Changes between Version 30 and Version 31 of BluePrintCERT


Ignore:
Timestamp:
03/16/12 16:15:54 (13 years ago)
Author:
Laura Lanford
Comment:

expanded description

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  • BluePrintCERT

    v30 v31  
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    4 In the US, CERT Teams are local emergency response teams based on volunteers that take 20 hour initial training, and much continuing education, to be certified community response helpers in an emergency. They get mobilized to force-multiply the first responders, when all government-owned response teams are maxed out and overwhelmed. Famous ones are e.g. the LA CERT, the Arlington County CERT here in the area, and others.
     4Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) are local, disaster trained volunteer groups that, among other responsibilities, provide trained support when an emergency overwhelms a community's resources.
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    6 CERTs have limited recourses and no standard equipment, so providing tools for them to register and organize their users beyond list-servs, assign responsibilities, keep track of skill-sets, general community management etc.
     6There are more than 1800 CERTs in the U.S, most of whom are there for small communities that have limited professional emergency response capability.  They are a valuable resource that are very often underutilized due to coordination.  There are commercial platforms available to coordinate volunteers, but most have two serious issues:  complexity and cost.
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    8 Project started at RHoK December 2010:
     8Sahana-Eden offered a promising open source solution for coordination both within and between CERTs.  Since Chicago CERT and Sahana-Eden first collaborated in late 2010, we have talked to dozens of CERTs teams to design a solution specific to CERTs and their unique needs and workflows.
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     10Our goal is to make the Sahana-CERT branch intuitive and flexible, to allow it to be used easily by non-technical CERT coordinators but still allow access to Sahana's powerful functionality.  Our focus at Random Hacks of Kindness 2011 was to create a comfortable, intuitive interface that would allow any CERT coordinator to use Sahana-Eden "out of the box".  The RHoK team did an amazing job, which can be seem at the demo site, and won first place at RHoK Austin for their work.
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     12We are already getting requests from CERTs all over the United States who are desperate for a solution like this.  CERTs receive relatively little funding, most of which goes to training and equipment for their volunteers.  Many coordinators have neither the time to implement a custom solution nor the money to purchase a commercial solution. 
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     14The opportunity to have a world class system like Sahana-Eden, customized for CERTs, just for the cost of maintaining the instance is a wonderful thing.  After evaluation of our beta implementation with City of Chicago, the Sahana-CERT branch will be available for use by every CERT in the country.  This could improve the emergency response outcomes of hundreds of communities struck by local and large scale disasters.
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     16Our next big push, which we hope to complete over this years Summer Of Code, includes the following:
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     19Sahana supports Rapid Application Development and has a worldwide network of generous, knowledgeable developers. This event is an excellent introduction to developing for the Sahana platform. If you know Python, JavaScript or CSS design, please consider joining the collaboration!
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     22The Sahana/CERT collaboration was started at RHoK December 2010:
    923 * [http://wiki.rhok.org/CERTS Problem Definition]
    1024 * [http://www.slideshare.net/miketewing/certr-ho-k Final RHoK Status Presentation]
    1125 * [http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhok_chicago/sets/72157625529538216/ Photos]
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    13 Continued at RHoK 2011:
     27And continued at RHoK 2011, where it won first prize at RHoK - Austin
    1428 * [wiki:BluePrintCERT/RHoK2011]
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