Crowdsourcing to Aid Nepal Quake Relief Efforts

May 26, 2015 By IdeaConnection

As with previous disasters that have struck different countries in recent times, the crowd is coming to the aid of those affected by the earthquake in Nepal.

Crowdsourcing is allowing digital volunteers to provide help from their laptops in a number of very important ways.  Some of the initiatives are being spearheaded by Nepalese to help their fellow citizens.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal, struck on April 25.  More than 8,000 people lost their lives and thousands more were made homeless as buildings were destroyed.

Within hours of the natural disaster, people had taken to social media and uploaded photos of quake-hit regions.  A global volunteer project got underway almost immediately to map physical infrastructure in Nepal’s affected areas, using OpenStreetMap. The aim was to provide clear information for those coordinating relief efforts.

Other crowdsourcing efforts include:

  • Kathmandu Living Labs, a Nepalese based nonprofit is also using OpenStreetMap to help agencies coordinate their responses.  It also has an open online platform where people can report earthquake information.
  • DigitalGlobe, a commercial vendor of space imagery made high resolution satellite pictures of the affected areas available for free online for groups involved in recovery and relief efforts.
  • Numerous fundraising campaigns were launched on Indiegogo, the crowdfunding website.  They continue to raise hundreds of thousands of much needed dollars.
  • Digital Humanitarian Network, an online humanitarian organization, arranged for its network of volunteers to look through tweets from people in disaster zones to identify those in most urgent need.  These were then tagged on a map, so that relief workers could easily pinpoint where they should go.

 


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