught in limbo
- ReliefWeb data on Ebola
- Special issue of Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics: Ethics and sharing individual-level health research data from low and middle income settings (13 papers, 2015)
- UN High Level Panel on the Global Response to Health Crisis
- Ebola outbeak data scraped from government PDF
- WHO Report of the Ebola Interim Assessment Panel - July 2015
- Open Data's Impact: Battling Ebola in Sierra Leone — Data Sharing to Improve Crisis Response
- Urgent needs and participation of women must be prioritized in the Ebola response
- The Mistakes We Made Responding to Ebola
- Massive Ebola data site planned to combat outbreaks — An international partnership seeks African leadership to organize information about the disease
- Lessons learned
- An Ebola Outbreak Has Just Been Stopped. Here’s What It Tells Us About Containing Epidemics.
- Ebola virus sequencing resources — seen here
- Data Sharing in Public Health Emergencies: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on Data Sharing during the 2014-2016 Ebola Epidemic and the 2016 Yellow Fever Epidemic (report from 26 November 2018)
- WHO consultation on Data and Results Sharing During Public Health Emergencies: Background Briefing
- Creating a rapid response – relevant to Zika virus
- Notice of NIAID's Interest to Highlight High-Priority Zika virus (ZIKV) Research
- PLOS collection: Zika
- Scientific Data waives article processing charges for "submissions releasing and describing datasets related to Zika"
- Open Drug Discovery for Zika Virus
- Bulletin of the World Health Organization launches Zika Open
- Global scientific community commits to sharing data on Zika
- Benefits of sharing
- Zika researchers release real-time data on viral infection study in monkeys
- Science, get over yourself: Zika data-sharing should be the norm, not the exception
- "Several participants noted that it is critical to study ZIKV in humans in the countries most affected and highlighted the importance of establishing a coordinated and well-resourced research approach to ZIKV, which would include the efficient sharing of biospecimens across international borders, availability of rapid funding announcements, better communication among scientists about the types of research being conducted, and the availability of datasets."
- Partnerships, Not Parachutists, for Zika Research:
- "But we believe the experience with recent outbreaks makes clear that if open sharing of data and specimens becomes the norm among scientists and epidemiologists around the world, we will be far more likely to succeed in improving international public health capacity and strengthening our collective health — and human — security.
- To avoid having to make this argument again every time we face an outbreak with the potential for becoming a global crisis, we believe the global health community should develop and agree on a framework of principles for sharing data and biologic samples during any such public health emergency. It would be best if the researchers themselves developed such a framework, as the genomics community did in the Human Genome Project."
- Public Health Surveillance: A Call to Share Data
- Zika Data From the Lab, and Right to the Web
- Reanalysis of open Zika data using a Jupyter notebook
- how scientific collaboration and data sharing is making a difference in this global health crisis called Zika (click on the "Collaboration" header to get directly to the relevant section)
- Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
- A gendered human rights analysis of Ebola and Zika: locating gender in global health emergencies
- good overview of related sources in Zika and Ebola had a much worse effect on women: we need more research to address this in future
- Big Data for Infectious Disease Surveillance and Modeling
- Principles for Data Sharing in Public Health Emergencies
- Progress in promoting data sharing in public health emergencies
- Sharing health research data – the role of funders in improving the impact
- Principles for Sharing the Data and Benefits of Public Health Surveillance
- How a mosquito bite inspired a campaign to map every school in the world
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The disease proved to be a wakeup call to a chronic lack of even basic medical infrastructure across Latin America. There were no vaccines available, no clinics prepared for the influx of concerned mothers, very few universal family planning services in place, and the high degree of poverty in the regions left many unable to access the most basic of protections, such as mosquito nets.
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For organisations like UNICEF, the most immediate challenge was a lack of accurate data on those affected. Without official public records, the organisation was forced to rely on the region's mobile operators that were able to offer data, albeit aggregated and anonymised, on the movements of people. Combined with temperature and poverty data, which showed the most favourable areas for mosquitoes to breed, the information was used to help direct people away from the most dangerous areas.
- I pinged them on integration with Wikidata's data about schools
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- Why it takes so long to develop a vaccine against a new epidemic
- Why we still don’t know all of the ways you can contract Zika
- A research and development Blueprint for action to prevent epidemics
- High-resolution structure of the Zika virus
- sparked the formation of Evidence Aid, which provides timely and evidence-based collaborative emergency responses
- motivation: Sharing evidence on humanitarian relief
- no open licensing of their materials or website, but a number of openly licensed papers, e.g.
