A few hours ago, Franklin Naval conducted the first hands-on workshop on how to use the disaster coordination tool using Google Maps at the De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB). The participants were students from the VERTSOL (Vertical Solutions for Retail Markets) of the IS (Information Systems) program of DLS-CSB. Here are some pictures:

Here’s also a video

Here’s some of the comments of the students who participated in the workshop:

“… this typhoon Ondoy disaster coordination tool is really a useful tool to look for missing people or to bring them when they are found. by using technology of Google map it help the information that people need to help others …” – Albert Bernas

“… Even though I was an IT student I have never thought of a way on how to help the victims of the typhoon tragedy that has happened in the Philippines. But now with just the help of the google map I can know find a way to not only put my IT skill in the business industry but also I could serve and help my fellow Filipinos …” – Marlo La O’

“… The coordination tool is simple and very helpful when an unexpected disaster may happen again in our country …” – Nelson Guinmapang

“… I think using Google maps in plotting the missing persons is really helpful since we are all capable of using the internet It’ll make the job easy since Google maps can show the real time situation …” – Anna Otsuka

“… In my mind, I am really am amaze on how he was able to make that tool, getting, information and incorporating it… and with the supply zone, where the fortunate people can give some relief goods, for the needy people …” – Andrew Gonzaga

“… The google map to find the Typhoon Ondoy Missing Persons is really helpful because most of the people now have internet access and it is faster update and inform people who are still missing and who are already found …” – Kia Semera Briones

“… GPS could really be handy in the situation like the typhoon ondoy, to search for missing people, example is when the people are trapped someplace where they cannot be found. if we have this GPS device, we can easily find them … “ – Rocky Ho

“… This system is good enough to be able to gain information about the people that needs help especially when it is an emergency case. I hope that this system will still improve that it can be implemented even in a small scale like in the barangays of our country …” – Nel Mateo

“… At first, I didn’t know and really doesn’t have any idea that plotting people at the google map. Not knowing that it is not allowed their, i was a bit surprised with the discussion. It was good to know that the missing persons due to typhoon Ondoy can still be tracked with the map …” – Dk Abrenica

” … The Situation Map is a very good Disaster Preparedness tool and can also help with quick Disaster Coordination plans …” – Migoy Cueto

” … Very simple yet very ingenious if you ask me. . . people whenever calamity strikes should be aware that there is this kind of technology existing in the philippines. . . we need to get our phones ready …” – Wen Genuino

” … The Typhoon Ondoy Disaster Coordination Tool was simple and very helpful. Details are organized …” – Paul Theo Collantes

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

Therese Lim of the Southeast Asia Team just posted this. Thanks Google!

1. “… We’re very saddened by the losses the Filipino people have sustained during this calamity. To help you stay up to date on the disaster and contribute to the relief efforts, we’ve put up a Help for Typhoon Ondoy Victims in the Philippines page that contains the latest news from local media outlets, lists of verified donation sites and emergency hotlines, and a volunteer-maintained map of persons needing rescue.Filipinos have been posting videos of the flooding and its aftermath on YouTube. You can also visualize the overflows along main rivers and bays in Google Earth with this kmz file.

   If you’re familiar with Google Maps and would like to get involved in the effort to map missing persons, relief centers and road conditions, you can email the volunteer team at typhoonondoy@googlegroups.com. We will continue to update the page with the latest information and imagery, and keep your eye on the Lat Long blog for updates about disaster …”

Hopefully, these kind of tools can be used to the most granular of LGU (local government unit) level in the Philippines – at the baranggay level. With these kind of tools, some of the things that can be mitigated should not happen again – maybe something like integration with Frontline SMS?

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

Our CEO Franklin Naval has been doing a yeoman’s job of updating the maps that are featured on the“Help for Typhoon Victims in the Philippines” landing page hosted by Google. The Philippines is now bracing for the onslaught of a category 5 typhoon named “Pepeng” (international code name: Parma) just right after “Ondoy” (international name: Ketsana) it devastated not only the Philippines but Vietnam, Cambodia and even Laos.  I don’t think Franklin can go on forever updating the maps so I’ll go through a walkthrough to show everyone HOW EASY this is and if we distribute the load to 20-40 people who know how to blog, this will be over in 10 MINUTES TOPS!

NOTE: Click on the photos for high-resolution

The first step is to have access to the spreadsheet (make sure you have an invite to EDIT via a GMail address – twitter me @pageman or @franknaval to get an invite). You’ll see the spreadsheet like this:

The cells with red circles are the relevant information needed – the last two cells on the right under On Map? and Who? indicates if the missing persons have been mapped already (NOT YET) and who mapped it (BLANK FOR NOW)

To find the Missing Persons Map, you can just Google “Ondoy” and you should be able to see the Google landing page for Ondoy – you should see several layers – what is of interest to you would be the Missing Persons Layer

Once you click on “Missing Persons” it should bring you the Typhoon Ondoy Missing persons page

You’ll have to scroll down and locate the “Disaster Coordination Tool (Typhoon Ondoy)” link

You will now be on the update page – try to put in the location details and the click the “Find” button until you can approximate the location where you want the marker to be (you might need to do some trial-and-error but you’ll get used to this after a few entries.

