“NetHope’s Open Humanitarian Initiative (OHI)” Gisli Olafsson, Emergency Response Director, NetHope, Inc. September 12,

Presentation and discussion on NetHope’s OHI: OHI’s mission, key focus areas, and future plans for enhancing incident management information sharing technology and capacity building; NetHope’s experiences with partnership building, stakeholder engagement, and critical areas of governance and planning; and Exploration of how NetHope’s experiences can inform your organization’s initiatives/activities. Information about the NISC: Mission, strategic goals, and activities; and Diverse member community and how to join. 2 OVERVIEW

Bringing humanitarian response to the network age

Having access to the right information during humanitarian response can mean the difference between life and death. Information and communication access is a basic need. We must not only share information with each other, but more importantly with the affected communities.

Willingness to share Need for attribution Political Lack of data standards Information stuck in silos Investment in existing systems Technical Lack of trained information managers Inability to provide value quickly to shared data Capacity

Define common goals to aim for Bring together all the actors required Drive funding towards this important aspect OHA OHF OHI

Five year initiative focused on bringing the concepts of open data and increased transparency into the humanitarian space Enabling affected communities to be part of the information loop Build a platform for information to flow between existing systems Open Humanitarian Initiative (OHI) Bringing together all of the actors needed to make an impact Humanitarian Response Organizations, Academia, Private Sector, and Governments Provides strategic direction for the initiative Open Humanitarian Alliance (OHA) A multi-donor fund modeled after the HIF that projects working towards the vision of the OHI Open Humanitarian Fund (OHF)

Participant drive effort Help existing efforts scale rather than reinventing the wheel Not everyone has to participate in every effort, but rather choses areas of focus Broad public-private partnership Aim for impact!

Open Humanitarian Initiative Open Humanitarian Knowledge Platform Humanitarian System Interoperability Technology Enabled Humanitarian Decision Making Information Management Training Humanitarian Innovation Teams Technology Enabled Community Driven Response

OHI Project Committee Knowledge Platform Task Force Inter- operability Task Force Innovation Team Task Force Information Management Training Task Force Big Data / Mobile Data Task Force Technology Enabled Community Response Task Force Technology Enabled Decision Making Task Force

OHI Launch (Feb 2013) OHA Launch (May 2013) OHF Launch (Winter 2013) 1 st International Conference on Open Humanitarian Information (2014) Open Humanitarian Incubator (Feb 2013-Dec 2013)

Launched June 2012 Founding Members  State of Oregon; Commonwealth of Virginia; State of California; City of Charlottesville, VA; City of Charlotte, NC Community Building  Interest in bringing together emergency management, IT, GIS first responder, and public safety communities across federal, regional, tribal, state, and local government Voluntary Information Sharing  Governance documents, information sharing plans, standard operating procedures, and software code/documentation, etc. 14 ABOUT THE NISC

15 ABOUT THE NISC (cont.) MISSION Bring together data owners, custodians, and users involved in the fields of homeland security, public safety, and emergency management and response to leverage efforts related to governance, development, and sharing of technology, data processes, and best practices. VISION Common, shared situational awareness capabilities will exist in every state, territory, and the District of Columbia. Information will be found, discovered, and shared effortlessly across all levels of government. Every community across the nation will be resilient in the face of disaster or emergency.

STRATEGIC GOALS GOAL 1: Enhance national situational awareness capabilities GOAL 2: Enhance and standardize national information sharing capabilities by maximizing access to and the use of available data GOAL 3: Provide support to EMAC and mutual aid efforts across the nation GOAL 4: Sustain the NISC as an independent consortium Download the NISC Strategic Plan at 16 ABOUT THE NISC (cont.)

17 For a complete list of NISC member organizations, go to ELIGIBLE MEMBERS First responders GIS practitioners State/local/tribal emergency management information & communications officers Mission-critical NGOs Private partners Civic leaders Federal agencies ABOUT THE NISC (cont.)

18 Three major areas of activity: WHAT THE NISC BRINGS TO YOU

PERSPECTIVE —as a practitioner, no one is better positioned to convey the needs, experiences, and priorities of our sector. You are the voice of the NISC. KNOWLEDGE —as a practitioner, no one is better positioned to provide lessons learned, case studies, and best practices to other stakeholders. You are the subject matter experts. SENSE OF COMMUNITY —as a practitioner, no one is better positioned to support other stakeholders who are vested in a universal, shared interest. You comprise the culture. 19 WHAT YOU BRING TO THE NISC

Members join on behalf of their organization Members are required to sign the NISC Memorandum of Agreement Sharing of any resource, data set, or technology code is completely voluntary TO JOIN  Review membership categories at  Request MOA: or use on  Sign and submit MOA to 20 JOIN US!