collaborative innovation in humanitarian affairs - organization and governance in the era of digital...

COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION IN HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRSOrganization and Governance in the Era of Digital Humanitarianism

1 October 2013

AUTHORS

Mary Eileen Milner ([email protected]) Master of Global Affairs 2014 Candidate, Munk School of Global Affairs

Andrej Verity (@andrejverity) United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DESIGNER

Ana Macau ([email protected]) Master in Design’2013 Universidade Lusofona de Humanidades e Tecnologias

A Note on Method:

This report has been prepared as a literature review on the subject of digital humanitarianism,

organizational governance, and innovation in humanitarian affairs. Primary research (i.e. first-

person interview) has not been conducted in order for this initial effort to remain as neutral and

objective a possible. This report provides an overview of what scholars and experts are saying on

this subject and is designed to lay the foundation for further research into this area. Stage two of

this research initiative should involve primary research with representatives of both the formal

humanitarian organizations and the V&TCs.

mailto:[email protected]

CONTENTS 1. Introduction: The Opportunity for Innovation............................................................................. 4

2. The Evolution of the Humanitarian System ................................................................................. 8

2.1. History of Humanitarianism ................................................................................................ 8

2.2. Humanitarianism in the 21st Century .................................................................................... 8

3. Innovation in Humanitarian Affairs ............................................................................................ 15

3.1. Aid in the ‘Age of Participation’: The Emergence of V&TCs .............................................. 15

3.2. Internal Revolutions: Change in Formal Humanitarian Organizations ............................. 24

4. Obstacles to Further Innovation ................................................................................................ 33

4.1. Growing Pains: Organizational Maturation of the V&TCs .................................................. 33

4.2. Relinquishing the Reins: Becoming an Adaptive Formal Organization ............................... 39

5. Towards Integration: The Digital Humanitarian Network ......................................................... 43

5.1. Recommendations for the formal humanitarian system ................................................... 44

5.2. Recommendations for V&TCs ............................................................................................. 45

5.3. Recommendations for the Digital Humanitarian Network ................................................. 48

Annex 1: Inventory of DHN Member Organizational Development .............................................. 52

Annex 2: Elements of Governance and Organization .................................................................... 68

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 79

3 | 84

INNOVATE: To change (a thing) into something new; to alter; to renew.1

1 "innovate, v.", OED Online, June 2013, Oxford University Press, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/96310?redirectedFrom=innovate (accessed August 21, 2013).

COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION IN HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS

Organization and Governance in the Era of Digital Humanitarianism

4 | 84

1. INTRODUCTION: THE OPPORTUNITY FOR INNOVATION For nearly two decades, experts have been discussing the potentials and pitfalls of the ‘digital

revolution.' The unrelenting development of new information and communication

technologies (ICTs) has fundamentally altered the way that individuals, businesses,

organizations, and governments interact with each other.2 Furthermore, these developments

have forced organizations to change internally so that they can be more reactive and adaptive

to this constantly changing environment. This ‘organizational innovation’ has created several

alternative models for organizational structure that are now used across communities,

networks, businesses, and institutions. One such example, the ‘network organization,’ was

expected to “[sound] the death knell for the industrial age corporation,”3 due to its flattened,

decentralized, transparent, and low-cost nature. Indeed, the spread of ICTs has increased

transparency and accountability by opening up previously closed systems to examination by

the global community. Particularly, the concept of governance is being drastically affected as

Don Tapscott predicted in 1999:

[The] power of taxation, the policy process, access to communication tools, and the control of information – areas in which government could once exert virtually unchallenged authority – are being whittled away by an interconnected world – by digital citizens and corporations that no longer have to check in with government first.4

However, the vision of revolutionized organizational structures has proven more difficult than

expected to realize, especially in the public sector or international institutions, such as the

United Nations.

The Oslo Manual on Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data, broadly defines

innovation within organizations as “the implementation of a new or significantly improved

product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational

method in business practices, workplace or external relations.”5 Organizations undertake

2 Anton Wholers, "Digital Governance," Choice 4 (2010): 627. 3 Don Tapscott and David Agnew, "Governance in the Digital Economy," Finance & Development 4 (1999): 35. 4 Ibid, p 36. 5 OECD/Statistical Office of the European Communities, "Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data," Last modified 2005, Accessed August 20, 2013, www.oecd.org/sti/oslomanual. 46.



5 | 84

innovation projects for myriad reasons, but typically, they are meant “to improve firm

performance, for example, by increasing demand or reducing cost.”6 In the private sector,

being an innovative firm gives it a ‘market advantage’ and so there is considerable incentive to

become an organization which fosters, supports, and implements innovation projects. 7

Meanwhile, the public and international institutions that provide public goods such as

healthcare, education, development, and crisis response have remained protected by high

barriers to entry and lack of competition for their services, and as such, have been slow to

evolve. Partly as a result of this stagnation, outside actors have begun to ‘challenge the status

quo’ by developing new networks, tools and initiatives that better meet the needs of the

public.

In the field of humanitarian affairs, this trend has manifested in the emergence of Volunteer

and Technical Communities (V&TCs) – networks of digital global citizens who have identified,

and moved to fill, gaps in international crisis response. These digital communities harness

‘collective intelligence,’8 and utilize everything from radio broadcasts to social media, in order

to exchange vital information during response to natural, environmental, or complex

emergencies. These efforts have increasingly been able to augment the capabilities of those

agencies which traditionally respond to significant humanitarian crises: United Nations

agencies, national agencies, and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). Due

to this newfound competition from these nontraditional actors, the formal humanitarian

system is considering innovation projects, in regards to their products and services and in

terms of how they manage relationships with external partners. Yet, despite best efforts,

“transforming the structures of government from command-and-control hierarchies to

innovative and agile networks of public and private participants is proving to be a major

challenge.”9

Additionally, despite the recognition that V&TCs have considerable potential benefits for

humanitarian response, major questions about their role remain: What exactly is a V&TC?

What do they do? How do they conduct their work? How can they better contribute to the

humanitarian system as it already exists? These questions remain unanswered and, therefore, 6 Ibid, p 29. 7 Ibid, p 29. 8 Ann Macintosh, "The emergence of digital governance," Significance (2008): 178. 9 Anthony D. Williams, "Government 2.0, Wikinomics and the Challenge to Government," Canadian Government Executive 1 (2008), accessed June 10, 2013, <http://anthonydwilliams.com/wp-content/uploads/government-20.pdf>.



6 | 84

V&TCs as actors are seen to be a nebulous, unfamiliar, and unfortunately at times, an

unwelcome addition to humanitarian affairs.10 Currently, the formal humanitarian system and

V&TCs seem opposed on two sides of an equation: humanitarian organizations are criticized

for being so structured that bureaucratic red tape prevents them from being truly effective,

whereas V&TCs are criticized for lack of control and reliability due to the absence of

organizational structure, policies, and procedures. While these criticisms may be fair, they are

certainly not universally true for all humanitarian organizations or V&TCs. There are many

examples to be found of organizational innovation occurring with the humanitarian sector and

of V&TCs carefully outlining their working structures. However, this progress towards

equilibrium has been difficult and at times, painful.

