Remote Rescue

A couple weeks ago, while walking back from lunch at a little shawarma stand in Arlington where a smiling, happy-seeming lady dips me out mutton and chickpeas in a pita on Wednesdays, I was approached by an exuberant young lady with a neon green clipboard and streaks of fuschia in her dirty blond hair.  With head tilted and an anxious smile on her face, she approached me, "Excuse me, can I ask you a question?!"  My mind told me to run, that these surveys do little more than fill binders with mindless theses and fluff, but my heart told me to smile, and say, "Of course, what's up?!" with my eyebrows raised and forward gesture as if I was interested.  Like always, heart won out. 

"We're here from Georgetown University today and we're asking what is one thing you would do, if you could, to change the world?"  Her head tilted to the other side now and wisps of abused, frayed hair blew in the October breeze.

"I would kill the internet.  Destroy it, and make it never come back."

She gave me the look of one who pities a diseased cat hobbling across a barnyard, and then walked away. 

I know, I know.  Irony, written on a blog.  Okay, get over it. 

I'm a self-proclaimed luddite, or somebody who doesn't like technology, termed after some guys who wrecked equipment way back in the industrial era to save jobs that might potentially be lost.  I say technology euthanizes the mind, complicates life, and eradicates communication and culture. 

This week though, I ate my words once again.  A good friend  and fellow Philippines Peace Corps Volunteer who went to graduate school for a degree in remote sensing, or geographic information systems, started sending around emails about how we could all get involved in the Philippines relief efforts by mapping what we could remember about our towns. 

OpenStreetMap is an open source mapping platform where anyone with an email address and knowledge of an area can add features, such as meeting areas, schools, hospitals, and markets.  Really any features at all, to build a map, remotely, from anywhere, of a place that might not be on the radar for many. 

Enter relief agencies.  When attempting to help a remote area that hasn't been mapped, an aerial photograph just looks like a bunch of buildings to relief organizations, so it is essential to have information about the nature of the buildings, and likely places where people have congregated to get to higher ground or avoid a disaster like the recent typhoon. 

 

I have to admit, that while I have been watching the situation unfold and worrying about all of my friends in Leyte, it has been good just to feel like I'm doing something by marking all of the sturdy buildings, political subdivisions, friends houses, and gathering areas around Babatngon.  However, it looks like this tool may be making some real difference in the midst of the situation, which is a really great thing, and is being used by the Red Cross as they make initial entry into some hard hit, rural areas. 

So, long story short, I'm still a luddite, but I'm not as sure of myself.  My apologies to the fuschia highlights.  And thanks to my friend for a great idea on how to aid in the recovery from all the way over here.