- Evidence for disaster risk reduction, planning and response: design of the Evidence Aid survey
- The Use of Systematic Reviews and Other Research Evidence in Disasters and Related Areas: Preliminary Report of a Needs Assessment Survey
- Optimal Evidence in Difficult Settings: Improving Health Interventions and Decision Making in Disasters
- Evidence for perinatal and child health care guidelines in crisis settings: can Cochrane help?
- How the Cochrane Collaboration Is Responding to the Asian Tsunami
- Prioritization of Themes and Research Questions for Health Outcomes in Natural Disasters, Humanitarian Crises or Other Major Healthcare Emergencies
- OpenStreetMap response
- Crisis camp
- Random Hacks of Kindness
- Besides the earthquake, the year 2010 was remarkable because it also spotted the highest precipitation in 50 years, as well as a very hot summer, both of which contributed to the Cholera outbreak, as per [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-bridges-lecture-oceans-climate-and-human-health-tickets-86187957501 Rita Colwell].
- Christchurch Recovery Map through Ushahidi
- (TEDxEQChCh, e.g. Truly sustainable economic development: Ernesto Sirolli)
- OpenStreetMap
- coordination page
- sinsai.info
- run by OpenStreetMap Japan using Ushahidi
- saveMLAK
- Geigermap
- Japan’s Nuclear Woes Give Rise to Crowd-Sourced Radiation Maps In Asia and US
- Japan’s Radiation Levels: Real-Time Crowd Sourcing
- Crowdsourcing Japan’s Nuclear Crisis
- How Citizen Science Changed the Way Fukushima Radiation is Reported
- A teenager's resolve to keep sharing experience of March 2011 quake, tsunami
- not on data sharing per se, but on passing on memories & lessons across generations
- Asia-Pacific Region Global Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption Risk Management
- mentions data sharing in 2012 agreement; lost in 2013 version
- A Force for Good: How Digital Jedis are Responding to the Nepal Earthquake
- People locator
- Emergency Access Initiative Resources
- OpenStreetMap rallies for Nepal
- Immediate lessons from the Nepal earthquake
- Emergency Capacity Building (ECB) Project
- SMS Gateway to Nepal
- Nepal’s Aid System Is Broken. So These Lifesavers Hacked It
- The identity crisis frustrating Nepal's quake survivors
- Post-disaster needs assessment
- Nepal Earthquakes 2015: A review of existing information with regards to mental health and psychosocial support
- ReliefWeb Open Data on Nepal earthquakes
- "Open data matters most when the stakes are high"
- Comparing Hurricane Katrina to Japan's Kobe Earthquake in 1995: Sharing Policy and Institutional Lessons from Two Large Scale Natural Disasters in the United States and Japan
- Humanitarian Data Exchange format and platform used to collate diverse data
- see details in Hurricane-Dorian-2019.md
- see details in Wuhan-virus-outbreak-2019.md
- 7 Funder principles for research in epidemics
- "Research should be grounded in equity, transparency & open data. These principles represent a paradigm shift in approach to global research funding in epidemics going forward"
- number 4: " 4. Open science and data sharing"
- "To require that research findings and data relevant to the epidemic are shared rapidly and openly to inform the public health response. "
- The @flintwaterstudy team advocates an #OpenScience #citizenscience approach to research
- sharing thoughts, plans, methods, insights, data, activities through a blog written in accessible language (http://flintwaterstudy.org/) to engage the affected community in the research efforts addressing the serious water quality issues
- The rescue of the Thai cave boys is a triumph of bravery, expertise and love
- code of conduct for rescuers
- Data from half a world away helps rescue stranded Thai football team
- some background
- some more background
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In partnership with our local partners, Mappoint Asia Thailand Public Company, and Chiang Rai University, Intermap supplied its newly-released NEXTMap One, a 1-meter resolution elevation dataset, to the Thai Department of National Parks on June 27th. This high resolution elevation data was supplied within three hours, and used in conjunction with other sensors to identify elevation coordinates, prioritize potential drilling points, identify drainage paths, provide a detailed and inter-active 3D model of the area, and determine alternate routes into the caves to help rescue the boys. NEXTMap One, which was provided for free, is substantially more detailed than the existing elevation data available from commercial and government sources.
