Crisis Camp DC made history by being the first gathering of developers and coders volunteering their time and talent in response to a major crisis.** Similar to the search and rescue workers, their primary goal was first to save lives and once every single stone could be turned over in search of any vestige of life, the Camp would shift their mission to make life a little better for all Haitians (both those directly affected and those indirectly affected by the earthquake).
The keynote feature of Crisis Camps is the implementation and integration of Cloud computing. Cloud computing is critical not only because users can share resources, software, hardware, knowledge and information, but users from all over the world can collaborate on very difficult and complex tasks quickly and concisely when every second matters.
The main advantage of Cloud computing is that it is very cost effective, fast, and easy to implement. However, the economical advantages should not be the main focus. The new “gold standard” is that we are now migrating from a stovepipe database to a virtual web-based server existing in a clearly-accessible cloud.
Cloud computing makes its mark by leveling the walls and leveraging knowledge sharing. That means that any document a person has stored in his/her hard drive can be shared with others (with permission and necessary protection). Under normal circumstances the implementation of information security is extremely critical. However, not at the expense of saving lives in an emergency such as Haiti. While the search and rescue efforts from the earthquake have long been over, the rainy season is near bringing diseases such as Dysentery, Typhoid, Malaria, etc. It is the power of human kindness combined with the power of human knowledge that is visibly and markedly improving the health and welfare of the Haitian people, today.
The knowledge shared covers the whole spectrum from highly technical to broadly cultural. In Haiti, as well as just about everywhere, there are complex cultures, customs and traditions. What works in the West, may not work in an indigent, sometimes chaotic and political world that makes up Haiti’s socioeconomic environment.
One of the first pioneers in cloud computing was Amazon which in 2003 created a suite of cloud-based services which incorporated storage, computation and human intelligence called “Amazon Mechanical Turk”.2 The human intelligence was unique in that it providedprogrammers who needed to tap into the resources of people and their skillsets, an opportunity to leverage these assets resulting in a win-win solution for every player.
Today, Amazon continues to play a leading role in cloud computing with the creation of the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) which is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud, making computing easier for developers and allowing companies to quickly scale capacity, as their computing requirements change.3
Because a user can rent computers to run applications, EC2 allows for scalable deployment where a user is charged for time and service allowing for downtime and compartmentalization.
Cloud Computing came to light in the broader sense during the latter half of this decade (2006, 2007) with the implementation of web-based applications such as Google Documents, the Google word processing program or Google spreadsheets. Utilizing these applications not only saves money and resources but encourages further mobility, flexibility and collaboration.
As you might expect, the pioneers of cloud computing technology are Amazon and Google. Both companies have been known to be innovative and early adopters in emerging technology. After all, these companies are dominant social media companies and robust Web 2.0 applications such as streaming media, video and news feeds have fueled the growth of cloud computing astronomically. Since Microsoft ‘s primary revenue comes from the sales of software applications – once the majority of people start shifting from software in the silo to applications in the cloud, Microsoft’s bottom line could come crashing down.
Thus Microsoft, Intel and other non-traditional social media companies have started adopting the principles and investing billions into the hardware and software so that they don’t get left out of the sky while Google, Amazon and Yahoo soar.
In the case of Microsoft, they have invested heavily in Windows Azure Services Platform. Similar to Amazon’s EC2, Windows Azure allows one to run processes on a Windows Server in the cloud. In addition, Microsoft has built a SQL Server in the cloud
For many, the biggest concern is security. When documents and private information are stored online, for easier access, it can also be easier for criminals to locate and infiltrate. The majority of the times, the one thin line that comes between a person’s top personal or work information and information that can be freely accessed (even with due diligence) is a password. A password can be hacked, stolen; and there have been times (Google in 2008) where the website has inadvertently made confidential information public.
These are sufficient reasons many companies are resisting making the big leap to the cloud. The world financial crisis that started in the summer of 2008 and continues today has had a positive impact to the cloud, since many companies are focused on saving money and the cloud model offers a cheaper alternative to conducting meetings, saving on airfare, phone calls, and other administrative and logistical costs.
But besides corporations, many other users who are not tied to the financial industries or IT were still hesitant to jumping on the bandwagon. In addition very few individual users had adopted cloud computing as a viable way of conducting business or even personal affairs.
In addition, other market forces are driving the transition to the cloud. According to the International Development Committee, emerging markets such as Brazil, India, and China as well as the “shortcomings of traditional approaches” have fueled the growth of ITC.[1]
Since a young boy I have heard that “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.” Thus it took a natural disaster of epic proportion to create Crisis Cloud Camps that may be the trigger that will get Cloud computing the necessary credibility and worldwide visibility that gain winners.
Perhaps one of the most innovative facets of Cloud Computing is the incorporation of new applications that are built specifically for the immediate needs of the relief workers of Haiti. Hundreds of web developers have created new web-based applications (such as, the We Have, We Need project that has been hailed the “Craig’s List” for the crisis in Haiti) that allow for more specific searching or execution of specific relief for Haitians.
Essentially, it’s been able to link relief workers with the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), local Haitians, Haitians abroad, the Haitian Government and other countries to address specific needs and to get them the requisite resources quickly and efficiently.
The paradox of this situation is that the most underdeveloped nation in the Western Hemisphere is the first test bed for the implementation of cloud computing of a grand scale of international reach and premiere caliber.
This is appropriate since Haiti is one country that needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Since the earthquake is arguably the greatest natural disaster in modern times, the silver lining is that this will be the first time in recent history that a country can be completely rebuilt with the collaboration and supervision of the world’s nations.
Along with the rebuilding of infrastructure as well as their agriculture in rural parts of the country, is the rebuilding of their Information Communications Technology. Because of the demise of their telephony business, Haiti is the first nation in the world to go 100% mobile. Thus this will be great opportunity to utilize ICT and to show the world how cloud computing can be leveraged to
rebuild a nation.
rebuild a nation.
** Crisis Camp DC was founded in March 2009 at the Government 2.0 Camp -- a group of innovators gathered to discuss creating a mashup of citizen volunteers, NGOs and government organizations to respond and utilize technology during a crisis.
2 Mohamed, Arif, Computer Weekly, “A History of Cloud Computing”, Mar 27, 2009
3 Amazon Web Services: Overview of Security Processes”, November 2009
[1] Montalbano, Elizabeth, “ Economic Crisis to Bolster Cloud Computing” Network World, Oct 20, 2008
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