Bonus Blog #2: Crisis Informatics Speaker 3 - Ed Happ

In our discussion with Ed Happ, CIO of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, he outlined three main ideas we should walk away from his presentation with: crisis on the current world stage is becoming increasingly challenging, the connections created when responding are becoming more social, and finally working together and collaborating is not an option but an imperative. This provided a fairly accurate roadmap for where his presentation took us in terms of crisis informatics. 

Like Olaffson, one of the most striking ideas Happ presented was how technology now and in the future is completely changing the relationship between the relief workers and those receiving aid. He made many important points regarding the nature of crisis informatics but this really struck me as the underlying theme of where it is headed in the future; in the past individuals were viewed as objects of humanitarian efforts and today they are seen as members of the team. This is, in large part, due to the appearance of social media on the scene but Happ impressed upon us that there needs to be more social-media type technology and app development surrounding and centered solely on humanitarian crisis and relief situations. 

Underscoring this idea was another equally simple yet striking idea; in aiding collaboration and working together to clear obstacles, the most important technological principle that we must be focused on for the future is trust. We must use our experience and technical skills to facilitate working together and developing relationships. It is fairly new and uncharted territory in many respects for the aid community, and so we must be very careful in understanding the context in moving forward.  However, like Olaffson, Happ felt that on the other side of these foreign obstacles to the aid community stands great potential for changing the way we address crisis needs for the better.

To illustrate the main obstacle or challenge Happ saw for the community, he told a rather interesting story about crossing the street in Cairo. Apparently, it is a task similar to a real-life version of a frogger game and quite terrifying. In attempting this during one visit, he had to literally rely on the guiding hand of one of the members of his organization significantly below him on the corporate hierarchy to get him across to the other side. Like Happ, the humanitarian aid community must ‘take the hand’ of those traditionally below them and trust that they are going to make it safely to the other side.