For this example, we’re trying to place the marker for “Sta Barbara, San Mateo, Rizal” which Google Maps actually finds – once you’re satisfied where the marker (yes! the red coloured teardrop-shaped thingie) is – go ahead and fill out the details on the left side (you can get the info from the spreadsheet!)

Once you’ve put in all the relevant information, click on “Report” – the page will now prompt you to double-check your entries

Double-check your entries and if you’re happy that everything is in order, click on “Ok” and it will be sent. You should see the next page that says:

“Successfully saved your report.
Please report as much information for the authorities.
Thank you!”

Go back to the spreadsheet and then under the column “On Map?” mark it “Yes” and on “Who”, put your name in. If there’s not enough info to locate the marker you can just mark it with “Needs More Info” and then sign your name

You should then be able to see your mapped “Missing Person” on the “Missing Persons” layer in the Google Landing Page after you Save the spreadsheet and close it

You can zoom in to check your entry

The whole system was put up to cover a whole swath of disaster area comprising of several cities. This can be built on a baranggay level so that there’s enough granularity to account for every citizen. The great thing is that this can be hosted on the cloud and can complement existing disaster management systems like http://sahana.kahelos.org and HISG’s International Disaster Response Network. Some of my IS students in Benilde were able to update these maps in a few minutes with minimum instructions – it should be something straightforward and simple enough for everyone else.

The Disaster Coordination Tool is the brainchild of Dan Delima from Google Tokyo.  Looking at what they have now, Dan says:

“I was hoping that the volunteers could skip the coordination spreadsheet and just keep putting info on facebook/twitter. I mean,  I was hoping all the volunteers just used the tool directly to report everything they see in facebook/twitter in the spreadsheet so that people won’t duplicate input”

Some future improvements in the tool that will be incorporated in a few days will be the ability for the mappers to vote which entries are relevant (this will solve the “information aging”/data relevance issue) and also the ability to search for duplicate entries.

If you want to put up your Disaster Response and Management Systems in the cloud or even be trained about it – give us a buzz on @quadraforte

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

I just got this from Quadra Forte CEO, Franknlin Naval – the Typhoon Ondoy Relief Goods Donation Centers map is now up!

Other maps of interest that the Typhoon Ondoy Mapping Group (typhoonondoy@googlegroups.com) are working on right now:

Typhoon Ondoy Incident Form (http://bit.ly/ondoymapresponse)

Typhoon Ondoy Situation Map (http://bit.ly/ondoysitmap)

Typhoon Ondoy Locator (better search! within map, using points) (http://bit.ly/ondoylocator)

Typhoon Ondoy Donation Form (to populate the Donation Centers map): http://bit.ly/ondoydonationform

If you want to help and be part of the Mapping Group contact Franklin Naval at franklin.naval@gmail.com

Of course, there’s now the HELP for Typhoon Ondoy Victims in the Philippines page by Google (thanks!)

Posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

After finding out how to deploy Spree over Heroku (as an academic experiment in school) – here’s the next step: Deploying something like Spree or Substruct over Web2Py. Why Web2Py? As this site explains, Web2Py is a:

“Free and open source full-stack enterprise framework for agile development of fast, secure and portable database-driven web-based applications. Written and programmable in Python.”

also

”

• Runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, Windows Mobile, and on the Google App Engine
• Requires no installation and can run off a USB drive
• Has no configuration files. You just unzip it and click on it
• Includes a multi-threaded wsgi-compliant web-server (also works with Apache and others)
• Includes a transaction-safe relational database (sqlite)
• Includes a web-based integrated development environment (demo)
• Includes a ticketing system to help you debug deployed applications
• Includes a sophisticated Database Abstraction Layer that can handle joins, left joins, nested selects, aggregates, transactions and distributed transactions. Writes SQL code for you, transparently and in real time, for SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, FireBird and Oracle
• Automatically generates a web-based database administrative interface for your applications
• Prevents the most common types of vulnerabilities: Cross Site Scripting, Injection Flaws, and Malicious File Execution
• Enforces good Software Engineer practices (Model-View-Controller design, Server-side form validation, postbacks)”

Go through the site for more of Web2Py’s functionalities. I’d like to see something industry-grade run on it.

Want to know who’s working on this? Check out the new start-up I’m involved with, it’s QuadraForte and I’m now their new software evangelist!

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo