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Introduction to the Sahana Software Foundation

Ramindu Deshapriya

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Disaster situations

• Can occur anywhere, anytime• Occur more frequently at present and will occur more frequently

in the future• “A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a society,

causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceeds the ability of the affected society to cope using only its own resources” - UNDP

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How can technology help?

• Scalable management of information• No stacks of forms or files to manage

• Efficient distribution of information• Accessibility of information on demand

• Automatic assessment and aggregation• No delays for calculation

• Live situational awareness• Knowledge is instantly updated

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Enter Sahana

• Implemented in response to the 2004 tsunami• Sri Lanka’s IT industry (including Virtusa) got together to build a

system to help face the aftermath • The core system of Sahana was built• Tracking shelters, functioning organizations, missing people,

management of resources and aid were some of its features

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First deployment of Sahana

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Sahana today

• Managed by Sahana Software Foundation [501 (c) (3) non-profit]• Three main branches

• Vesuvius: PHP, based on initial code, People Locator features• Kilauea: PHP, shelter registry features• Eden: Python, complete disaster management features

• Deployed at:• 2005 Kashmir earthquake• 2010 Haiti earthquake• 2011 Tohoku tsunami• 2012 Hurricane Sandy

• Active (preparedness) deployments: on Lanka Government Cloud, at the US National Library of Medicine, International Red Cross

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Sahana is HFOSS

• HFOSS : Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software• Free to use, free to modify• ‘Virtuous Circle of Contributions’ : Organizations branching

Sahana to develop new features are asked to contribute that code back in to the main trunk

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Sahana to help save the world

• Disasters are a constant aspect of our world• Sahana can help save lives during such disasters• Sahana = Save more people

Wouldn’t you like to help save the world?More information: http://sahanafoundation.org,

info@sahanafoundation.org

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