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From Coders With Conscience
What is Coders with Conscience?
Coders With Conscience is a collective of software and hardware professionals offering crisis management technology services to global relief organizations. Coders with Conscience is not aligned with any country, political movement or religious doctrine, we operate 100% as an independent organization. We're also very warm and fuzzy and actively seeking like minded individuals and organizations to partner with.
The Inspiration
It was the morning of 9/11, another beautiful blue sky day. An IM had just popped up on my laptop, it was from Bill, "hey a plane jsut hit the wtc CRAZY." Reaching for the remote, I clicked "On". I became riveted to the screen; every channel broadcast the identical images that all of America was watching that September morning, the unimaginable collapse of the Twin Towers.
I had to get out, was I dreaming, could this be real? I left my apartment and made my way downtown. As I got closer to Ground Zero, I found myself facing wave after wave of office workers. Shuffling figures were covered in a fine grey powder, taking on the appearances of ghostly apparitions from a late night horror film. I continued downtown, eventually making my way to within a block of the site.
I found myself at WTC Building Number 7, a low slung architectural monolith that just hours before had balanced out the towering twin towers. It was the city's designated crisis center. Now I watched as the building became totally engulfed in flames that soared into the afternoon sky. By early evening, 7 had collapsed into a twisted pile of hot steel and billowing smoke.
For the next few weeks the city was in a state of total shock. We were in a mental, spiritual and communications lock down. It seemed that our only tools of communication were the ubiquitous xeroxed flyers posted on every free square inch of wall space. Cell service was non-existent, yet I did have a sporadic 56k connection. Many of my friends are awesome tech wizards, yet for days after 9/11, none of us could find any heart beat of an officially sanctioned web site offering even basic information or updates on what was happening on the ground. This giant void would continue for weeks. The worlds greatest city was totally isolated and alone. I kept on saying to myself: THERE HAD TO BE A BETTER WAY. WHAT COULD I DO?
The second event that inspired the genesis of Coders With Conscience was the Federal Government's response (or lack of) to hurricane Katrina's ferocious assault on New Orleans. Within hours of Katrina's first landfall, any remnants of a communications infrastructure were a long ago memory to the residents of a once proud and thriving New Orleans.
Federal disaster response experts were helpless when faced with the extent of Katrina's damage. The breakdown of lines of communication paralleled those of 9/11, however this time something was different, the geeks had come to the rescue. By utilizing satellite phones, mesh networks, laptops and OS software, these intrepid techies were able to restore internet connectivity in days. The message could get out, and did. Food was slow in coming and help eventually arrived, yet one can only imagine at what might have been the tragic consequences if the geeks had never arrived.
The Lighting Bolt Hits
What did I learn from all of this? Well, in a nutshell, it was this: Small teams of technology professionals using off the shelf hardware and open source software could cobble together a working communications system that could provid desperately needed life saving services, something that a 7 billion dollar, 3,000 strong Federal government agency (FEMA) could not. There had to be a better way - and this time there was. After Katrina, telecommunications companies invested millions in replacing their damaged communications infrastructure, yet without the heroic efforts of a handful of geeks, New Orleans would have found itself even further cut off from the outside world for those fateful days in August.
These disasters, caused by both man and mother nature, led to my first notes on the back of the proverbial napkin. I saw a real world need for an organization like Coders With Conscience. I imagined that it was possible, by putting together small teams of talented professionals (and with adequate funding), we could build an organization that could make a difference in the world. Seeing was believing.
A Day in the Life
CWC will be monitoring 24/7 the top 100 news outlets, major wire services, newsgroups and government web sites. All this is managed by using our custom designed event mapping and scoring software, all running on the CWC MOM platform (Maximized Online Media, detailed in appendix). Our primary data sources are collections of RSS (Rich Site Syndication) streams combined with web aggregators, all filtered using parsing scripts that deliver data to our custom scoring algorithium.
Event Scenario
A major earthquake is reported in northern Pakistan. The CWC office staff is alerted with a targeted stream of all things digital: email, SMS, pages, IM, and even a synthesized voice using VOIP. All messages are delivered in real time from MOM. These alerts come pre-tagged and are assigned a numeric score indicating priority, status and severity of the crisis alert. The alert event is then handed off to a messaging cue and tracking module. Now that the event notification has been received by CWC, what happens next?
Issues to consider
- Do we have a team ready?
- Can the crisis be handled by other NGOs?
- What is our commitment level?
- Are we really needed?
- Can we commit resources?
- ETD? ETA?
If the decision is made to dispatch a CWC team, it will usually be staff approved within hours of first notification. Once we get the word, within 36 hours, a CWC presence will be in place in the crises zone.
