Paul Conneally: Digital humanitarianism

46,170 views ・ 2012-02-17

TED


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00:15
The humanitarian model has barely changed
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since the early 20th century.
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Its origins are firmly rooted
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in the analog age.
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And there is a major shift coming on the horizon.
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The catalyst for this change
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was the major earthquake that struck Haiti
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on the 12th of January in 2010.
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Haiti was a game changer.
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The earthquake destroyed the capital of Port-au-Prince,
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claiming the lives of some 320,000 people,
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rendering homeless
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about 1.2 million people.
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Government institutions were completely decapitated,
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including the presidential palace.
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I remember standing
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on the roof of the Ministry of Justice
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in downtown Port-au-Prince.
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It was about two meters high,
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completely squashed
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by the violence of the earthquake.
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For those of us on the ground in those early days,
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it was clear for even the most disaster-hardened veterans
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that Haiti was something different.
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Haiti was something we hadn't seen before.
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But Haiti provided us with something else unprecedented.
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Haiti allowed us to glimpse into a future
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of what disaster response might look like
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in a hyper-connected world
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where people have access
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to mobile smart devices.
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Because out of the urban devastation
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in Port-au-Prince
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came a torrent of SMS texts --
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people crying for help,
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beseeching us for assistance,
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sharing data, offering support,
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looking for their loved ones.
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This was a situation
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that traditional aid agencies had never before encountered.
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We were in one of the poorest countries on the planet,
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but 80 percent of the people
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had mobile devices in their hands.
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And we were unprepared for this,
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and they were shaping the aid effort.
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Outside Haiti also, things were looking different.
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Tens of thousands of so-called digital volunteers
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were scouring the Internet,
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converting tweets
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that had already been converted from texts
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and putting these into open-source maps,
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layering them with all sorts of important information --
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people like Crisis Mappers and Open Street Map --
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and putting these on the Web for everybody --
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the media, the aid organizations and the communities themselves --
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to participate in and to use.
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Back in Haiti,
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people were increasingly turning
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to the medium of SMS.
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People that were hungry and hurting
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were signaling their distress,
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were signaling their need for help.
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On street sides all over Port-au-Prince,
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entrepreneurs sprung up
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offering mobile phone charging stations.
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They understood more than we did
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people's innate need
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to be connected.
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Never having been confronted
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with this type of situation before,
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we wanted to try and understand
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how we could tap into this incredible resource,
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how we could really leverage
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this incredible use of mobile technology
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and SMS technology.
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We started talking with a local telecom provider called Voilà,
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which is a subsidiary of Trilogy International.
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We had basically three requirements.
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We wanted to communicate
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in a two-way form of communication.
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We didn't want to shout; we needed to listen as well.
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We wanted to be able to target
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specific geographic communities.
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We didn't need to talk to the whole country at the same time.
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And we wanted it to be easy to use.
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Out of this rubble of Haiti and from this devastation
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came something that we call TERA --
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the Trilogy Emergency Response Application --
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which has been used to support the aid effort
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ever since.
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It has been used to help communities prepare for disasters.
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It has been used to signal early warning
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in advance of weather-related disasters.
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It's used for public health awareness campaigns
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such as the prevention of cholera.
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And it is even used for sensitive issues
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such as building awareness
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around gender-based violence.
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But does it work?
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We have just published
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an evaluation of this program,
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and the evidence that is there for all to see
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is quite remarkable.
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Some 74 percent of people
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received the data.
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Those who were intended to receive the data,
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74 percent of them received it.
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96 percent of them
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found it useful.
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83 percent of them took action --
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evidence that it is indeed empowering.
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And 73 percent of them shared it.
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The TERA system
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was developed from Haiti
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with support of engineers in the region.
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It is a user-appropriate technology
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that has been used for humanitarian good to great effect.
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Technology is transformational.
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Right across the developing world,
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citizens and communities
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are using technology
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to enable them to bring about change, positive change,
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in their own communities.
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The grassroots has been strengthened
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through the social power of sharing
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and they are challenging the old models,
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the old analog models
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of control and command.
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One illustration of the transformational power of technology
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is in Kibera.
