Tag Archives: Media Lab

[CrisisCamp Boston] 2013 series

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One of the outcomes of HurricaneHackers has been the reinvigoration of CrisisCamp Boston. Rather than convene only when there is a crisis, a number of us have begun organizing a series of CrisisCamp Boston events in 2013.

The first CrisisCamp Boston event of the year will be a two day hackathon this upcoming weekend, January 19-20. We will again be hosted by the MIT Media Lab. Click here for more info and registration.

While this is a great chance to continue work on projects begun in response to Hurricane Sandy, we see a new opportunity for increasing civic participation in Boston’s disaster preparedness efforts in the form of this past weeks Massachusetts-wide state of emergency declared due to the flu outbreak. We’ve decided to make this emergency the primary focus of our first hackathon this year.

You can join us remotely via the following channels:

If you’re in Boston and would like to find out when future hackathons in our 2013 series will be, you can also connect with CrisisCamp Boston on Facebook and Google Groups.

HurricaneHackers in Boston – Sandy projects, lessons learned

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Written with Pablo Rey Mazón

A day before Hurricane Sandy touched down, netizens began to congregate via etherpads, Google Docs and IRC, assuming the name “HurricaneHackers.”

HurricaneHackers teamed up with Sandy CrisisCamps—a series of hackathons organized by CrisisCommons around the world—to host a hackathon at MIT Media Lab. About 30 participants worked together throughout the day to figure out how a remote set of volunteers could support Sandy relief with communication technologies.

Pablo and Denise were the main facilitators for the hackathon. With Pablo’s experience organizing OccupyData hackathons and Denise’s participation in hackathons, we knew that a common gathering place is powerful for imaginative and holistic thinking, and to matchmake that thinking with real world needs.

Continue reading →

[CrisisCamp Boston] Calling a list of phones via the twilio API and mapping them

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Given a list of phone numbers and locations, feed into an application to call them automatically to determine if they have phone service, if they have power, etc.  Display on map.  Using Twilio.  Project on github.  Continuing to work on this project.  Collaborating with Twilio.
Some power companies have poor data, this is a way to supplement that.

More info at http://bit.ly/rna-ltda Continue reading →

[CrisisCamp Boston] Meta-project: Building for Disaster Preparedness

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Notes of the presentation: Social hacking and community organizing. CrisisCamp Boston.
The idea: we can use grassroots methods instead of relying on a central agency.
Would like continuity in Boston CrisisCamp and better connection with Boston hacker culture.
Facebook, Twitter, Google Group already exist.  Don’t need to start from scratch.
Better than having a single event, have regular events before a disaster.  Move from disaster response to disaster preparedness.
Working on organizing the next CrisisCamp within the next two weeks.
Random Hacks of Kindness event coming up soon.
Growing the Boston CrisisCamp Community
Next steps:

[CrisisCamp Boston] Assessments tool for different responders

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#HurricaneHackers team 1 is working on a two-prong platform for assessments at different stages of crisis relief. The first prong helps first responders such as Red Cross and similar organizations rapidly assess needs. The second prong supports groups such as FEMA and shelters to assess long-term damage.

For up-to-the-minute progress reports, check out the team notes here. Continue reading →

[CrisisCamp Boston] Inn Crisis from HurricaneHackers Team 2

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Inn Crisis AngelPoints is a project to help make excess hotel capacity available and affordable to Sandy survivors who need medium-term shelter. It will create a framework for those with hotel loyalty points to donate their points to Sandy survivors.

It is based on NYC Office of Emergency Management’s request for a platform on hotel availability

The team is keeping notes and progress updates in this Google doc. Continue reading →