This paper seeks to examine organizational innovation in both traditional humanitarian

organizations and V&TCs, with a look at how they may come together on an ‘innovation co-

operation’ project that would better support the development of both groups. Firstly, by

examining the history of the humanitarian system we see that the challenge posed by

volunteer networks, technology, and innovation are not new. In fact, the humanitarian system

was originally started by volunteers, has been spurred by technology and is, in and of itself, an

innovation in the established system of international relations based on sovereign states.

Secondly, we look at the innovations being pushed by both V&TCs and the central coordinator

of humanitarian affairs - the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian

Affairs - in order to improve humanitarian response. However, these efforts must be made

sustainable and so thirdly, we examine the necessary organizational and governance

developments that each group should consider undertaking in order to be more effective in

achieving their goals. Lastly, because each side of this equation will never truly be able to

replace the other, collaboration is essential to leveraging the benefits of ICTs for humanitarian

response. As such, this report reiterates the recommendations of numerous experts on this

subject in suggesting that an ‘innovation co-operation’ project be taken on by an intermediary

organization. At this point in time, the recently established Digital Humanitarian Network

(DHN) is the natural organization to take on this role.

10 Andrea H. Tapia, Kathleen A. Moore and Nichloas J. Johnson, "Beyond the Trustworthy Tweet: A Deeper Understanding of Microblogged Data Use by Disaster Response and Humanitarian Relief Organizations," paper presented at the 10th International ISCRAM Conference, Baden-Baden, Germany, May 2013, accessed August 9, 2013, <http://www.iscramlive.org/ISCRAM2013/files/121.pdf>, p 775.



7 | 84

The emergence of V&TCs as new actors in this system presents both a challenge and an

opportunity to the traditional humanitarian system. These groups offer a substantial

advantage in information management, yet, due to their nontraditional nature, concerns exist

regarding the quality and reliability of their work and their adherence to the underlying

humanitarian principles - the very principles which allow the humanitarian system to exist in

the face of state sovereignty. However, the potential benefits to affected populations offered

by the successful integration of V&TCs into the humanitarian system are too great to ignore.

In fact, the humanitarian system puts itself at risk of irrelevance if it fails to adapt to the

changing landscape. As we shall see, V&TCs, particularly the successful ones, are not as much

of a departure from the traditional system as one might expect, and therefore, the greatest

obstacle to their integration may not be policies and procedures, but a merging of perspective

between the two sides of current humanitarian response.



8 | 84

2. THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMANITARIAN SYSTEM

2.1. HISTORY OF HUMANITARIANISM Historically, both volunteers and new technologies have been the spark which spurred

innovation in humanitarian affairs. Looking at the formal humanitarian system as it stands

now, it is easy to forget, “international humanitarian relief started mainly as an amateur

volunteer service.”11 The modern humanitarian system can trace its roots back to the

establishment of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863.12 It was then that

“Henry Dunant, a citizen of Geneva, horrified after witnessing 40,000 men wounded and

moaning in pain after a murderous battle between the French and the Italians, decided to fight

for a new idea: to impose on armed forces and the states they represent a neutral space of

intervention that would enable the wounded to receive, with complete impartiality, the aid

and medical care due them.”13 Dunant’s work and his principles of humanitarianism –

impartial assistance, neutrality, and independence – are the foundations upon which a largely

volunteer humanitarian movement became an internationally established presence in global

affairs. Over the past 150 years, these principles have allowed the humanitarian system to

develop directly in the face of state sovereignty, the principle of non-intervention, and realist

international politics, to become the system that we know today. The humanitarian system “is

now active across the world in a

range of operations: responding to

needs in situations of conflict or

natural disasters, supporting

displaced populations in acute and

protracted crises, risk reduction and

preparedness, early recovery,

11 John Holmes, "Humanitarian Response in the 21st Century," Brown Journal of World Affairs 2 (2011): 113. 12 Eleanor Davey, John Borton, and Matthew Foley, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute, "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," last modified June 2013, accessed August 2, 2013, <http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8439.pdf>, p 5. 13 Yvan Conoir, Peace Operations Training Institute, "The Conduct of Humanitarian Relief Operations: Principles of Intervention and Management," last modified 2002, accessed August 2, 2013, <http://cdn.peaceopstraining.org/course_promos/humanitarian_relief_ops/humanitarian_relief_ops_english.pdf>, p 6.

The formal the formal humanitarian system as we know it today, is based on a volunteer movement that was spurred by technology and is a major innovation in the realm of international relations.



9 | 84

livelihoods support, conflict resolution and peacebuilding.”14 However, this evolution has been

a constant struggle and the current system is the result of many hard lessons learned from

both success and failure.

In A History of the Humanitarian System, Davey, Borton, and Foley outline four distinct phases

of intellectual and organizational development in humanitarian affairs. Firstly, the period

between the establishment of the ICRC and the First World War saw the adoption of the 1864

Geneva Convention for The Amelioration of the Wounded in Time of War15 and the first

International Congress of Lifesaving and First Aid in the Event of Accidents in 1908.16 These

milestones are largely credited to, “nineteenth century technologies such as the telegraph and

the steam engine [which] shortened the distance between suffering abroad and public interest

at home.”17 As a result of this increasing connectivity, and the “universality of the Red Cross

movement,” there was significant “political and civil mobilization” behind the effort to

establish the organizational structure and international legal framework for

humanitarianism.18

Secondly, following World War I, international relations between nation states were

institutionalized with the creation of the League of Nations. This experiment in global

governance was further developed following World War II with the establishment of the

United Nations in 1945.19 During this period, the international community adopted articles

such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Prevention and

Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, additional Geneva Conventions, and entities such as

UNICEF, the WHO and the International Refugee Organization (precursor to the UNHCR) were

established. This allowance of the humanitarian system to develop above the level of nation

states is a significant development in international law and international relations - an

innovation. This shift away from absolute sovereignty could be said to have begun the erosion

of the power of ‘the state’ - a process which today is seemingly accelerated by ICTs.20 It is

14 Davey et al., "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," p 1. 15 Conoir, "The Conduct of Humanitarian Relief Operations: Principles of Intervention and Management," p 6. 16 Davey et al.,"A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," p 6. 17 Davey et al., "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," p 35. 18 Conoir, "The Conduct of Humanitarian Relief Operations: Principles of Intervention and Management," p 6-7. 19 Davey et al., "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," p 8-9. 20 Mathews, Jessica. "Power Shift." Foreign Affairs 1 (1997): 50-66.



10 | 84

crucial to remain aware however that the humanitarian system occupies a unique and

precarious position in international relations and is allowed to exist due to the principles upon

which it is founded. Although the internet may provide the illusion of statelessness, those who

participate in humanitarian activities online are still subject to national and international law.

Third, during the period of the cold war, NGOs took on a greater role in providing relief. The

system also saw a change in focus from Europe, to the global South, where humanitarianism

began to address issues of ‘poverty and inequality.21 At this point in time, there was a massive

increase both in the number of NGOs and the scope of their activities. Mathews argues, “the

most powerful engine of change in the decline of states and the rise of nonstate actors is the

computer and telecommunications revolution,” because “the internet [connects] people

across borders with exponentially growing ease while separating them from natural and

historical associations within nations.”22 However, Reimann suggests that of equal importance

in this trend was the “increase in funding opportunities, new avenues for political access, and

the normative promotion of NGOs by donor states and [International organizations, which]

created a political and material environment ripe for NGO formation and growth.”23 This

period saw ‘billions of dollars’ being directed from national governments and international

organizations through NGOs and the development of a 'symbiotic relationship' whereby "the

creation of new international institutions (in some cases in response to NGO actions) has led to

the creation of new international opportunities for NGO formation and growth, which in turn

has led to new and more complex systems of international governance."24 This symbiotic

relationship, as well as the increasing global citizenry propelled by ICTs, is important for all

stakeholders in today’s humanitarian field to keep in mind.