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Kibera is one of Africa's largest slums.
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It's on the outskirts of Nairobi,
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the capital city of Kenya.
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It's home to an unknown number of people --
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some say between 250,000
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and 1.2 million.
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If you were to arrive in Nairobi today
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and pick up a tourist map,
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Kibera is represented
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as a lush, green national park
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devoid of human settlement.
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Young people living in Kibera
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in their community,
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with simple handheld devices,
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GPS handheld devices and SMS-enabled mobile phones,
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have literally put themselves on the map.
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They have collated crowd-sourced data
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and rendered the invisible visible.
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People like Josh and Steve
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are continuing to layer information upon information,
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real-time information, Tweet it and text it onto these maps
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for all to use.
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You can find out about the latest impromptu music session.
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You can find out about the latest security incident.
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You can find out about places of worship.
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You can find out about the health centers.
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You can feel the dynamism
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of this living, breathing community.
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They also have their own news network on YouTube
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with 36,000 viewers at the moment.
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They're showing us what can be done
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with mobile, digital technologies.
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They're showing that the magic of technology
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can bring the invisible visible.
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And they are giving a voice to themselves.
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They are telling their own story,
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bypassing the official narrative.
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And we're seeing from all points on the globe similar stories.
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In Mongolia for instance,
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where 30 percent of the people are nomadic,
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SMS information systems are being used
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to track migration and weather patterns.
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SMS is even used
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to hold herder summits
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from remote participation.
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And if people are migrating
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into urban, unfamiliar, concrete environments,
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they can also be helped in anticipation
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with social supporters ready and waiting for them
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based on SMS knowledge.
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In Nigeria,
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open-source SMS tools
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are being used by the Red Cross community workers
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to gather information from the local community
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in an attempt to better understand and mitigate
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the prevalence of malaria.
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My colleague, Jason Peat, who runs this program,
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tells me it's 10 times faster and 10 times cheaper
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than the traditional way of doing things.
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And not only is it empowering to the communities,
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but really importantly,
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this information stays in the community
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where it is needed to formulate long-term health polices.
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We are on a planet
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of seven billion people,
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five billion mobile subscriptions.
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By 2015,
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there will be three billion smartphones in the world.
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The U.N. broadband commission
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has recently set targets
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to help broadband access
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in 50 percent of the Developing World,
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compared to 20 percent today.
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We are hurtling towards a hyper-connected world
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where citizens from all cultures and all social strata
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will have access to smart, fast mobile devices.
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People are understanding,
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from Cairo to Oakland,
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that there are new ways to come together,
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there are new ways to mobilize,
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there are new ways to influence.
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A transformation is coming which needs to be understood
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by the humanitarian structures and humanitarian models.
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The collective voices of people
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needs to be more integrated through new technologies
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into the organizational strategies and plans of actions
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and not just recycled
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for fundraising or marketing.
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We need to, for example, embrace
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the big data,
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the knowledge that is there from market leaders
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who understand what it means
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to use and leverage big data.
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One idea that I'd like you to consider, for instance,
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is to take a look at our IT departments.
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They're normally backroom or basement hardware service providers,
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but they need to be elevated to software strategists.
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We need people in our organizations
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who know what it's like to work with big data.
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We need technology
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as a core organizational principle.
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We need technological strategists in the boardroom
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who can ask and answer the question,
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"What would Amazon or Google
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do with all of this data?"
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and convert it to humanitarian good.
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The possibilities
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that new digital technologies are bringing
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can help humanitarian organizations,
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not only ensure
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that people's right to information is met,
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or that they have their right to communicate,
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but I think in the future,
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humanitarian organizations will also have to anticipate
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the right for people to access
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critical communication technologies
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in order to ensure
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that their voices are heard,
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that they're truly participating,
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that they're truly empowered in the humanitarian world.
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It has always been the elusive ideal
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to ensure full participation of people affected by disasters
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in the humanitarian effort.
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We now have the tools. We now have the possibilities.
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There are no more reasons not to do it.
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I believe we need to bring the humanitarian world
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from analog to digital.
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Thank you very much.
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10:47
(Applause)
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