ICT for Disaster Management

(Using SAHANA as a case study)

Objective

Large scale disasters bring together a diversity of organizations and produce massive amounts of heterogeneous data that must be managed by maybe governments or a coordinating authority like Red Cross. The lack of effective ICT solutions can lead to improper coordination and chaos among these organizations, as they track victims' needs and respond. The result can be delayed or ineffective response, the potential wastage of pledged support, imbalances in aid distribution, and a lack of transparency.

ICT solutions to manage disasters can potentially improve efficiency and effectiveness ultimately helping the needed much more. SAHANA (www.sahana.lk) is a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) application that aims to be a comprehensive solution for information management in relief operations, recovery and rehabilitation. This session will highlight the alignment between disaster management and ICT followed by a DEMO of SAHANA. The objective is to create awareness on the need for ICT in disaster management with SAHANA as an example to illustrate what can and cannot be done with ICT.

Target Audience

• NGOs, Government authorities
• Database/Messaging/GIS/Privacy/System Integration researchers.
• Anyone working/supporting/interested in Disaster Management.

Expected No. of Participants

50 (APNG/APAN)

Agenda

Time	Topic
16:00 – 16:05	Welcome & Introduction to Objectives
16:05 – 16:20	Introduction to Disaster Management
16:20 – 16:50	Prsentation on Sahana Disaster Management System
16:50 – 17:00	Q/A session
17:00 – 17:20	Demonstration on customized and deployed version of SAHANA
17:20 – 17:40	Demonstration on SAHANA main application
17:40 – 17:55	Discussion
17:55 - 18:00	Wind up

Resource Personals

	Name Isuru Samaraweera Organization Lanka Software Foundation Introduction Isuru graduated from the department of Computer Science and Engineering in the university of Moratuwa. He is an active contributor to FOSS since 2005. After joining Lanka Software Foundation in 2006 he actively involved in humanitarian-FOSS application development and has presented in international disaster management conferences like ISCRAM.
	Name Shyama Sagarika Wickramasekera Organization The Open University of Sri Lanka Introduction Sagarika is working at the Open University of Sri Lanka. She is the Former Secretary of the Lanka internet Network Group and now serves as the advisory board member. She actively involves in internet localization project which is joint collaboration of University of Moratuwa and ICTA agency. She is one of the Vice Chair of Asia Pacific Network Group Camp 2007.