Lastly, partly due the end of political stalemate at the international level, and partly due to a

number of horrific and highly visible civil wars (thanks to instantaneous broadcast media), the

international community surged in its efforts at peacekeeping and humanitarianism following

the end of the Cold War. In fact, “from 1948-88, the UN undertook only five peacekeeping

missions; [whereas] from 1989-94 it authorised 20 missions and increased the number of

21 Davey et al., "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," p 10. 22 Mathews, “Power Shift,” p 51-52. 23 Kim D. Reimann, Georgia State University, "A View from the Top: International Politics, Norms and the Worldwide Growth of NGOs," Political Science Faculty Publications 4 (2006):63. 24 Reimann, "A View from the Top: International Politics, Norms and the Worldwide Growth of NGOs," p 63.



11 | 84

peacekeepers from 11,000 to 75,000.”25 This dramatic increase in international efforts,

coupled with a now vast network of NGOs, meant that the humanitarian system needed

greater coordination in order to be effective. In 1991, the United Nations General Assembly

adopted Resolution 46/182 on the ‘Strengthening of humanitarian emergency assistance of

the United Nations’ which established both the Inter-Agency Standing Committee26 and the

Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which would later become the Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in 1998.27 While this period saw the very early evolution

of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine, it also taught the humanitarian community some of

its hardest lessons. Intervention in Somalia resulted in the deaths of 18 American soldiers, and

the same broadcast media which galvanized the public and politicians behind humanitarian

action, also allowed the world to watch as one of these soldiers’ bodies was dragged through

the streets of Mogadishu. 28 This caused a negative swing in the public opinion of

humanitarianism, and as a result, the international community was reluctant to intervene in

both the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda as massive humanitarian crises unfolded in those

places. The 1990s forced the humanitarian community to grow up: the desire to help those

who were suffering was not enough. The system itself, its activities, and its workers, had to be

protected as well.

Over time, these ongoing struggles between the humanitarian principles, international

relations, and the manipulative aspects of human nature, resulted in an increased

systematization of humanitarian action into standards, codes of conduct, policies, and

procedures - or in other words, a ballooning of organizational structure. However, it is

important to understand that this structure was developed as a result of a century’s worth of

innovation - experimentation, success, and failure.

25 Davey et al., "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations,"p 13. 26 Davey et al., "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," p 13. 27 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "History of OCHA," accessed August 20, 2013, <http://www.unocha.org/about-us/who-we-are/history>. 28 Davey et al., "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," p 13.



12 | 84

2.2. HUMANITARIANISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY On December 26th, 2004, a massive earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered a

catastrophic tsunami that left 240,000 people dead and 1 million people displaced across 12

countries.29 The scale of this disaster was unprecedented, and the international humanitarian

system quickly engaged to assist the affected countries cope with the damage and the needs

of their citizens. However, “it became clear that the international system as it then stood was

not really a system at all, but rather the result of haphazard growth of a lot of separate and

often very different organizations.” 30 Therefore, following extensive evaluations, the

humanitarian system undertook fundamental reforms aimed at improving “capacity,

predictability, accountability, leadership and partnership.”31 Out of this effort came the

Cluster Approach, which delineated eight ‘clusters’ focused on one primary aspect of crisis

response. Each cluster is assigned a lead agency, which is then managed by an overarching

Humanitarian & Emergency Relief Coordinator, whose work is supported by the United

Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The cluster approach allows the

exact structure of the system to be tailored to the specific crisis while still providing an overall

framework for humanitarian response.32

29 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA in 2006, OCHA at Work, Coordination and the Indian Ocean Tsunami," accessed August 20, 2013, <http://www.unocha.org/ochain/2006/chap6_1.htm>. 30 John Holmes, "Humanitarian Response in the 21st Century," p 114. 31 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "Cluster Coordination," accessed August 20, 2013, <http://www.unocha.org/what-we-do/coordination-tools/cluster-coordination>. 32 Miriam Stumpenhorst, Rolf Stumpenhorst, and Oliver Razum, "The UN OCHA cluster approach: gaps between theory and practice," Journal of Public Health 19 (2011): 589-590, DOI 10.1007/s10389-011-0417-3 (accessed August 20, 2013).



13 | 84

33

However, this system was not truly put to the test until January, 2010, when a massive

earthquake devastated the small island nation of Haiti. This earthquake leveled the country

and resulted in 230,000 deaths, 200,000 injuries and left 1.7 million people homeless or

displaced.34 Due to the instantaneous and absolutely catastrophic nature of this event, the

international community responded in earnest. However, the influx of humanitarian agencies

and NGOs was overwhelming: estimates of the number of NGOs present in Haiti “range from

3,000 to 20,000.”35 As such, “effective coordination [was] almost impossible”36 and the limits

of the cluster approach were made apparent.

Haiti was a watershed moment for humanitarian affairs; between 2004 and 2010, the world

had changed in fundamental ways. The advent of social media and the increasingly cheap

availability of mobile technology had transformed the way that an average person interacts

with their fellow human beings, governments, and international organizations – including

humanitarian actors.37 In Haiti, the massive scale of both the disaster itself, and the

33 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Cluster Coordination.”

34 Stumpenhorst et al., "The UN OCHA cluster approach: gaps between theory and practice," p 587. 35 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," last modified 2013, accessed June 4, 2013, <http://unocha.org/node/11528>, p 17. 36 Stumpenhorst et al., "The UN OCHA cluster approach: gaps between theory and practice," p 590. 37 Anthony D. Williams, "Government 2.0, Wikinomics and the Challenge to Government."



14 | 84

international response, pushed all available resources past the brink.38 Recognizing the gaps in

coordination and information management, ‘digitally savvy’ global citizens began to interact

directly with the affected population via new ICTs in unprecedented ways, relaying this

information to humanitarian responders. These global citizens became networks, which

became the Volunteer & Technical Communities (V&TCs).

V&TCs are now challenging the ‘status quo’ of humanitarian affairs and are regarded within

the humanitarian community as having both benefits and risks for the system.39 However, as

we have seen throughout history, the problem of integrating volunteer movements and new

technologies into humanitarian affairs is not new. As the authors of A history of the

humanitarian system argue, “the process of learning and adjustment has remained a major

preoccupation for a system that is inherently self-critical,” and that “by recognizing [this

system] as the product of specific contexts and forces rather than immutable and universal

actor, historical analysis opens up the possibility of new ways of thinking about the future of

humanitarian action.”40

38 John Holmes, "Humanitarian Response in the 21st Century," p 114. 39 See works by Erin Boehmer and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. 40 Davey et al., "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations," p 35.

