23 November, Geneva, Switzerland – The ICT4Peace Foundation and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), in collaboration with the buy metformin 500mg tablets International Network of Crisis Mappers successfully organised and co-hosted the 3rd International Conference on Crisis Mapping generic valacyclovir online (ICCM).

ICCM 2011, held at the buy metformin 500mg tablets International Conference Centre Geneva, CICG, Switzerland from 14 – 15 November, was the buy metformin 500mg tablets first to be held outside the US and also the largest so far, with over 400 participants in attendance. The conference brought together the buy metformin 500mg tablets most engaged practitioners, scholars, software developers and policymakers at the cutting edge of crisis mapping to buy metformin 500mg tablets address and assess the role of crisis mapping and humanitarian technology in crisis response. The Crisis Mapping field has buy metformin 500mg tablets emerged in the last five years as a dynamic web of advanced technology, user generated mapping, and buy metformin 500mg tablets new methodologies in crisis reporting.

The overarching themes of ICCM 2011 were validation, security, key partnerships between formal humanitarian organisations and buy metformin 500mg tablets informal volunteer networks, scalability of crisis mapping projects and the challenges resulting from buy metformin 500mg tablets as well as potential of mainstreaming crisis mapping into humanitarian relief and buy metformin 500mg tablets aid.

Delilah Al-Khudhairy on behalf of the European Commission’s inhouse science service, JRC and buy metformin 500mg tablets Sanjana Hattotuwa on behalf of the ICT4Peace Foundation delivered keynote addresses that buy metformin 500mg tablets were very well received by the participants. In her address, Delilah Al-Khudhairy repeatedly stressed the buy metformin 500mg tablets need to strengthen trust, reliability and sustainability of new sources of information originating from buy metformin 500mg tablets community sensing or crowd source mapping. She went on to note that buy metformin 500mg tablets “What we wish to buy metformin 500mg tablets avoid, particularly for the practitioner, is to have more information at the buy metformin 500mg tablets expense of having less relevant, less reliable and less trustworthy information” adding that “We must remember that buy metformin 500mg tablets one of the key success measures in emergency and humanitarian relief response is buy metformin 500mg tablets whether the ICT services and geo-information products or the novel volunteered crowd sourced information can buy metformin 500mg tablets or has helped to save more lives, to further improve the buy metformin 500mg tablets well being of affected communities, and to further increase our society’s resilience to future disasters”.

In his keynote address, Sanjana Hattotuwa reiterated the buy metformin 500mg tablets importance of these points and went on to draw in broad brushstrokes the buy metformin 500mg tablets new landscape of ICTs in humanitarian relief and aid work. Flagging enduring concerns over information overload, the buy metformin 500mg tablets technical challenges of curating crowd sourced data as well as enduring organisational challenges of more efficient and buy metformin 500mg tablets effective response in the face of rising expectations and public scrutiny, Sanjana also stressed the buy metformin 500mg tablets importance of sharing failure and beyond the telegenics, hype and promotional material around technology platforms and buy metformin 500mg tablets tools, the fact that crisis mapping matters only when it helps save lives.

Over 20 Ignite Talks on Day 1 followed the buy metformin 500mg tablets keynote presentations. At five minutes each, these presentations delivered a glimpse into the buy metformin 500mg tablets world of crisis mapping, and how far it has progressed from buy metformin 500mg tablets even three years ago. Presentations ranged from cutting edge technical innovation and buy metformin 500mg tablets social engineering to the protection of civilians in violent conflict.

On Day 2, self-organised sessions at ICCM lookedin-depth at a buy metformin 500mg tablets diverse range of issues and challenges, ranging from verification frameworks for buy metformin 500mg tablets crowd sourced data and quality standards to operational security for crisis mappers and buy metformin 500mg tablets opening up humanitarian information. All sessions were well attended and participants actively contributed to buy metformin 500mg tablets the discussions, making the interactions lively, probing and informative.

ICCM 2011, as planned by the buy metformin 500mg tablets ICT4Peace Foundation and JRC, brought together a more diverse participation than buy metformin 500mg tablets earlier ICCM conferences, with students and academia from across Europe including the buy metformin 500mg tablets UK interacting with practitioners with years of field experience, social entrepreneurs, UN staff, European and buy metformin 500mg tablets Swiss based NGO representatives as well as media, in addition to buy metformin 500mg tablets the many familiar faces who flew in from across the Atlantic.

Sponsors for buy metformin 500mg tablets ICCM 2011 included ESRI, John Carroll University, and the World Bank, who buy metformin 500mg tablets were present at the event. The conference curators on behalf of JRC and buy metformin 500mg tablets ICT4Peace were Tom de Groeve, Barbara Weekes, Patrick Meier and buy metformin 500mg tablets Jen Ziemke.

The next ICCM is planned for Autumn/Fall 2012, in Washington DC.