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- Thailand Cave Rescue Operation – A Meteorologist's Perspective
- Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders
- OpenStreetMap: overview of humanitarian activities
- Translators without Borders
- Crisis Commons
- Ushahidi
- Google Crisis Response
- NIH
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Earthquakes without Frontiers
- Central Emergency Response Fund
- ReliefWeb
- Public Health Research Data Forum
- Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
- Preliminary Business Plan
2017-2021
- mentions GSK's Biopreparedness Organization
- Preliminary Business Plan
2017-2021
- Global Virome Project
- Harding Center for Risk Literacy
- Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication
- UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
- UN Frameworks for Action for Risk Management
- UN High Level Panel on the Global Response to Health Crisis
- report: Protecting Humanity from Future Health Crises
- triggered by Ebola
- WHO expert group on 'Disability and disaster response'
- WHO: research and development Blueprint for action to prevent epidemics
- Data sharing in public health emergencies — a presentation for SciDataCon 2016
- Data sharing in public health emergencies — a presentation for the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance (IMED 2016)
- Data sharing and public health emergencies — a presentation for Endangered Data Week 2018
- Data sharing as a new component of addressing and preparing for disease outbreaks — a presentation given at SciDataCon 2018
- Data Sharing as a Key Component of Addressing and Preparing for Disease Outbreaks — a guest lecture at the University of Washington in January 2019.
- Outbreak science
- also has an initiative on data sharing in outbreak contexts, with details not public yet
- CDC’s CERC Program—Principles to communicate by in an emergency response and everyday life
- List of natural disasters by death toll
- List of foodborne illness outbreaks
- Disaster Apps for Your Digital Go Bag
- International Working Group (at HHS?)
- Open access as humanitarian aid
- Google Public Alerts
- Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises
- Global Warming Is Now a "Medical Emergency" That Could Wipe Out 50 Years of Global Health Gains
- Review: Emergency Response 10 Years After Katrina
- Developing Global Norms for Sharing Data and Results during Public Health Emergencies
- Computing for Disasters — workshop report (ca. 2012)
- The Search for MH370
- although published in a subscription journal, this paper was made OA (CC BY 3.0)
- background
- 4 reasons disease outbreaks are erupting around the world
- Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL)
- ReliefWeb founded in 1996 in response to the Rwandan genocide in 1994
- Report on the prevention of malaria in Mauritius by Ronald Ross (1908), with mathematical treatment of malaria infections
- Using Waze, Uber, AirBnB and SeeClickFix for Disaster Response
- Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL)
- Outbreak dashboards
- Five little-known diseases to watch out for in 2017
- Emerging Infectious Disease Repository (EIDR) project
- A set of three poster maps printed in response to the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan based on data from OpenStreetMap
- The World Needs a DARPA-Style Project to Prevent Pandemics
- World Bank report: From panic and neglect to investing in health security : financing pandemic preparedness at a national level
- Virtual Reality Can Make a Remote Crisis Real – and Spur Effective Responses
- Warning - Hurricane Irma Sunday 9/10 — data center of open project may be affected by the hurricane
- Data sharing in public health emergencies: A study of current policies, practices and infrastructure supporting the sharing of data to prevent and respond to epidemic and pandemic threats
- Here's What Will Happen After a Huge Earthquake Inevitably Hits California — discusses and links to relevant data; no visualizations
- HEPSA – health emergency preparedness self-assessment tool
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ECDC launched the HEPSA (Health Emergency Preparedness Self-Assessment) tool, in order to support countries in improving their level of public health emergency preparedness. The tool is worksheet-based and is targeted at professionals in public health organisations responsible for emergency planning and event management. It consists of seven domains that define the process of public health emergency preparedness and response: 1) Pre-event preparations and governance; 2) Resources: Trained workforce; 3) Support capacity: Surveillance; 4) Support capacity: Risk assessment; 5) Event response management; 6) Post-event review; 7) Implementation of lessons learned.
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- Archaeologists scanning a Mexican pyramid for damage following September's devastating earthquake have uncovered traces of an ancient temple
- Mediterranean rescue vessel makes its logbooks public
- Free training and education for professionals interested in identifying, using, and sharing disaster health information
- Shuttleworth project: Revolutionising the disaster relief supply chain
- The Future of Disaster Risk Pooling for Developing Countries: Where Do We Go from Here?
- ‘Resilience bonds’: A secret weapon against catastrophe
- Guidance For Managing Ethical Issues In Infectious Disease Outbreaks
- Recovery Toolkit - Supporting countries to achieve health service resilience: A library of tools & resources available during the recoveryperiod of a public health emergency
- WHO consultation on Data and Results Sharing During Public Health Emergencies - Background Briefing
- Data Sharing in Public Health Emergencies: Anthropological and Historical PerspectivesonData Sharing during the 2014-2016 Ebola Epidemic and the 2016 Yellow Fever Epidemic
- Bericht zur Risikoanalyse im Bevölkerungsschutz 2012 — risk analysis by German Bundestag about a SARS-like epidemic in Germany
- "A huge research literature shows disaster makes people more pro-social. They cooperate. They support each other. They're better than ever" (thread on disaster-related myths)
- Containment as Signal: Swine Flu Risk Miscommunication
- The CDC Field Epidemiology Manual
- lots of chapters, including several with a focus on specific types of data
