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LAMY: So, good morning. So, I'm very glad to be here. So, my name is France Lamy. I'm
a team member of [INDISTINCT], a part of the Google.org. So my background, I'm an agricultural
engineer by training. So, I did PHD and GIS decision-making multiple criteria, yes, decision-making
at Oregon State University and I spent--I've been at Google for one year and a half almost.
And I spent almost, you know, 15 years working at the international level with the United
Nations and different research centers in Latin America and in Africa. So I'm--let's
say 50% of my time, part of my time I work with the Google Crisis Response Team at Google.
So, when I--you know, I will give you a short summary of what we do in terms of, you know,
in the--in terms of the different efforts in the disaster and--during the disaster cycle.
Disaster Cycles, first we consider different phases of prevention preparedness, response
rehabilitation and reconstruction. So as of now, our efforts have been mainly in terms
of preparedness and response effort to crisis. Crisis first it's--we're still, you know,
we're finding our criteria in terms of, you know, worse, you know--when should we act
and what should be the action as well that are triggered. That when do we involve our,
you know, our team at Google to, you know, to--to be involved and how. So, first the
crisis is--so, it's when their, you know, vast amount of, you know, of let's say human
suffering and natural resources are devastated and there is a need for local communities
need external assistance either at national level or international level. And as you know,
so, rapid response is key in terms of--to be efficient in terms of your response and
to be, you know, to--to provide a timely and let's say, very targeted response, you need
to have real time information. So, real time information of--about the population that
might be affected, who they are, where--where are they, what are their needs and you need
to be able to monitor these information in real time, over, you know, certainly the response
effort, but over time as well, you know, throughout the--throughout the--the relief and rehabilitation
efforts. And there are many different organizations that are involved. Some interested in providing,
you know, water, food. Others, its shelter. Other are collecting data. So, you need to
have--you need to have platform for your information systems. We have gathered information from
these; you know, at multi-scale and as well, multi-domain--multi-domain data. So, and--and
in real time. And Google is uniquely positioned to facilitate these data in times of the crisis,
you know, from data collection to publishing aggregation and disseminating to the world,
[INDISTINCT] let's say, fashion. And we have demonstrated it, you know, it started--a good
example is the Katrina, hurricane Katrina, were we--communities used our technology to
publish information about their needs; what's going--what's--what was going on--on the ground
and as well, you know. Few hours after the hurricane we published more than 4,000 imagery
that's, you know, may--that we made available to the world, specifically to the responders,
so that can inform their--their actions. So, four years later, so perhaps your are aware--we
at Google we can--at Google we can--each googlers can provide 20% of his time to a project of
his interest. So for instance, for the Katrina efforts, you know, there are, you know, many,
many googlers that volunteer to help with this crisis. And four years later, now we
have a team, a dedicated team that we call the Google Crisis Response that's a--is operational--has
been operational for six months now. So, we're still--we're working on defining our strategy
to--we do not want to duplicate efforts and we need to certainly to coordinate ours to
the ones of the, you know, happening at national and international level. We need to understand
the landscape of, you know, of efforts. So, for us it's really to develop, build, extend
technologies to, you know, to facilitate the flow of information, so rapid dissemination
of information. So, it involves as well as you know, you know, processes, partnership
development. And we have four angle in terms--and the ultimate vision, sorry, it's really to
improve the global response, you know, and commit--support community action at--on the
ground. So, support for relief responders. And we have four main entry points. So, as
I mentioned; building, extending technology to facilitate, to provide the operational
pictures to responders. As well coordinate efforts with international organizations,
building their capacity because we want to make sure that what we--technology we developed
is being sustained and owned by the--these organizations and certainly a response to
ongoing crisis. So, for the last year we have responded to more than 15 different crises
around the world. So, focus areas--so, this is just, you know, just to give you a short
overview, so some examples. So, we have a virtual team. So, our team is led by field
[INDISTINCT] Jeff Martin, who are part of the GO team but I'm a member of that org.
