Feeding maps with SMS, Humor, and Ideas for people who can't stop mapping

[Serge Gregorio]

@ Nick: The computer science departments of Ateneo (and I think Adamson too) are amenable to deploying Frontline SMS (or some "home-grown" version of it) for future needs.  If anyone in the group is interested, we can arrange for some kind of live demo.

@ Dan Cedric: Just wondering... the disaster mapping tool you're working on... can it interface with Frontline SMS or some variant thereof?

If we can put the vital pieces of the puzzle together in time for the next supertyphoon (tropical depressions and ITCZ's don't count), that would be superb. 

When that happens, I am willing to quit my job to devote more time to this effort.  As an excuse, I can tell my boss, "Look what I found while cleaning Ondoy's mud from our garage!!" (see attached image).  Sorry for hitting you with my corny sense of humor.  We need to unload the stress inside once in a while. =)

That's Humor # 1.  Here's Humor # 2:

I was driving to Los Banos, Laguna and to avoid the traffic at LB Crossing (Junction), I took a shortcut via Bgy Malinta.  As I was turning the curve near the Laguna State Polytechnic College, I exclaimed, "Omigosh, it's a banca!!!" and quickly hit the brakes.  Baranggay officials were loading (what seemed to be) cases of beer.  I guess people here needed to de-stress too!! 

@ Gio, Jun, Gemma: Do keep us posted on major developments in the field (e.g. are there areas in Pangasinan, Ilocos, etc. that are still under water similar to some parts of Pasig, Muntinlupa, and areas around Laguna Lake?)

@ People who simply can't stop mapping:

Two things:

1) As a way of preparing for disasters, the Catholic Educators' Association of the Philippines has agreed to create a map of its 1,200+ member schools/seminaries throughout the country.  I am providing here the link to the map, if anyone is interested to help out:

http://tinyurl.com/yj8uml3

Email me or Edsel at ramire...@gmail.com if you want to help.  I will post the source document (their directory in Word/PDF format) by Saturday at the latest.

2) Don has a suggestion on updating the Ondoy Situation map here: http://abuggedlife.com/2009/09/28/volunteers-help-plotting-out-ondoy-emergency-areas/

"Don: Some people could also help in keeping the updated information on the loss to property and the cost of reconstruction.This could help in getting the approximate figures to the aid agencies to help in rehabilitation of the affected people."

I'm willing to start off by encoding the figures in our receipts for car and appliance repair, yada, yada..  =)

Serge

On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 5:58 AM, Nick Doiron <ndo...@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:

For adding SMS reports, is there anyone in the area who can connect their phone and computer to Frontline SMS, and work with us to get it uploading to the database?  We can practice sending in a few reports this way until a larger-scale solution is found.  It will be easier to work with the NGOs and phone companies once they see the upload system can be put in place.

Nicholas

[Serge Gregorio]

Humor # 3: I think the money is someone's Pork Barrel fund that was washed down stream to our house in Marikina.  *chuckle*  (Again, you have to be a map lover to appreciate that one.)  =) 

Serge

[Aileen Apolo]

@Serge - now I wonder who your neighbor is :)

[Gio Bacareza]

Hi guys,

been a long time.

1. I got a favor to ask. I'm organizing the Pepeng Love Train which ideally is a train of trucks and other vehicles ferrying relief goods where they are needed up north. It's been hard to get goods, vehicles and volunteers. People's compassion seems to be proportional to the network affected over square of the distance. But that nature is just an obstacle to be overcome by a little effort. So if you or anyone you know could share relief goods (recommended pack = 5kilos rice, 5 noodles, 5 sardines), trucks (or any vehicle for that matter though trucks can carry more load) or volunteers, please let me know thru email, fb, twitter or mobile 09175777602. 3 trucks and airplane left today (I've asked them to report on flood levels and conditions of roads), more leaving next week. But it's not enough. It has to be a "train." What can you share to the train?

2. On my part, I'm working with my colleagues to get the carriers adopt a universal SOS shortcode that's free of charge and will also automatically get location data. But, as anything in the mobile industry, this may take time because we have to work out details with each operator, trying to convince them to adapt a standard procedure and not push a different one for their specific networks, as is usually the case. So good that we have Frontline SMS that is independent of the carriers.

3. I would like to organize us into a purely independent, citizen/volunteer powered site/mashup/system (it's still a broad idea in my head) that allows us citizens to use technology, new media to help ourselves, whether it is for disaster mitigation and recovery, election watch (next year!!) or citizen reports (crime, illegal logging, etc.). Let's do it!

That's all for now.

Gio

--
cheers,

Gio

[Serge Gregorio]

Hi Gio,

1. I got a favor to ask. I'm organizing the Pepeng Love Train which ideally is a train of trucks and other vehicles ferrying relief goods where they are needed up north. It's been hard to get goods, vehicles and volunteers. People's compassion seems to be proportional to the network affected over square of the distance. But that nature is just an obstacle to be overcome by a little effort. So if you or anyone you know could share relief goods (recommended pack = 5kilos rice, 5 noodles, 5 sardines), trucks (or any vehicle for that matter though trucks can carry more load) or volunteers, please let me know thru email, fb, twitter or mobile 09175777602. 3 trucks and airplane left today (I've asked them to report on flood levels and conditions of roads), more leaving next week. But it's not enough. It has to be a "train." What can you share to the train?

I just forwarded your email to friends who are also into relief in the area.
 

> 2. On my part, I'm working with my colleagues to get the carriers adopt a universal SOS shortcode
> that's free of charge and will also automatically get location data. But, as anything in the mobile
> industry, this may take time because we have to work out details with each operator, trying to convince > them to adapt a standard procedure and not push a different one for their specific networks, as is
> usually the case. So good that we have Frontline SMS that is independent of the carriers.

As for the SMS part, yes, we need to get that in place, the sooner, the better.  Franklin rightly observed that our earlier maps were biased towards urban areas where (educated or rich or both) residents or their loved ones have access to Facebook, Twitter, etc.  An SMS-to-map link would even out the (flooded?) playing field.

We also learned that Smart commissioned some students to develop something similar to Frontline SMS, but we can't easily deploy it because Smart owns the intellectual property rights to the system.

It just suddenly occured to me... we have friends in the media in this mailing list... perhaps they have some helpful advice to share?
 

Serge