It is important to recognize today’s international humanitarian system as the result of a century’s worth of experimentation, success, and failure – otherwise known as innovation.



15 | 84

3. INNOVATION IN HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS

3.1. AID IN THE ‘AGE OF PARTICIPATION’41: THE EMERGENCE OF V&TCS

a. What is a Volunteer & Technical Community?

There is significant disagreement about which term should be used to refer to the

phenomenon of digital engagement in crisis response.42 For the purposes of this article, the

term Volunteer & Technical Community (V&TC) is used, primarily because it is the term which

is promoted through the Digital Humanitarian Network by their recently published guidance

materials on facilitating collaboration between V&TCs and Formal Humanitarian

Organizations.43 This author also agrees with those who argue that the term speaks to the

spectrum of entities within this movement – from purely volunteer networks, to

professionalized technical, and sometimes private sector, communities.

There have been a number of attempts at defining V&TCs succinctly throughout the available

literature. The term ‘V&TC’ is used abstractly by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to

describe the "collective intelligence [that] emerged - when thousands of citizens around the

world collaborated in volunteer and technical communities (V&TCs) to help make sense of a

large-scale calamity and give voice to an affected population."44 Erin Boehmer uses a more

technical definition from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery when she

defines V&TCs as "networks of 'technical professionals with deep expertise in social media,

geographic information systems (GIS), database management, [and] online campaigns [who

apply] their skills to some of the hardest elements of the disaster risk management process."45

John Crowley prefers the term ‘Digital Humanitarian Organization’ and describes it as “a

41 Anthony D. Williams, "Government 2.0, Wikinomics and the Challenge to Government," p 1.

42 See discussion within works by Erin Boehmer (Note 1), John Crowley, and “Why we need a Disaster 2.1 Report.” 43 Digital Humanitarian Network, "Materials," accessed August 20, 2013, <http://digitalhumanitarians.com/materials>. 44 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, "Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies," Last modified 2011, Accessed August 2, 2013, http://www.unfoundation.org/assets/pdf/disaster-relief-20-report.pdf. 45 Erin Boehmer, Commons Lab of the Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Coordinating Efforts by Volunteer and Technical Communities for Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Relief, last modified July 22, 2010, accessed August 21, 2013, <http://www.scribd.com/doc/126605125/Coordinating-Efforts-by-Volunteer-and-Technical-Communities-for-Disaster-Preparedness-Response-and-Relief>, p 2.

http://www.unfoundation.org/assets/pdf/disaster-relief-20-report.pdf



16 | 84

grassroots organization that mobilizes a relatively large number of individuals that share a

common set of open tools, practices, and ethical standards to create a collective intelligence

with the objective of providing information as a form of aid.”46 The Digital Humanitarian

Network’s Guidance for Collaborating with Volunteer and Technical Communities broadly

defines V&TCs as “volunteer-based communities who apply their technical skills to support

humanitarian response.”47 Overall, these descriptions suggest that, within the context of

humanitarian crisis, V&TCs could be defined as:

Communities of volunteers and/or professionals who seek to leverage their skills

and today’s technologies to assist formal humanitarian response and affected

populations during times of crisis.

b. Who are the V&TCs? V&TCs are a constantly evolving group. They may only exist during times of crisis in order to

meet immediate needs, or they may develop over time into incorporated organizations that

are ready to mobilize when disaster strikes. That being said, they may or may not be solely

dedicated to disaster response. For example, a technological platform which is used to map

assistance requests from affected individuals following a disaster may also be used to map

election violence, or track crime within a neighbourhood.48 Capelo et al., explain that V&TCs

“draw their ideology and working methods from the following elements: open-source

ideology; flexible structure and hierarchy; collaborative workflow; altruistic nature; desire to

cultivate and disseminate technical skills; and enthusiasm for partnership.”49 The emphasis on

flattened and decentralized organizational structure has been inspired by “online communities

like Wikipedia and open source software development projects [and allow for V&TCs to move]

faster than larger players in nearly all circumstances.”50 Recently, a number of the more

46 John Crowley, Commons Lab of the Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Connecting Grassroots and Government for Disaster Response, 2013, Forthcoming, <http://www.scribd.com/collections/3840667/Commons-Lab-Science-and-Technology-Innovation-Program-STIP>, p 19. 47 Luis Capelo, Natalie Chang, and Andrej Verity, Digital Humanitarian Network, "Guidance for Collaborating with Volunteer & Technical Communities," last modified December 28, 2012, accessed August 21, 2013, <https://app.box.com/s/qpuu11mwadxfllcd7xwu>, p 6. 48 See the Ushahidi Platform at www.ushahidi.com 49 Capelo et al., “Guidance for Collaborating with Volunteer & Technical Communities,” p 7. 50 Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, "Volunteer Technology Communities: Open Development," Last modified 2011, Accessed August 2, 2013, <http://www.gfdrr.org/sites/gfdrr.org/files/publication/Volunteer%20Technology%20Communities%20-%20Open%20Development.pdf>, p 3.

http://www.ushahidi.com/



17 | 84

established V&TCs came together underneath a unified banner called the Digital Humanitarian

Network (DHN). This ‘network of networks’51 is meant to provide a focal point for formal

humanitarian entities, through which, they can activate V&TCs to assist in crisis response.

Looking at those V&TCs which have joined the DHN, they may be roughly categorized into four

groups:

51 Digital Humanitarian Network, "Home," accessed August 21, 2013, http://digitalhumanitarians.com



18 | 84

1. CROWDSOURCING UMBRELLAS

Crowdsourcing Umbrellas act as conductors for large networks of external and digital

volunteers. These volunteers will have a wide range of skills and areas of expertise that they

wish to provide in response to crisis. These volunteers are primarily digitally distributed

individuals who are activated by the crowdsourcing umbrella in order to tackle a specific issue,

problem, or need. The crowdsourcing umbrella typically acts as an interface between their

volunteer network and formal humanitarian agencies that request assistance.

2. COMMUNITY CENTRALIZERS

Community Centralizers cultivate communities of individuals with specific technical skills and

then bring these individuals physically together for an event or deployment where the

community is directed towards addressing certain problems. This group does not specifically or

exclusively deal with crisis response; they often engage their communities on a regular basis

towards a wide variety of goals and issue areas. In some cases, the Community Centralizers

encourage their members to self-organize close to home and address grassroots issues.52 In

other examples, Community Centralizers are regularly brought together from around the

world to tackle issues identified by large international institutions.53

3. VOLUNTEER CONNECTOR PLATFORMS

Volunteer Connector Platforms do not themselves get directly involved in disaster response,

but act as a connection agent between requesting agencies and volunteers who want to offer

their skills or expertise. These organizations may develop a volunteer roster from within a

larger professional association, private sector corporation, or from externally. They also tend

to build established relationships with formal humanitarian organizations who may be in

regular need of the services of their volunteers.

4. TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS PROVIDERS

Technological Solutions Providers develop software or technological infrastructure aimed at allowing users to better collect, aggregate, analyze, and present the information which may be gleaned from new ICTs. These organizations may provide their platforms, expertise, or hardware to assist disaster responders in their work. 52 For example, DataKind uses the Meetup platform to facilitate local gatherings: http://www.meetup.com/DataKind-NYC 53 For example, Random Hacks of Kindness: http://www.rhok.org/

http://www.meetup.com/DataKind-NYC

http://www.rhok.org/



19 | 84

The members of the DHN Network may be grouped according to the categories as follows:

CROWDSOURCING UMBRELLAS

COMMUNITY CENTRALIZERS

VOLUNTEER CONNECTOR PLATFORMS

TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS PROVIDERS

• Humanity Road • Standby Volunteer

Task Force • Humanitarian

OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)[O2]

• Geeks without Bounds

• DataKind • MapAction

• Translators without Borders

• UN Online Volunteers • GISCorps • Statistics without Borders

• ESRI Disaster Response and Assistance

c. Why did V&TCs appear?

WIDER SOCIETAL CONTEXT V&TCs appeared within a wider context of societal change, fueled by the widespread adoption

of new ICTs throughout the personal and professional spheres. Writing in 1999, Don Tapscott

noted that the transaction costs of communications were becoming negligible and that

“transparency and openness [were] becoming key market enablers.”54 Many private sector

entities were forced to reinvent not just their products and services, but themselves and entire

industries, in order to stay alive. As both consumers and citizens, we now expect private and

public organizations to provide us with more, but cheaper and faster. This has translated into

greater individual agency: if our expectations are not met, we have the ability to sidestep the

traditional paths and forge new ones. This new perspective quickly became applicable to

governance, policy, and civil society initiatives to the point where “we [now] see … society

discussing policy issues independently of government” often in online forums.55 Crowley

states that “the era when citizens listened passively to official announcements made by radio

and television has ended.”56 Despite this new reality, the public sector and international

organizations have been slow to recognize and adapt to this changing environment –

humanitarian affairs being no exception. As a result, public individuals began to consider new

ways to approach disaster response and stepped out on their own to explore these options.

Individuals acting outside of formal organizational structures, particularly in the internet age,

are typically the primary change agents who drive innovation in this field.

54 Don Tapscott and David Agnew, "Governance in the Digital Economy," p 35. 55 Ann Macintosh, "The emergence of digital governance," p 178. 56 John Crowley, Connecting Grassroots and Government for Disaster Response, p 7.



20 | 84

THE SPARK As previously discussed, the international crisis response to Haiti marked a shift: the affected

population had wide access to new ICTs, which they used to ask for help and articulate needs;

the formal humanitarian system was unable to manage this new dynamic; and individuals

around the world recognized that they could use technology and their individual skills to help

fill this gap in information management.57 However, prior to the Haiti earthquake, a number

of individuals had already begun to explore how new technologies and approaches might be

able augment disaster response. Beginning in the early 2000s, experts in geospatial

technology began to apply their expertise to humanitarian affairs and the two oldest V&TCs –

MapAction and GISCorps – were established.58 In 2009, the first International Conference of

Crisis Mappers was held and facilitated discussion between technologists, the formal

humanitarian organizations, national agencies, and private sector actors.59 As Crowley notes

in Connecting Grassroots and Government for Disaster Response, “when the Haiti earthquake

hit on 12 January 2010, these relationships became a game-changing part of the response

operation.”60

A SHIFT TO PARTICIPATORY AID As we have seen in the private and

public sectors, individual agency

powered by new ICTs, has allowed

the average citizen to directly

participate in both market and

governance systems. Humanitarian

affairs has been affected by this shift and now recognizes that “whereas aid agencies once

made assumptions about people’s needs in a crisis, people now have the tools to say what

they need and want.”61 Globally, individuals, networks, and communities have realized that

via new ICTs, they can help translate the affected population’s communications into products

that aid disaster responders. Stempeck sees this evolution as a manifestation of what he calls

57 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, "Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies," last modified 2011, accessed August 2, 2013, <http://www.unfoundation.org/assets/pdf/disaster-relief-20-report.pdf>, p 19. 58 John Crowley, Connecting Grassroots and Government for Disaster Response, p 19. 59 Ibid., p 20. 60 Ibid., p 20. 61 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," p 13.

Today’s ICTs have endowed each of us with unprecedented individual agency – including affected populations and digital humanitarians who now engage in participatory aid.




21 | 84

‘participatory aid.’62 Previously, two levels of aid existed: 1) mutual aid as provided between

neighbours and within affected populations; and 2) formal aid as provided by international

institutions and INGOs. A third level has emerged: participatory aid which represents,

“mutual, peer-to-peer aid assisted by information and communication technologies… which

can stand independently of formal aid systems, and which invites participation of people from

all over the globe to have a greater impact.”63 The international humanitarian system

understands this to mean that we are “defining a new age – a network age – for humanitarian

assistance.”64

d. What do V&TCs offer? V&TCs are able to provide disaster responders with a range of tools and services including (but

not limited to) translation, geospatial mapping, social media listening, incident tracking, and

data aggregation. As we have recently witnessed during Hurricane Sandy and the Boston

Bombings, during times of crisis, people are increasingly turning to their smartphones and

social media in order to document what is happening to them and what is occurring around

them. V&TCs aim to harness this massive influx of data by applying volunteer communities to

assist disaster responders in managing this information and as a result, make more informed

decisions. For example, during Hurricane Sandy, “6,717 volunteers analyzed more than 35,535

photographs of the US eastern seaboard… completing more than half of that work in the first

48 hours” which allowed FEMA to begin targeted response faster than ever before.65

CASE EXAMPLES Matthew Stempeck has compiled a comprehensive ‘case library’ of examples where ICTs have

been utilized in innovative ways to assist crisis response. However, in order to better

conceptualize the potential that V&TCs offer to humanitarian assistance for our purposes,

their work during the Haitian, Japanese and Libyan emergencies are briefly outlined here.

62 Matt Stempeck, "Participatory Aid Marketplace," (Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013), <http://www.mattstempeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Matt-Stempeck-Participatory-Aid-Marketplace.pdf>, p 28. 63 Ibid. 64 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," p 13. 65 John Crowley, Connecting Grassroots and Government for Disaster Response, p 8.



22 | 84

Haiti The response by V&TCs to the earthquake in Haiti has been well and repeatedly documented. At the time, Haitian’s had widespread access to mobile technology and in the wake of the disaster sent ‘hundreds of thousands’ of messages requesting assistance, informing of developments, and seeking news of loved ones. However, the international community was not equipped to handle this explosion of information and so, “working in communities, thousands of volunteers from around the world aggregated, analyzed, and mapped the flow of messages coming from Haiti.”66 The primary contribution of V&TCs in this case was the creation of a crisis map whereby, “640 volunteer mappers traced high resolution satellite imagery... [and] made 1.2. million edits to the map in less time than it would have taken an agency to solicit bids from vendors, building a free and open atlas of roads and critical infrastructure.” This map was lauded by formal humanitarian response agencies, including “the head of the US Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) [who] publicly noted that this crisis map was the most comprehensive and up-to-date map available to the humanitarian community.”67 Most interestingly, the international Haitian diaspora was mobilized via social media in this case to assist in with translation and response to messages coming in from the affected population.68 This was the first time where the potential of international volunteer networks was made apparent, as the data provided, “not only [augmented]” but “became essential to the earthquake response.”69

Japan On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, which was followed by a massive tsunami and resulted in a near meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.70 This natural disaster left “18,000 dead or missing, over 6,000 injured and over 470,000 survivors seeking shelter.”71 In contrast to many of the places where humanitarian response is needed, Japan is one of the most technologically advanced and digitally connected societies in the world. 72 It is also highly prepared for earthquakes and has extensive mechanisms for early warning and disaster response in

66 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, "Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies," p 11. 67 Patrick Meier, "New information technologies and their impact on the humanitarian sector," International Review of the Red Cross 884 (2011): <http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375853>, p 1244. 68 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, "Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies," p 32. 69 Ibid., 34. 70 Lois Appleby, Internews, "Connecting the Last Mile, The Role of Communications in The Great East Japan Earthquake," last modified 2013, accessed August 21, 2013, <http://www.internews.eu/docs/Publications/InternewsEurope_Report_Japan_Connecting_the_last_mile_Japan_2013.pdf>, p 5. 71 Ibid., p 6. 72 Ibid., p 6.

http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375853



23 | 84

place.73 Immediately following the earthquake, Twitter “saw a 500 percent increase in Tweets from Japan as people reached out to friends, family and loved ones.”74 Within hours, numerous examples of digital humanitarianism had been activated. For example, thanks to “effective co-operation between Google, media outlets, government departments and volunteer communities... the Google Person Finder [became] the standard platform in Japan for searching for missing friends and family.”75 On Sinsai.info, which was an Ushahidi based crisis map, international volunteers “verified, categorised and mapped 12,000 tweets and emails from the affected regions for over three months.76 The OpenStreetMap community also became involved and provided a map detailing the state of roads and infrastructure.77 Although it is unclear whether these maps were utilized by disaster responders,78 they were evidently useful to the affected population. For example, the OpenStreetMap received over one million unique views, the majority of which were from inside Japan, and is anecdotally credited with saving at least 3 lives.79

Libya Early in 2011, it became clear that a political, and potentially humanitarian, crisis was developing in Libya. However, the humanitarian system had no access to the country and they had very little information regarding what was happening on the ground.80 In March 2011, the assistance of a V&TC, the Standby Volunteer Task Force, was requested by the Head of OCHA’s Information Services Section, to help fill the information gap by monitoring social media and online activity related to the situation.81 These volunteers created the Libya Crisis Map, which “showed live information relevant to relief efforts such as health needs, security threats or refugee movements,” 82 which was intended to assist responding organizations with operational planning.83 However, due to the fact that this exercise was conducted within a conflict environment, rather than a natural disaster, special care had to be taken to ensure that the map did not identify or provide location details on an

73 Appleby, "Connecting the Last Mile, The Role of Communications in The Great East Japan Earthquake," p 11. 74 Abdur Chowdhury, Twitter, "Global Pulse," last modified June 29, 2011, accessed August 21, 2013, <https://blog.twitter.com/2011/global-pulse>. 75 Appleby, "Connecting the Last Mile, The Role of Communications in The Great East Japan Earthquake,"p 34. 76 Ibid., p 35. 77 Ibid., p 36. 78 Ibid., p 35. 79 http://irevolution.net/2013/03/11/humanitarian-technology-japan-earthquake/ 80 United Nations, "OCHA in 2012 & 2013, Plan and Budget," last modified 2012, accessed August 21, 2013, <https://ochanet.unocha.org/p/Documents/OCHA_in_2012_13.pdf>, p 7. 81 Meier, "New information technologies and their impact on the humanitarian sector," p 1250. 82 United Nations, "OCHA in 2012 & 2013, Plan and Budget," p 7. 83 Andrej Verity, "The [unexpected] Impact of the Libya Crisis Map and the Standby Volunteer Task Force," Ushahidi (blog), January 9, 2012, <http://blog.ushahidi.com/2012/01/09/the-unexpected-impact-of-the-libya-crisis-map-and-the-standby-volunteer-task-force/> (accessed August 21, 2013).

http://irevolution.net/2013/03/11/humanitarian-technology-japan-earthquake/



24 | 84

individual that could be used to bring them to harm. As such, two sites were created: a public one which provided anonymized information with a 24 hour delay and a private one which was only available to approved agencies.84 The private map was used by many organizations including the Red Cross, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Food Programme. OCHA credits the success of this initiative to “fully established work flows, processes, protocols and the modular team structure [that] ensured the highest efficiency of the online collaboration, which was organized via Skype, Google Groups and a volunteer management website.”85

These examples show that V&TCs offer the humanitarian system a greatly increased capacity

to manage the information stemming from new ICTs. They also show that this is recognized by

the humanitarian system and that effective collaboration is possible when a framework is

established that allows the volunteer network to work organically, while still ensuring the

reliability and protections that the humanitarian system requires.

e. Challenges to Participatory Aid In the recent Humanitarianism in the Network Age report by OCHA, six primary challenges to

the use of new ICTs in humanitarian affairs were identified: accuracy, bias, power, overload,

expectations, and privacy, ethics, security. First and foremost, the accuracy of the data must

be verifiable.86 If resources are to be deployed, say in response to a tweet, it is vital that the

tweet is verified for accurate location information and authenticity. Unfortunately, “Twitter

has shown a high propensity for rumor-mongering and proliferating false

information.”87Technology also presents a potential for bias. For example, “a large number of

reports of injuries delivered via Twitter could show the places where most people are injured,

or it could show those locations where more people have access to Twitter.”88 An ongoing

issue in humanitarian affairs is that of how to manage power relations within affected

populations. In some places, ICTs are tightly controlled and potentially manipulated by various

actors involved in the crisis. When using ICTs in disaster response, digital humanitarians must

be aware of this fact and be careful not to further entrench power dynamics by for example,

84 Verity, "The [unexpected] Impact of the Libya Crisis Map and the Standby Volunteer Task Force." 85 United Nations, "OCHA in 2012 & 2013, Plan and Budget," p 8. 86 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," p 34. 87 Tapia et al, “Beyond the Trustworty Tweet: A Deeper Understanding of Microblogged Data Use by Disaster Response and Humanitarian Relief Organizations, 771. 88 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," p 35.



25 | 84

only communicating with certain community leaders.89 Digital humanitarians must also

understand that providing disaster responders with massive amounts of information can easily

overload their capacity to analyze that data and make effective decisions.90 Information for

information’s sake is not valuable; how the information can be used to make decisions is

important. Additionally, the more ICTs are used in disaster response, the higher the

expectations will be from the public that they will be used effectively and efficiently. It is

important to be able to manage expectations in terms of timeliness and quality of response.91

Finally and most importantly, the network age opens up major issues in terms of privacy,

ethics, and security. Especially in situations of political conflict, such as the ongoing situation

in Syria, it is vitally important to ensure that the use of ICTs does not put the affected

population or disaster responders at greater risk.92

However, these challenges can be addressed and there are many creative ways that V&TCs are

working that mitigate these issues. It is understood by V&TCs that dealing with these

challenges is vital to their continued legitimacy and value as actors in humanitarian affairs.

The formal humanitarian system

itself has recognized the

“resourcefulness, agility, depth of

response, and measurable results”

that V&TCs provide in disaster

response.93 Tapia et al., found that a

number of humanitarian

organizations had used, or were

planning to use the products of

V&TCs, and were more confident in

data that had already been processed than they were in using the raw data.94 It has become

an often repeated idiom that that “[p]eople need information as much as water, food,

89 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," p 35. 90 Ibid., p 38. 91 Ibid. 92 Ibid., p 39 93 Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, "Volunteer Technology Communities: Open Development," p 4. 94 Tapia et al, “Beyond the Trustworty Tweet: A Deeper Understanding of Microblogged Data Use by Disaster Response and Humanitarian Relief Organizations, 776.

V&TCs are using new ICTs to meet technical challenges and addressing the challenges that these new products and services present. In order for V&TCs to become a fully-fledged partner in humanitarian affairs, attention to internal governance, organizational structure, and collaborative space will need to be carefully considered.



26 | 84

medicine or shelter.”95 It has also become well known that a lack of information (for example,

regarding resource availability or the location of loved ones), “intensifies suffering … causes

stress and exacerbates trauma”96 for the affected population. Both V&TCs and formal

humanitarian organizations are well aware that addressing these issues, improving

collaboration, and better facilitating information management, is of vital importance.

However, the traditional methods of supporting the work of NGOs via funding and partnership

agreements, conflict with the ‘horizontalist’ and non-organized nature of the V&TCs. In order

for V&TCs to become a fully-fledged partner in humanitarian affairs, attention to internal

governance, organizational structure, and collaborative space will need to be carefully

considered.

95 Walter, John (Ed.). International Federaion of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, "World Disasters Report, Focus on information in disasters." Last modified 2005. Accessed September 3, 2013. http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Publications/disasters/WDR/69001-WDR2005-english-LR.pdf. 96 Imogen Wall and Lisa Robinson, BBC World Service Trust, "Policy Briefing 2, Left in the dark, The unmet need for information in humanitarian response," Last modified October 2008, Accessed August 21, 2013, <http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/humanitarian_response_briefing.pdf>, p 3.

http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Publications/disasters/WDR/69001-WDR2005-english-LR.pdf



27 | 84

3.2. INTERNAL REVOLUTIONS: CHANGE IN FORMAL HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS

a. Increasing Self-Awareness Despite the development of the Cluster Approach, the earthquake in Haiti revealed the

continued ‘fragmentation’ of international humanitarian response amongst organizations.97

Specifically, those involved in disaster response over the past decade have “identified response

problems as, in part, informational problems.”98 According to the Harvard Humanitarian

Initiative, “the response to the 2010 Haiti quake made it clear that the rate of investment in

humanitarian management over a complex global network is failing to keep pace with new

technological realities.”99 This growing self-awareness, in addition to the recognition that

affected populations and digital humanitarians are now able to “act on their right to influence,

shape and direct humanitarian assistance,”100 has resulted in a “belief that information

coordination and information sharing saves lives.” 101 Therefore, within the formal

humanitarian system, and OCHA specifically, there has been a centralization of focus on the

role of information management in coordinating humanitarian response.

b. Identifying the Issues Within the humanitarian system, improving information management comes down to

improving technical systems and reducing organizational bottlenecks. Between organizations

in the humanitarian system technical problems “include technical and semantic

interoperability, non-matching data formats, different presentation forms and heterogeneous

systems.”102 Organizationally, disaster assessment teams on the ground continue to rapidly

gather information on what is needed to respond to the disaster at hand, and then send that

information back to headquarters where decisions are made on the distribution of

97 John Holmes, "Humanitarian Response in the 21st Century," p 114. 98 Andrea H. Tapia, Edgar Maldonado, Louis-Marie Ngamassi Tchouakeu, and Carleen F. Maitland, "Coordinating humanitarian information: The problem of organizational and technical trajectories," Information Technology & People 3 (2012), <http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375862>, p 252. 99 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, "Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies," p 11. 100 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," p 49. 101 Tapia et al., "Coordinating humanitarian information: The problem of organizational and technical trajectories," p 241. 102 Ibid., p 243.




28 | 84

resources.103 While this system allows for ‘efficiency’ in decision making, and allows for

“retained knowledge and institutional wisdom to accrue,” it also “may cost formal aid actors

some of their agility and creativity.”104 Over time, this chain of command has become so

expanded that the rate at which information and decisions travel has become unacceptably

slow - or in other words information productivity has been drastically decreased. As such,

“millions of dollars have been poured into information coordination efforts.” 105 New

technologies offer significant potential to assisting in these efforts, shortening decision making

structures, and increasing information productivity.

c. Clarifying the Advantage International institutions, governments and public sector agencies have spent a great deal of

time clarifying the advantages that new ICTs could provide disaster response. In

Humanitarianism in the Network Age, OCHA identifies big data, rich data through geographical

information systems, and open data, as having potential benefits to the humanitarian system.

Open data is that which is provided by governments or the private sector on for example,

hospital resources or mobile usage. This information could potentially be used in disaster

response to determine baseline data and make decisions based on resources that already exist

on the ground.106 Rich data, such as that provided by geographical information systems (i.e.,

GPS and Google Maps) allow for better spatial awareness and tracking of where, for example,

roads may have been washed away or where pop-up medical services may be.107 This

information can be communicated both to disaster responders and the affected population in

order to better facilitate access to services and distribution of resources. Finally, for any of this

to be useful to disaster response, the data must be publicly available, or ‘open.’ As such, we

have seen an increasing push from governments and international institutions to develop open

data policies that would increase transparency and allow the wider community to develop

ways to use that data for the public good.108

103 Ibid., p 241. 104 Matt Stempeck, "Participatory Aid Marketplace," p 16-17. 105 Tapia et al., "Coordinating humanitarian information: The problem of organizational and technical trajectories," 241. 106 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," p 26. 107 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012," p 28. 108 Ibid., 29.



29 | 84

Following Hurricane Sandy, the Virtual Social Media Working Group of the U.S. Department of

Homeland Security’s, Science and Technology Directorate, analyzed the ways in which social

media was used to augment official disaster response products and processes. They found

that an active use of social media allowed formal organizations to:

● Connect directly with the affected communities and respond to articulated needs ● Maintain improved situational awareness ● Distribute information that the public needed to access resources ● Meet and manage public expectations ● Increase the transparency of organizational efforts and thereby, improve the agency’s

credibility109

They also found that response agencies improved information management and coordination

by:

● Centralizing the information being provided to the public (one website) ● Using new ICTs to engage in multi-way information sharing ● Using social media to address rumours or misinformation ● Partnering with non-traditional private resources (For example, airbnb.com to house

displaced people) ● Generating useful maps that displayed incidents, requests for help, and resources110

As stated by Stempeck, “the modern emergency management organization will need to

transform at a more fundamental level than ‘establish a Twitter presence’ to remain relevant

in a world of dis-intermediated aid.”111 Interestingly, since Hurricane Sandy, the American

Federal Emergency Management

Agency (FEMA) has created an

Innovation Team which is a “multi-

sector, cross functional group made

of members who assisted relief

efforts with various activities … [that

continues] to help FEMA’s Disaster

109 Homeland Security, Science and Technology, "Lessons Learned: Social Media and Hurricane Sandy, Virtual Social Media Working Group and DHS First Responders Group," last modified June 2013, accessed June 20, 2013, <https://www.nationalserviceresources.org/files/sample-forms/dhs_vsmwg_lessons_learned_social_media_and_hurricane_sandy_formatted_june_2013_final.pdf>, p 7. 110 Ibid., p 8-25. 111 Matt Stempeck, "Participatory Aid Marketplace," p 211.

