Overview &History of Sahana
AAAI Spring Symposium 2015March 23-25, 2015
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Chamindra de SilvaDirector, Sahana Foundation | Director, Virtusa Corporation
Ramindu DeshapriyaMember, Sahana Foundation | Mphil Student University of Kelaniya
Sahana Intro (20 mins) – Chamindra de Silva
• An Overview of Sahana
• A History and Evolution of Sahana (SI -> SIII AKA Eden)
• Deployment Examples and Case Studies
Sahana-Eden Demo (30 mins) – Ramindu Deshapriya
• How to setup Sahana
• Sahana Eden Features
• Building a new module
• How to create a new (structured) data model
• Sahana’s support for Linked Data
• Import and Export options
• Other customization Options & API
Agenda
The Sahana Project:
What is it in a nutshell? Free and Open Source
Global Community Built
Disaster Management
RAD Platform
Foundation Mission To save lives by providing information management solutions that enable organizations and communities to better prepare for and respond to disasters
The Historic Trigger: 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake & Tsunami
☀ At least 226,000 dead
☀ Up to 5 million people
lost their homes, or
access to food and
water
☀ 1 million people left
without a means to
make a living
☀ At least $7.5 billion in
the cost of damages“Facts and Figures: Asian Tsunami Disaster”
New Scientist, 20 January 2005
Government Relief
Local Authorities, Police, Army, Fire fighters, + Authorized coord+ Well trained+ Accountable+/- Big picture relief (e.g. national security)- Procedures create bottlenecks- Overloaded
Local Relief
Spontaneous volunteers, corporate village communities, friends and family+ first responders+ lot of capacity+ instant aid- not trained- focus unknown- not accountable
UN, NGOs
Red Cross, OCHA, CARE, WHO, Sarvodaya, etc+ focused on people+ trusted to accept aid+/- less well trained+ accountable- Donor driven- narrow focus / fragmented
Victims
Effective Collaboration and Coordination!
Relief
Disasters Coordination
Rapid Info Sharing and Collaboration Needed
10s of Orgs 100s of Orgs 1000s – 1 Mill
“Sahana” – Relief in Sinhalese Rapidly custom build for SL Gov to handle Tsunami
“Sahana”
Software
Rapidly Builds
Tsunami 2004
CNO Urgent
RequirementsSri Lankan
IT Community
Sri Lankan IT Community =
LSF/LKLUG + SL IT Industry + Academia
Sahana
Phase I
Sahana first deployed for
Sri Lanka tsunami response for SLGov
Sahana
Phase I
Independent Hazard Info. Center
The First Community
“We just wanted to help our countrymen”
We used our skills to provide a tool
Operational model - “Chaos”
400 IT volunteers
1st week 24hr development
Major releases almost daily
Applications
Missing Person Registry, Organization Registry, Request management System, Camp Registry
Tracking Missing People / Casualties
Shared Bulletin Board of lost / found
Computer based search heuristics
Tracking Family units
Analyzing networks of connections
The Missing People Registry helps track and find missing, people
Who is doing What, Where & When?
Registry of operating relief organizations
Coverage of Services
Self-Allocation and Reporting
Contact Information
The Organization Registry helps maintain data (contact, services, region, etc) of organizations groups and volunteers working in the disaster
Matching Aid to Ground Realities
Estimating Needs
Matching Aid to Ground Needs
Inventories/Catalog
Quantities
Expiration dates
Re-order levels
Tracking Allocation
The Request Management System tracks all requests and helps match pledges for support, aid and supplies to fullfilment
Lessons: Large Scale Disaster Management Systems were rare!
Surprisingly no one had built such a system before! (we had asked FEMA, IBM)
Identified many of the common coordination problems of a large scale disaster disaster and formulated modules to address them
BUT
NEVER build a disaster management system from scratch during a disaster again!!
