Open Source Disaster Recovery

Open Source Distaster Recovery is discussed and described in the following article by First Monday:

Abstract

Open Source Disaster Recovery, at http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_5/jones/index.html

"Volunteers eager to help disaster victims have begun to draw on open source models of organization to mobilize and coordinate vast resources from around the world. This paper investigates two such groundbreaking efforts, involving responses to Hurricane Katrina and to the South East Asian tsunami. The study sheds light on how these organizations evolve so rapidly, how leaders emerge and confront challenges, and how interactions with traditional, more hierarchical disaster recovery efforts unfold. Lessons from these early efforts show how they can be improved, and also point to the need for more research on networked non–state actors that are playing increasingly prominent roles."

Examples

Katrina PeopleFinder Project, http://www.katrinalist.net/

"a project aiming to aggregate missing persons’ information following the hurricane"

South–East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog, http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

"a high–traffic information resource that appeared in December 2004"

The Sahana open source disaster management system.

P2P Aid = Person to Person Aid project