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STAR-TIDES research is supporting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief work in Haiti. The links below outline some of the efforts:
 
Development of the SMS 4636 Code for Haiti Relief  

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May 10-12, 2011
Virginia Beach, VA 

June 8-9 2011
Washington, DC
 
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The protests in Egypt, the floods in Colombia, and even the bad weather in the U.S, have displayed how crowdsourcing capabilities continue to evolve in these types of situations. In this issue, we'll also take a look at two important training exercises, X24 Europe and FEMA's National Level Exercise 2011(NLE11), that deal with response to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Also in this issue, a recap of the AFCEA West show in San Diego.   
egypt crowdSocial Media in Egypt and Beyond
Social media's ability to harness events on the ground and map them, real time, has proven to be extremely valuable for responders, participants, and others associated with a major event or disaster. Check out the following sites to see how cutting edge social media is being used in Egypt: EgyptVoices, U-shahid, Stop404.org. These sites are mapping crowds and events in Cairo, to get around censorship and connectivity difficulties there.  This field is evolving rapidly and changes with every deployment, as it learns how to function better and improve its capabilities. 
Floods in Colombia
columbia floods shelterbox
Shelterbox, a global Rotary Club project has provided boxes with shelter, cook stoves, and other equipment to Colombia flood victims.

Colombia has endured some of the worst flooding in several decades.  More than 1.9 million people have been affected by the floods, and a host of organizations have flocked to the area in an effort to provide relief. TIDES and members of the crowdsource community are exploring ways to support the Government of Colombia's efforts to harness the power of crowdsourced data. The information focused on building a "crowd, bridge, transaction, feedback" model.  This model addresses ways to gather information from the crowd, bridged to those with the ability to act, filtered and results in transactions on the ground in the form of people saved or aid delivered. See our Haiti resources for more info on Crisis Mapping and lessons from Haiti to Helmand. 

Overview West 2011, San Diego, CA
AFCEA 2011Last month TIDES exhibited at AFCEA West in San Diego, showcasing technologies from all eight infrastructure areas. We squeezed two large shelters, an inflatable satellite, a tethered blimp, and lots of solar and water solutions inside our booth and we were probably the most eclectic booth at the show! Special thanks to all of the exhibitors and our friends in San Diego for helping out in the booth.

 

Next up is AFCEA Joint Warfighting from May 10-12, 2011 in Virginia Beach. If you are interested please email: [email protected]

Excercise 24 Europe

Exercise 24 Europe (X24 EUR) is a virtual  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.  

NLE 11NLE 11

FEMA's National Level Exercise (NLE) 2011, taking place this May, will provide a means for states to test their initial incident response and recovery capabilities as well as test and validate existing plans, policies and procedures in response to a catastrophic earthquake. TIDES is working with FEMA on NLE 11 and looks forward to participating in this most important national exercise.

 

To read more go here.

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Sincerely,
The TIDES Project