We’ve arrived at the site of a major natural disaster, now what? The CWC team hits the ground running. Our first step is to establish a live link to orbiting communications satellite. This hands us an IP connection, allowing for file transfer rates of up to 3.5 mbs. Enough bandwidth for us to deliver the rich media content that will get the worlds attention. As we cross this first milestone, our PR team moves into action, alerting the internet community that CWC has now establish a "beach-head" in a crisis zone. We can ascertain the situation on the ground, judge the magnitude of the crisis, and keep the world updated with the latest news as it happens.
After establishing internet connectivity, CWC next begins collaborating with other relief organizations by offering wireless connections, technical support and the tracking of food and medical supplies. We can even suggest an RFID solution for the supply chain management of relief goods.
Once the local community gets back on it's feet, CWC will need to connect with the population for future preparedness. By taking on the distribution of the recently announced MIT’s $100 laptop, CWC can leave in place a sustainable communications infrastructure of wireless access points, a central server, media production tools, and global internet connectivity. By piggy backing on with local WiFi, a wireless, meshed based network can be accessible by anyone in the reapportioned area. We would also provide basic and advanced training in hardware and software maintenance, ensuring that after we leave, the community is now actively involved in is future.
The Organization
Designing an organization from the ground up with it’s stated purpose to be a “globally dispatched, first onsite, disaster response relief team”, presents numerous challenges. Moving into uncharted terrain, equipped with only a sketchy knowledge of the situation at hand (and hopefully lucky enough to be equipped with the latest in state of the art communications hardware) has traditionally been the provenance of the military. CWC flips this model upside down and combines the best of battle hardened military tactics with an alterative path.
Spin In Spin Out
There are two overlapping organizational strategies for achieving our primary goals. The first is our "Spin In Spin Out" (SISO) team and tasks management approach. In this scenario, task and staff become virtual teams; sometimes collaborating together for only a few minutes to other times often working side by side for the full life cycle of time spent by CWC involvement in a crisis zone. In SISO, newly created teams can rapidly rearrange (and recreate) themselves to best fit the management styles and people skills needed at that event moment in time.
Spoke and Wheel
The second organizational approach to maximizing the kinetic energy of CWC is the reinterpretation of the traditional "Wheel and Spoke" metaphor to a "Spoke and Wheel” (SAW) model. In the SAW approach, entities operate away from the "central servers", often only connected by a single instance of an IP address. Mobile IPs at the fringe (AKA "data smears") of a crisis zone may be only 1 "cell" wide. Their unique strength is in operating independently. They may lose their IP connection, but they know that they can easily "jack" back into the communications loop by shifting GIS coordinates. CWC combines these two similar organizational models into a highly coordinated action plan, utilizing the strengths from both approaches.
The Open Source Model
By building our core software applications using OS components, I believe that CWC has the chance to tap directly into the "can do" spirit that the CWC organization embodies. The framework of CWC mirrors the latest advances in object oriented software models and academic research on design patterns found both in nature and software. (Yes, I know I may be pushing it here, think of it as flattening that box!)
From an outside observer's point of view, a lean, fast moving, totally independent CWC team can be deconstructed into a collection (set) of living plug-in components and software modules ; all imbued within an open framework. A team is constructed of virtual API's (application programming interface), with human links spanning the globe. We are the embodiment of Web 3.0. By embracing this new and exciting collaborative model, CWC can become adept at designing nano-sized human and computer networks that are resilient enough to reconstruct themselves in real time.
Staff
A typical CWC team that finds itself embedded in a crisis zone is ideally 3 to 5 members. Small teams are best suited for establishing a "beach head" because of their natural ability to be rapidly deployed. They also have the advantage of accessing the immediacy of the situation at hand. Picking the right individuals is crucial to the success of a mission. We need people with technoslogy backgrounds who are willing to put themselves into hazardous situations and understand that they may be pushed to their physical and mental limits.
At our USA headquarters, our support staff manages press relations, wrangles web content and keeps and eye on our network and web servers. They also have the technical skills and makes sure that our video and audio steams are successfully delivered to the outside world.
As often happens in an organization modeled like CWC, job descriptions and staff responsibilities will certainly overlap. It's expected that any staff member can cover for any other at a moments notice. We also highly value continued training, conference presentations and physical conditioning for everyone (yes, it's not exactly your Dad's startup).
CWC Staff Positions
- Operations Manager
- Project Coordinator
- Internet Strategist
- Web Coder
- Server Support
- Video Editor
- HTML Production
- Crisis Zone Team
- Revolving Pool of Students (Interns, Graduate Students)
Facilities Management
For our first pilot project, our US presence is based in Potsdam, New York. The Potsdam community is comprised of one of the largest populations of college age students living in a rural community setting in the United States. This educated workforce provides us with a continuous steam of active and highly educated volunteers to become part of the CWC initiative.
All of our hardware is located with dreamhost.com. They’re supplying us with a 24/7 managed hosting facility for our all our server needs at a reasonable cost. Our hardware infrastructure is very scalable so that we may reach thousands of simultaneous media viewers by utilizing multicast protocols for broadcast video and audio streaming. For event model prototyping, we'll have installed a full complement of serves and supported hardware at our Potsdam site. By implementing remote synching services we're better able to manage the flow of moving raw content from the field to our web servers for video and audio streaming to our potential audience of over 1 billion connected users.