We have--we have representative from various units across Google, so we are really a virtual
team. Part of my responsibility have been to build partnership with UN organization
around data sharing, data sharing, yes, to make sure that not just in times of crisis
but beforehand as well, because when a disaster strike, it's no time to, you know, to look
for data and to use your contact. You need to be--to have this information available
beforehand. As well building the capacity, you know, certainly to use our GO products,
but there are other technology like just the one that Gaetano--Gaetano, you know, demonstrated.
So, we just tested it for instance in a--in an exercise that we had in Cambodia a couple
of weeks ago. So, it's really to expose different technologies out there and see if it's a good
fit for these--these--let's say these humanitarian organizations and to, you know, to improve
their efficiency in terms of their response. So, we have as well--we are interested, it's
something that we are very much interested. Indeed, it's--how can we, you know, combine
these different technology and facilitate real time flow of information. Information
could be, you know, photos, could be imagery, could be SMS, GIS data, spreadsheets, blogs.
How can we combine in real time all these different type of information and make it
accessible across platforms. It could be the web, radio, satellite, etc. So, we are engaged
to help us, you know, better understand, you know, how can we, you know, move forward on
this? We're engaged with this communal routine protocol community which WMO, the World Meteorological
Organization is very much involved. So, this is a standard that it's emerging, that facilitate
the flow of alert information across system. But there are still many issues, you know,
to be resolved. How can you communicate with organizations that are not connected? How
do you combine information from different formats, etc, etc. So, we have a lot more
to learn, so it's why we try to engage with various organizations within the US and outside
as well. So, just to give you an idea. So this is what we--an example, you know, we
act at--as I mentioned, so--so we monitor, let's say a disaster or--yes, disaster over
time, so when one disaster or crisis occur, so we have a chart. This is your matrix that
help us decide if we should engage or not and at--in what fashion. For instance, for
the--one example, for the cyclone Nargis, so we partnered with UINICEF and UNICEF, it's
one of the UN organization that provide the satellite solution to organization within
and outside the UN. So, they had the tracks of the cyclone and they had as well imagery
of all the--the flooded area. So, we published this information on, you know, on our website.
So, that was made available to--to the world and hopefully, inform some of the response
effort on the ground. Another example is we were involved, for example in Dakota with
the flooding, so we partnered with a radio station and across the networks--the radio
station networks and far goes to the embedded my map on their website so they could provide
in real time information about--about the shelters, evacuated areas and other information
of interest for the responders. Just lately, you know, last--not a long time ago, so we,
in June of this year, so we partnered with UNHCR to create this virtual maps that--it's
a Google earth tour, so that shows the refugee camps across the--across the globe to provide
some insight in the life of these refugee and hopefully, we'll raise awareness about
human rights issues around the world. So, there are different, as you see there are
different levels, you know, that we are, you know, the--that we're engaged with--with these
different organizations. So, when we have--so, as I mentioned early on, so we are still very
new. So, we are still trying to, you know, to develop a comprehensive and proactive strategy
to response to a--to respond to a--to a disaster. So, what's coming next for us? So, we will--we
will continue in the fall. So, this is in the fall to engage with developers and users.
So, we will be contributing and even leading some of Hackathon crisis--Hackathon activities
partner for instance. There's one that will partner with Microsoft and Yahoo to see how
together, you know, we can try to add some of the main gaps, you know, that's--that needs
to be addressed to be more effective--to have a more let's say proactive response. And we
will be involved as well in indifferent GIS conference and one of them is very interesting.
It's in Uganda in--at Africa GIS. It's one of the biggest GIS conferences in Africa every
two years. So, we hope to be there. Well provide training activities and it will be, you know.
All these activities--activities allow us to provide us with the opportunity to engage
with, you know, more partners, more key institution that can inform the way we do our work. So,
hopefully, as [INDISTINCT], you know, to some of these--you might be, you know, attending
some of these, so perhaps we can continue the conversation there. If not, if you have
any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Thank you. Yes.
>> [INDISTINCT] >> LAMY: Yes.
>> I'm trying to figure out what it is and why are the [INDISTINCT] crises different
from these [INDISTINCT] activities in terms of the functionality that people want to grab
an access to information and analysis and so on and so forth. Obviously, there's greater
urgency and greater consequences to [INDISTINCT] knowingly provided but are there different
things that people want to [INDISTINCT] crisis with the different certain [INDISTINCT] available
on the ground crisis or certain [INDISTINCT]. Why does this have to be[INDISTINCT] problems
and general problems of these things [INDISTINCT] available for people [INDISTINCT].
>> LAMY: Yes. But in times of a--so, in terms of--in terms of a crisis, for instance in
Myanmar, you may not have connectivity. So, how are our technology works without being
connected? So, this is a key [INDISTINCT]. So, this is a--I can't furnish...
>> [INDISTINCT] >> LAMY: Yes. Certainly, the yes. The--the
network of, you know, how do you collect information in real time and then share it across? You
need to be--you need to be even more efficient because you need to share information across,
you know, across organizations, as well. >> [INDISTINCT] resources?
>> LAMY: Yes, certainly. All the time but there are some constraints, for instance Internet
connectivity, that's one for instance. And as well, you need to have, you know, to have
real time information about, you know--as I was--you know, imagery for instance. You
need to--we are still working on the--on the developing partnership with space agencies
to make this information, you know, available a couple of hours after a disaster. You want
for instance--for us, perhaps, it's in the US. It's a--we, you know, we believe that,
you know, having access to know where are the health facilities might be obvious but
if you are in, you know, in other part of the world, this data might not be available.
So, it's, you know--and even some data in the US might not be available in times of
a crisis. You see what are the, you know, the--Katrina. I'm sure you are aware of all
the--the problems and it happens here. So, there are a lot of things that you can--situation,
a crisis situation certainly impose more constraints to our processes and the technology.
>> So, every thing you said of course, is absolutely right but I think you were right
in your question is that people are willing to compromise and just do it to make it happen.
So, whether its privacy or lower resolution or less efficient or less perfect, they just
do it... >> LAMY: Yes.
>> and well, then hack it together. So, there's huge opportunity not just constraint.
>> LAMY: Yes. Yes, I agree. >> I think it's also, just that, in a crisis
mode people are not going to their routine channels.
>> LAMY: Yes. >> And I, you know, in regular operation you
can develop over time how--what your information resources are and make sure they're right.
Toward that end, have you thought about tools to help organizations do exercises and advance,
you know, hypothetical scenarios... >> LAMY: Of course. Yes.
>> ...where they say, you know, will I have the information resources if this kind of
thing happens? Will I know how to do that? >> LAMY: Yes, yes, yes. Yes and we have colleagues
with that. We'll be testing our, you know, some of our technology in the US but you know,
without connectivity and so when, you know, a crisis or--yes, a crisis mode let's say.
Yes, and we for instance, when I mentioned we were in Cambodia a couple of, you know,
weeks ago. So, that was the idea as well. So, how does our tool work in such setting?
So, and then we may, you know, inform their development, yes.
>> One problem that arises in the crisis setting is that the agencies come together that don't
normally work with each other. >> LAMY: Yes. That's it.
>> And one of the problems that I read about is that they use different record formats,
different wireless frequencies, different modes of operations, so they can't actually
communicate with each other. >> LAMY: Yes.
>> So, are you doing something about that? >> LAMY: You know, we try to support these
communities but it's really, you know, a global effort. But for instance, I mentioned common
alerting protocols. So, if we can advance that standard so that we'll facilitate the
flow of information, at least, you know, in terms of alerts. You know, bringing--if there
are some org--not, for instance within the UN, a few organization use that protocol but
if you can, you know, we can develop technology that use and take advantage of this and support,
promote this standards. So hopefully, you know, more organization will use this standard
and then we--you will improve the response. But certainly, you know, if such standards
as well could be--could be advanced for all type of information, that would be--that's--it's
also our goal. It's really to facilitate the flow of information starting with the alerts,
let's say but then this--yes. >> Okay.
>> Any more questions? Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> LAMY: Thank you very much.