Calling All Digital Jedis: Support UN Response to Super Typhoon Ruby!
The United Nations has officially activated the Digital Humanitarian Network (DHN) in response to Typhoon Ruby. The DHN serves as the official interface between formal humanitarian organizations and digital volunteer groups from all around the world. These digital volunteers—also known as Digital Jedis— provide humanitarian organizations like the UN and the Red Cross with the “surge” capacity they need to make sense of the “Big Data” that gets generated during disasters. This “Big Data” includes large volumes of social media reports and satellite imagery, for example. And there is a lot of this data being generated right now as a result of Super Typhoon Ruby. To make sense of this flash flood of information, Digital Jedis use crowdsourcing platforms like MicroMappers, which was developed in partnership with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Read more.
