Passion Talk: Offline First for Disaster Response
Participants at the first ever Offline Camp had diverse backgrounds and interests, ranging far beyond the Offline First approach that we came together to discuss. Through short Passion Talks, campers shared with us some of the hobbies, projects, and technologies that excite them. Here’s a taste of that passion for you as a preview to Offline Camp California (November 4–7, 2016).
In 2015, over 500 people were killed and 1.8 million were displaced due to extreme flooding in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India. As could be expected, various service outages combined with heavy demand made communication with loved ones more than a bit challenging. In his passion talk at Offline Camp, Ani Bedre shared with us some examples of ways in which Offline First apps can aid in disaster response.
Here’s a bit more background on some of the creative disaster recovery solutions Ani mentioned to us in his talk:
In an emergency, many people would normally turn to Facebook, Twitter, or a good old fashioned phone call to reach out for help or let loved ones know they were safe. But with cell towers overloaded and power outages disabling internet connections, this became impossible. Without access to internet or cell reception, the peer-to-peer messaging app FireChat, however, still worked. It taps into the radio capabilities of the handset and creates a mesh network using MeshKit SDK. (Check out the full story in this Tenuz article.)
Ola (an Indian equivalent to Uber or Lyft) deployed boats in submerged areas, based on information provided by the Fire and Rescue Department of Tamil Nadu. They’ve also more recently supported disaster relief efforts by adding a “Donate” button to the app to enable pickup of donated goods from a contributor’s home or business.
A Google spreadsheet made by a volunteer and opened up to the public for editing grew into a crowdsourced database of places where people could find help and places where people were trapped in need of assistance.
Businesses of all types set up special services to assist in disaster relief:
