BushFire Connect Project

Contents 1 About 2 RHoK Project 2.1 Team 2.2 GitHub Project Location 2.3 Media 2.4 Deployed Website Address 2.5 Goals for the RHoK 1.0 2.6 Priority Tasks 2.7 Notes 2.7.1 Goals 2.7.2 Issues 2.7.3 Tools 2.7.4 Misc 2.8 Outcomes & Achievements 2.9 Suggestions for further development

[edit] About

• Problem definition

As an example, the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia, burnt the equivalent of 1 million football fields, displaced 7,500 people across 78 townships, resulting in 173 dead and 2000 houses lost.

We know when bushfires happen, people want fast access to trustworthy information. Bushfire Connect aggregates information from multiple sources: official and social, about events and incidents such as community meetings, fires, and road closures, in a way that empowers anyone to contribute local knowledge and make informed decisions.

Bushfire Connect delivers this information through multiple media such as the web, mobile devices and custom SMS.

[edit] RHoK Project

[edit] Team

• Sydney:
  • Maurits van der Vlugt
  • Keren Flavell
  • Daniela Fernandez
  • Stephen Lead
  • Alex Lester
  • George Dyke
  • Anthony Joseph

[edit] GitHub Project Location

http://github.com/anthonyjoeyjo/BushfireConnect.Org

[edit] Media

Youtube links:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCpVnUSNjf0
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rhwUuIlVQM

Twitter Feed:

• http://twitter.com/BushfireConnect

[edit] Deployed Website Address

http://bushfireconnect.org/ushahidi/

[edit] Goals for the RHoK 1.0

• deploy Ushahidi on a public webserver.
• establish some basic functionality with email, SMS and twitter interfaces
• create a foundation category model
• integrate Australian Government data sources into the Ushahidi deployment, such as location of major infrastructure like hospitals.
• localise for bushfire events in Strathewen, VIC

[edit] Priority Tasks

• 1 Input -> Ushahidi -> 1 Output
• Find Host for Test Instance (Karen?)
• Check Layer Control in Ushahidi?
  • Coverage Maps?
  • 3rd Party Map Services
  • GeoRSS from CFA/RFS?

[edit] Notes

[edit] Goals

• Provide web interface for compiling data on bushfire events in Strathewen, VIC
• Take a geo-tagged photoand display if on the web map
• View on web map & mobile
• identify/define categories (RH panel) & how to visualise

[edit] Issues

• Data Verification
  • Crowd Verification (thumbs up/down)
• Smartphone usage in VIC
• Ushahidi MMS support?
• Later Control Support

[edit] Tools

• Ushahidi
• Task Google Wave

[edit] Misc

• Gmail account for accessing emails: bushfireconnect@gmail.com / ___

[edit] Outcomes & Achievements

* Ushahidi Instance Customised for Victorian use-case (URL coming soon)
* Online reporting, with administrator moderation (approve/validate) and community vote up/down
* Demonstrating inclusion of 3rd Party datasets (example: hospital locations)
* Users can register for alerts (by SMS/email) regarding incident reports in their area of interest

Custom code will be uploaded/registered at GITHUB: see above "GitHub Project Location" heading

[edit] Suggestions for further development

* Monitor twitter feeds, (geo-) rss 
* Activate SMS reporting in; through SMS short codes
* Geo & topic filtering of unstructured text streams (Twitter, RSS, News feeds, ...); Integration options with tools such as Swiftriver or Trendsmap
* Customise lcoation list to local placenames (local Gazetteer service)
* Enable GeoRSS out, KML out, ...
* Implement mobile apps for reporting & alerts
* Syndication to e.g. local council websites, local newspaper sites. Enabling discover & access through established online communities
* add 'live' map services as layers (e.g. Sentinel hotspots, weather, lightning)
* ... Feel free to add more! ...