Learned how I.T. Fail in a disaster
Comms can be saturated or not accessible
Systems have to be able to work disconnected
User familiarity can be low
Systems has to be as intuitive as possible
Data centers can get impacted
Systems have to be resilient (simple), mobile and self-sufficient
Functionality can be inadequate
System has to be quickly customizable
Sahana Generic Platform Rebuild A generic disaster management platform
LSF
Team
(+ SIDA)
Sahana
Software
A Global Need (2005)
Tsunami
Requirements
LSF Team = FOSS Geeks on Fellowships
Builds and Donates
Sahana
Phase II
Slightly different design goals than what we were used to at the time
Typical Enterprise Software Disaster Management App
Network LAN/WAN connected high
bandwidth expected
Intermittently connected, low
bandwidth, most often WIFI
User Interface Highly interactive, Chatty
AJAX lookups, graphics rich
and engaging
Low throughput, Simple,
highly intuitive, low size
graphics if any
Deployment Designed for one particular
deployment environment in
Cloud or Data Center
Designed for any available
environment from cloud,
server, to portable app
Dependencies Dependent on 3rd party
internal and external web
services
Minimize dependencies, and
potential point of failure,
caching when needed
Development Well typed, compiled,
security manager, clear
interface definitions
Easy to pickup and
dynamically modifiable
scripting language
Collaborative Virtual Helpdesk
zone of trust
(legislation)
Peer 2 Peer Pony Express
Started to look at portable
USB Disk / Laptop
Mobile
OLPC
+ Synchronization
Collaborative Situation Mapping
Collaborative Map of
Hazards / Incidents
Shelters (IDPs)
(field) Hospitals
Organizations
Responders
Stores
etc
The Shelter Registry helps track data on all shelters setup following the Disaster
Why does Open Source make this better?This was a natural alignment to Humanitrian Values
Freely Available to deploy No discrimination on access (Red Cross CC #2)
Ability to “leave technology behind” (RC CC #6)
Rapid customization to actual needs with code L10N and integration (RC CC #5)
Building local capacities & self-reliance (RC CC #6) Open system => Transparent and trustworthy
Better acceptance than “foreign” proprietary systems
Countries/NGOs can collaborate to develop Get the best minds from the world to participate in
building the software
This should be a global public good Build on each others work by including it in project
Called Humanitarian-FOSS or H-FOSS
Lessons: Open Source in this domain had tremendous acceptance
The open source community coupled with the humanitarian community sprit provided a strong contributor motivation
“Software Engineers without Boarders”
Acceptance of an Open Source Disaster Management system and HFOSS was tremendous(UNDP IOSN, ISCRAM, AsiaOSS, Govs)
Integration and interop can be achieved by source code empowerment
LSF + IBM + Community
● 2004 - Indian Ocean Earthquake &
Tsunami
● 2005 - Pakistan - Kashmir Earthquake
● 2005 - Philippine - Landslides
● 2006 - Indonesia - Yogjakarta
Earthquake,
● 2007 - Peru - Ica Earthquake
● 2007 - Bangladesh - Cyclone Sidr
● 2008 - China - Chengdu-Sitzuan
Earthquake
● 2008 - Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis
● 2008 - India - Bihar Flooding
Sahana Open Source Phase Global Open Source Incubation Phase
LSF Team +
Global Community
Sahana
Software
Builds + Refines
Attracts + Grows
Disaster Incident
Urgent
Requirements
The importance of Community
The system is nothing without community
Expand the community to as many organizations as you can trust with the data
More capacity builds more resiliance
Creates pre-existing relationships and trust
Which a software takes to another level of efficiency
Use MoUs if needed
Don't forget there is a global community to help as well
The Community Spreads (2007)
An Open Global Community (300+)
The 4 Sub-Communities of Sahana
H-FOSS
Free & Open Source
Community
HumanitarianCommunity
(NGOs)
EmergencyManagement(Gov, UN)
AcademicResearchCommunity
Different Perspectives of the elephantSahana became a melting pot of innovation
SAHANA
“Cool Open SourceDevelopment
Platform!”
“Grass Roots: By the Community
for the Community”
“Rapidly CustomizableEM System”
“A great CrisisResearch Platform”
A Community Support Example
Multiple local groups reach out to Sahana
Call out made in Sahana community
One initiative progresses further
L10N / Promotion, QA, Deployment
IBM-China for Chendu Gov and then Police (China)
24x7 Technical Support
LSF (SL), Trinity College (US), Community Individuals
Funds and Sponsorship
IBM-Foundation (US,China)
40+ Families reunited within first few days
A Community Response Example
Lessons: Community
The diversity of our community both by geography and role created a tremendous melting pot of best practices
We had not perfected the best model
Apache “by developer for developer” was a good baseline but it was not the right model for us
We needed a model that supported “By developer, for user in ultimate benefit of victim”
Respect the meritocracy of contribution and the community will grow
When we did not respect the meritocracy we lost community
LSF + IBM + Community
● 2004 - Indian Ocean Earthquake &
Tsunami
● 2005 - Pakistan - Kashmir Earthquake
● 2005 - Philippine - Landslides
● 2006 - Indonesia - Yogjakarta
Earthquake,
● 2007 - Peru - Ica Earthquake
● 2007 - Bangladesh - Cyclone Sidr
● 2008 - China - Chengdu-Sitzuan
Earthquake
● 2008 - Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis
● 2008 - India - Bihar Flooding
We received a lot of endorsements
New Free Software Foundation (FSF) award for“Social Benefit” won and inspired by Sahana
Sourceforge Project of the Month, June 2006
Software 2006, CA USA Good Samaritan Award
One of the top 10 Open Source Project to keep an eye on – Network World article
