January Newsletter

A major focus this month has been on Sudan, as the country decides on a historic referendum for independence. Read more to find out what our friends in the crisismapping community are doing to support these efforts.

Also, January 12th marks the one year anniversary of the devestating earthquake in Haiti. TIDES is working on a publication about the role of information, communication, and technology (ICT) and social networks during Haiti earthquake relief.

Finally, this month, TIDES will be at AFCEA West in San Diego followed by AFCEA JWC (May) and AIDF (June). 2011 is off to a busy start!

Haiti: One Year Later

In reference to the Haiti earthquake, an unprecedented amount of unclassified information, particularly GIS (geospatial) was exchanged between civil-military, whole of government and trans-national participants. Though many of the information sharing procedures developed in Haiti led to dramatic short-term improvements, many unfortunately have not been sustained.

In light of the contributions made by information, telecommunications and social networks during Hatian earthquake relief, and the shortfalls identified, TIDES is working on a book about this topic. The goal will be to better understand how these capabilities were used by various organizations and how to improve their efforts in the future. The anticipated release date for the publication is summer 2011.

(See Haiti Resources/Projects for more info on Haiti)

In the News: Sudan Elections

sudan

The elections in Sudan could see Africa's largest country divided into two separate states.

The international community has been skeptical of a predicted peaceful scenario due to the presence of oil in the South; this natural resource played a central role in the two decade long civil conflict that ended in 2005 with the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement under the previous administration.

In order to avoid a resumption of conflict, many stakeholders have been actively involved in the preparation of the January 9th referendum. George Clooney along with Google, the Enough project, UNOSAT, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and others launched the Satellite Sentinel Initiative on December 30th 2010. This project monitoris polling areas around the oil rich region of Abyei via satellite while observing potential movements of militias. This project's aim is to avoid reoccurrence of conflict that would be detrimental to the African region and to the international community as a whole.

(See Sudan Resources for more info)

Upcoming Event:
AFCEA West - January 25-27 in San Diego

This month TIDES will be exhibiting at AFCEA West at the San Diego Convention Center. TIDES will be sharing informaton about sustainable solutions for post-disaster, post-war and impoverished populations. For more information click here.

Excercise 24 Europe

Exercise 24 Europe (X24 EUR) is a virtual online exercise scheduled for March 2011 that will demonstrate an effective use of

social media, crowdsourcing and collaboration tools in an innovative

and cost-effective cloud computing environment.

The X24 EUR scenario is a complex simulated seismic event that generates a tsunami in the Adriatic with corresponding damage to essential resources and critical infrastructure in the Balkans. TIDES has been working with San Diego State University's Viz Center and InRelief.org during the planning of the project.

Join the STAR-TIDES Network

STAR-TIDES is a research and networking project that is only as good as its members. Learn more and consider joining us in bringing research support and relief to stressed populations. Continue to share and support TIDES by clicking the "Update Profile/Email Address" link below.

Sincerely,

The TIDES Project