On or about January 12th, 2010 global humanitarian response changed in dramatic ways. In the aftermath of the staggering destruction of the Haiti earthquake a new type of massively distributed, mobile, networked, digitally skilled and popularly empowered disaster response community took shape. Crisis mappers logged hundreds of thousands of tweets, traced tens of thousands of roads and buildings in OpenStreetMap, geo-tagged thousands of critical infrastructure points, and from an enormous range of locations around the world devoted themselves to helping make the relief effort for the Haitian people more targeted, efficient and effective than it otherwise would have been. Crisis mapping did not by itself solve any of the multitude of catastrophic problems involved in the relief and recovery effort, but it did succeed in shining a set of bright lights on significant areas of focus for the relief effort, and in bringing a significant new force from the global digital crowd to bear on the work of finding survivors, assessing damage and guiding humanitarian assistance.
Patrick Meier was present at the creation as one of the central figures of this movement. Since 2010 he has participated as our principal "crowdsourcerer" in literally dozens of crisis response activities. Along the way he has been instrumental in defining the field of big data for humanitarian assistance. His book, Digital Humanitarians, is an essential guide to how the digital crowd entered the space of humanitarian response, how that movement has both succeeded and failed at times over the past five years, the challenges and contradictions that have been faced during global crises from the Arab Spring to Typhoon Haiyan, as well as the future promise of merging big data from below with humanitarian assistance from above for building more disaster resilient communities throughout the world.
Digital Humanitarians is remarkable combination of user's manual, social history and personal memoir. In an important sense, it's maybe best understood as a kind of Bildungsroman for the digital humanitarian community told through voice of Patrick himself as he struggles in the midst of living history to build, guide and understand the new digital crisis response community. But the story never remains personal, always moving across multiple registers of technology, politics, natural disasters and social movements. Through the pages of Digital Humanitarians we get to think along with Patrick as he takes two or three giant steps forward (and sometimes two or three steps back too) in pursuit of an emergent global movement based in humanitarian ideals and the dynamic combination of millions of concerned human beings throughout the world with the new constellation of social media, geospatial technologies and mobile computing networks. Along the way he faces political obstacles, technological challenges, incessant criticism and massively inflated expectations. But to Patrick's credit, he never loses track of the actual purpose of all this activity, in the creation of a better world for the most vulnerable among us.
Read this book, absorb these lessons, travel down some of the virtual pathways suggested here by Patrick, and you too will become part of a larger world of Digital Humanitarians. You'll never look back.
Add Prime
to get Fast, Free delivery
$39.12 with 39 percent savings
List Price: $63.99 
The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Learn more
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Frequently bought together
This item: Digital Humanitarians
$39.12
Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
Only 7 left in stock - order soon.
+
$28.42
Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
In Stock
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
- Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and VisualsHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
- Statistics Done Wrong: The Woefully Complete GuidePaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Jan 6
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Disaster ManagementHardcoverFREE Shipping by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
- The Politics of Crisis ManagementPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
- Budget Tools: Financial Methods in the Public SectorPaperbackFREE Shipping by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
- The Social Roots of Risk: Producing Disasters, Promoting Resilience (High Reliability and Crisis Management)Kathleen TierneyPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jan 3
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015
Top reviews from other countries
-
Olivier LebelReviewed in France on August 31, 2016
La référence pour les approches numériques dans l'humanitaire
-
Susanne ElfriedeReviewed in Germany on September 12, 2015
Praxisbezogener Einblick von Big Data Nutzung im Katastrophenmanagement