All our content produced will be formatted to industry standard XML specifications, insuring that our media broadcasts will be viewable on any internet connected hardware including all handheld devices.
Finances
In order to make the CWC dream a reality, cold currency is the fuel for our collective fire. The initial startup funding is requested from google.org. Once our infrastructure is in place (and we have proven ourselves under real world conditions), we expect public awareness of our activities to grow. By marketing ourselves as an exciting, cutting edge force of good, on the ground and in the thick of the action, we expect to generate enough positive karma points so that the CWC message will find a responsive corporate funding pool. For groups that may not have an easy way of fitting us into their corporate culture, CWC provides payback that broadcasts to the world that they have contributed to their global responsibility. We are also 100% open to having google.org as our sole foundation benefactor.
Funding for this venture is projected at 3 million dollars over 3 years. Based on our cost models, we see these funds covering 100% of our operating budget. We intend to actively recruit graduate students and will offer an intern program for local universities and high schools. It's our hope that once we have proven that our missions are real and our message is loud and clear, we'll be able to offer training and education services for like-minded organizations.
What is exciting about this project is that we're not just another web startup. We're an organization developing the groundwork for social good on a global scale. This may be a radical concept in today’s political times. We know we’ll make mistakes, and probably take more then a few wrong turns, however in the long run, our vision is true and clear. We will be able to provide a Road Map for social activism on a global scale for others while maximizing the vast connected universe of internet connections.
Closing
Our mission statement is short, simple and sweet: "Relieve pain with technology." Yes, I’ll confess, it’s inspired by Google's "Do no evil."
Many years ago, pundits predicted that by now overpopulation, environmental pollution, nuclear waste and a host of other ills would make the earth nearly uninhabitable, yet we are still here today __ and there is another beautiful blue sky visible from my Market Street window. What will the day bring? I don’t really have a clue, however I’m sure it will turn into another great day. Being a Coder with Conscience, you’re a born optimist, it’s just in our nature.
Appendix
Real Time Global Event Tracking and Mapping Services (MOM)
With almost universal internet connectivity, ubiquitous cell phone coverage and with almost 100% of the world accessed by satellite, news of a major natural disaster can reach us within minutes of the first eyewitness reports.
All of the data designed to be captured by MOM is currently available on a myriad of web sites. What MOM does is provide a front-end to this loose confederation of data sources. Data is "pushed" from sites using RSS feeds and XML templates. The data is then imported into MOM for event mapping and is assigned a numeric score based on a defined set of event crisis criteria. What we end up with is a real time snapshot of Earth's current "meta mood".
MOM Features Summary
There are 4 major components to the MOM event tracking application:
1. Real time monitoring of RSS feeds.
Our first module calculates a real time, numeric crisis score based on frequency, date range and scoring of specific key terms. We will also be integrating Google's latest API for parsing their own internally generated news (Google Reader).
2. Google Earth
Google Earth allows us to plot and track the locations of CWC teams in real time.
3. Continuous news feeds and blog posts the field.
For each crisis zone, we're building our own CNN on the web.
4. Summary screen.
Here we integrate the above 3 data sources into a newswire + media feed aggregator.
MOM In Action
By managing data analysis, information "pattern matching", and maximizing our S/N ratios, MOM can instantly access the crisis situation data, and assign a meaningful numeric score representing the severity and response options available to CWC.
Screen 1
Here’s where we captures RSS news feeds and parse them in real time. Depending on word patterns (proximity to key verbs, library of terms, and statistical distributions) a weighted "crises event" tag and numeric point score is assigned. Based on our set of "linguistic rules", a judgment is made by our software Turing engine and an alert level is assigned. Depending on this value, an SMS may go out to the team, a news flash may be triggered, or a "flag" set to continuously monitor the situation.
Screen 2
Google Earth continuously polls data from screen 1. The crisis location(s) are mapped, and a continuously updated graphic icon is attached to that point. By utilizing Google's Mapping API, a complete dataset can be linked to each crisis point on the map. One mouse click provides the web user with the ability to drill down and further explore the data elements collected.
Screen 3
Here’s where we aggregate our blogs, news and media feeds. Data is continuously sent to our main web servers through satellite routing from the field. Screen 3 reports on this news and manages a continuously updated "crisis window" reflecting events as they occur.
Screen 4
Screen 4 provides a summary of all data collected from screens 1, 2, and 3. The information is graphically displayed here, becoming progressively "smarter" as time passes by.
Network Overview
Dream Network for USA based headquarters.
Network [1] presentation for IT622.
Supporting Materials
For more information, thoughts and comments:
edwardpotter@gmail.com
IM: ejpusa
Twitter: ejpusa