Recognized by forums such as:
US WSIS, ISCRAM, UNDP IOSN, StrongAngel, AsiaOSS Symposium, Emergency Communications Asia
Sahana is not just Software Global Community Incubation Phase
LSF Team +
Global Community
Sahana
Software
Builds + Refines
Grows
Disaster Incident
Urgent
Requirements
GSoC, Global FOSS
First Preparedness Deployment: NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) for Shelter Management
NYC Sahana Shelter Management
NYC Sahana Intake Based on Official Paper Forms
NYC OEM Situational Awareness
The community spreads so much that people want to do new projects
The Sahana Eden is Founded
• Sahana Eden is founded
• Stronger GIS and Reporting capabilities
• Extremely Theamable
• Object Oriented (CRUD) Rapid Application Development Platform
• A structure is established to govern projects and standards
A new structure to handle multiple disaster management projects is needed
Sahana
Phase III
Sahana Software Foundation gets Established
● In 2009 a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization what
established to help promote Sahana internationally
● A Board is created to govern Sahana
● A common set of standards to run multiple projects
● Help guide vendor growth
● Membership is a Meritocracy on Contribution
● Mission: To save lives by providing information
management solutions that enable organizations and
communities to better prepare for and respond to
disasters
SSF replaced LSF as the custodian Global Community Incubation Phase
SSF + Partners
Global Community
Sahana
Software
Builds + Refines
Attracts + Grows
Disaster Incident or
Preparedness
Requirements
Preparedness Deployments● 2007 - USA - Sahana Emergency Management System
● 2009 - USA - NLM: People Locator
● 2011 - Asia Pacific - Red Cross Resource Mapping System
● 2011 - Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Project Portal
● 2012 - Africa - EUROSHA Humanitarian Mapping Platform
● 2012 - Philippines - Relief Goods & Inventory Management
● 2013 - Timor Leste - Disaster Risk Management System
● 2013 - USA - Community Resilience Mapping Tool
● 2013 - Sri Lanka - Disaster Preparedness & Response Division
● 2011 - USA - Give2LA
● 2014 - Caucasus and Central Asia - Humanitarian Data Platform
● 2014 - USA - Maritime Common Operating Platform
● 2014 - Italy - Shelters & Evacuee Management
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Project Portal
www.drrprojects.net
Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)Asia Pacific Region - 2010-present
Resource Management System
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Global - 2011-present
Red CrossResource Management System (RMS)
● Developed for the International Federation of Red Cross Societies
(IFRC)
● Used by multiple National Societies & Branches
● Manages Information on
○ Staff
○ Volunteers
○ Members
○ Warehouses
○ Assets
○ Projects
○ Assessments
Disaster Management Portal
National Disaster Operations CenterTimor Leste
Disaster Risk Management Information System (DRMIS)
● Used by multiple stakeholders in Timor-Leste
● “News Feed” for sharing situational awareness
● Profile Pages for
○ Organisations
○ Locations
○ Disasters
● Maps of Risk & Hazard Assessments
● Responsive Web Design
Community Resilience Mapping Tool
Los Angeles Department of Public HealthUSA - 2013-present
(Under Development)
Disaster Response Deployments●2010 - Venezuela - Floods
●2010 - Mexico - Veracruz Hurricane
●2010 - Pakistan - Floods
●2010 - Chile - Earthquake
●2010 - Haiti - Earthquake
●2011 - USA - Joplin Tornado
●2011 - Japan - Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami
●2011 - New Zealand - Christchurch Earthquake
●2011 - Colombia - Floods
●2012 - USA - Hurricane Sandy
●2012 - Chile - Wildfires
●2013 - Philippines - Typhoon Haiyan
●2014 - Bosnia - Floods
To Recap: Sahana is
Open Source and pro-Open Standard Strong alignment to Humanitarian Values
Global Community Built A melting pot of global innovation with
shared investment
Disaster Management A leading disaster management system
Platform Rapidly configurable for a disaster response
requirement
● 22 Disaster Response Deployments● 13 Disaster Preparedness Deployments
● 25+ Countries
Community today
● 40 members from 12 countries
● Programs
o Google Code In
o Google Summer of Code
o Sahana Internship Program
o Training program
o SahanaCamp
Lead Partners
TestimonialsFaced with disaster situations, like those lived by [Chile] in the last
days, the need for information becomes imperative. With this Smart
Center, we can significantly reduce response times for the persons that
search, and optimize volunteer work.
Lorenza Donoso, President of the Chilean Red Cross on the Sahana Eden-based Smart
Center solution, used in response to wildfires in early 2012
Sahana [Eden] is blowing my mind. I can’t think of any project we’ve
done that we couldn’t build on this platform.
@CDRP_FSU (Center for Disaster Risk Policy at Florida State University), 2012
No innovation matters more than that which saves lives.
Avelino J. Cruz, Jr., Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines on the use of
Sahana following disastrous mudslides in 2005
The Sahana Software Foundation’s commitment to supporting
grassroots, community-led organizing endeavors has been astounding.
Devin Balkind,, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Sarapis Foundation on the
Sahana Software Foundation’s response to Hurricane Sandy, 2013
☀
Recent Recognition
Computerworld Honors Laureate in Human Services 2013
Gartner “Cool Vendor” in Risk Management & Compliance 2010
Public Private Businesses Inc. Best Practices Award 2010
Ultimately it is about the Human Impact
Thank You
Chamindra de [email protected]
Ramindu [email protected]
Sahana Sitehttp://www.sahanafoundation.org
Eden Development Bookhttp://tinyurl.com/sahanabook