Formal relief agencies have begun to integrate new ICTs into their products and services. Analysis of the response to Hurricane Sandy proves that they can augment and improve the work of these organizations.



30 | 84

Recovery Centers and create processes that can be repeated in future emergencies.”112 This

idea is helping to turn FEMA into an ‘adaptive organization,’ the likes of which will be discussed

in section 4.2.

d. Changes underway at the international level In December 2011, following an extensive review of humanitarian response by the Inter-

Agency Standing Committee, a ‘Transformative Agenda’ was agreed upon that would address

the “challenges to leadership and coordination.”113 The Transformative Agenda “focuses on

improving the timeliness and effectiveness of the collective response through stronger

leadership, more effective coordination structures, and improved accountability for

performance and to affected people.”114 Information management is specifically identified as

a priority within the Transformative Agenda115 and as a result, OCHA is finding its role as an

emergency coordinator increasingly focused on this area. Within the OCHA in 2012 & 2013:

Plan and Budget, information management is repeatedly cited as a required ingredient for

improving coordination and emergency response.116 Tapia and Maitland predict that, because

information and technology departments serve as the “organizational enabler” for the

adoption of new technologies, they are likely to become “more centrally located” within the

structure of an organization.117 It is essential that this trend is supported by the proper

allocation of financial and human resources so that technological and organizational

innovation within OCHA and the humanitarian system is effective.

Currently, there are a number of initiatives being led by OCHA that are introducing new tools

and mechanisms that address many of the previously identified technical challenges.

Unfortunately, public information on these initiatives is fairly limited and this further

perpetuates the perception that the formal humanitarian system is immovable. However,

112 Homeland Security, Science and Technology, "Lessons Learned: Social Media and Hurricane Sandy, Virtual Social Media Working Group and DHS First Responders Group," 113 Inter-Agency Standing Committee, "IASC Principals Trans formative Agenda," accessed August 21, 2013, <http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-template-default&bd=87>. 114 Inter-Agency Standing Committee, "Key Messages: The IASC Transformative Agenda," last modified June 13, 2012, accessed August 21, 2013, <http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-template-default&bd=87>, p 1. 115 Ibid. 116 United Nations, "OCHA in 2012 & 2013, Plan and Budget." 117 Andrea Tapia and Carleen Maitland, "Wireless Devices for Humanitarian Data Collection, the socio-technical implications for multi-level organizational change," Information, Communication & Society 4 (2009), <http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375867>, p 595.



31 | 84

some examples of technical innovation projects within OCHA are available including

humanitarianresponse.info, humanitarian kiosk, the Information Management Officer Skype

group, the humanitarian exchange language project, and the Common Operational Dataset

and Fundamental Operational Datasets projects.

Humanitarianresponse.info This website provided by OCHA, “aims to be the central website for Information Management tools and services, enabling information exchange among operational responders during either a protracted or sudden onset emergency.”118

Humanitarian Kiosk Humanitarian Kiosk is an app for mobile devices that “provides a range of up-to-the-minute humanitarian related information from emergencies around the world.”119

Information Management Officer Skype Group Inspired by the use of Skype by the Standby Volunteer Task Force, OCHA created a Skype group for its Information Management Officers around the world. This has allowed these individuals to support each other in a decentralized, direct, and immediate fashion.120

Humanitarian Exchange Language The Humanitarian eXchange Language is a community-driven effort to standardize and simplify the way in which operational datasets are published by humanitarian organizations so that information can be instantaneously shared, updated, and consumed. HXL allows datasets to be machine readable across systems, ensuring that the information is widely accessible.121

Common Operational Datasets and Fundamental Operational Datasets project The CODs/FODs project has developed guidelines that “outline the common datasets needed for response in humanitarian emergencies” in order to assist national governments and relevant agencies in providing vital data in times of crisis.122 These datasets are developed to include information such as settlement areas, transportation networks, bodies of water, and population statistics.

118 HumanitarianResponse.info,. "About the HumanitarianResponse.info sites," accessed August 21, 2013, <http://www.humanitarianresponse.info/about>. 119 HumanitarianResponse.info, "Kiosk," accessed August 21, 2013, <http://kiosk.humanitarianresponse.info/>. 120 Verity, "The [unexpected] Impact of the Libya Crisis Map and the Standby Volunteer Task Force.” 121 Humanitarian eXchange Language, "Project Overview," accessed August 21, 2013, <https://sites.google.com/site/hxlproject/home/project-overview>. 122 HumanitarianResponse.info, "About the COD/FOD," accessed August 21, 2013, <http://cod.humanitarianresponse.info/about-codfod>.



32 | 84

These technical solutions are slowly but surely improving information and coordination within

the humanitarian system. However, organizational innovation remains a major obstacle to

responsiveness of the humanitarian

system to new information sources,

new ICTs, and non-traditional actors.

Similarly to the V&TCs, formal humanitarian organizations have identified technical issues and are conducting innovation projects to mitigate those challenges. However, organizational responsiveness and adaptability require greater attention and organizational innovation is needed.



33 | 84

4. OBSTACLES TO FURTHER INNOVATION

4.1. Growing Pains: Organizational Maturation of the V&TCs

a. Beyond the Network Even prior to Haiti, the networks that we now refer to as V&TCs began development of their

structure, capacity, and official integration into the humanitarian system. Despite the

identification with the ‘horizontalist’ (leaderless and decentralized) structures of open-source

communities, Wikipedia, and the Occupy movement, these networks have recognized that in

order to be sustainable, they must become better funded, more efficient, reliable, and

professional in their activities. Yet, some V&TCs continue to see themselves as almost a

protest movement against both the institutionalized humanitarian system and the broader

repressive nature of society as a whole. In quoting a message from the Crisis Mappers’ Google

Groups Forum, Patrick Meier notes that:

Crisis Mapping is not simply a technological shift, it is also a process of rapid decentralization of power. With extremely low barriers to entry, many new entrants are appearing in the fields of emergency and disaster response. They are ignoring the traditional hierarchies, because the new entrants perceive that there is something that they can do which benefits others.123

This expression of identity is fundamental to a number of the V&TCs and as a result,

interactions with the formal humanitarian system, and with each other, can be problematic. A

closer analysis of these networks reveals that ‘horizontalism’ can leave a network open to a

variety of vulnerabilities that may threaten its existence. Most fundamentally, a disregard for

governance structure can actually result in an unrestricted, hyper-political, and detrimental

power structure within a ‘leaderless’ entity.

b. The Reality of ‘Hierarchy Free’ Analysing organizational structure can sometimes be a chicken or egg question of which came

first: the organizational structure or the underlying social hierarchy? Tapia et al., describe this

as the “duality of structure in which regular, patterned behaviour of individuals becomes

standardized practice in organizations and institutions while at the same time, these same

123 Meier, "New information technologies and their impact on the humanitarian sector," 1259.



34 | 84

structurizing elements are drawn upon by individual actors in their ongoing interactions.”124

Biologists and sociologists have analysed networks of organisms, animals, and humans, and

have repeatedly found that “far from being random, [networks] are governed by strict

organizing principles.”125 Vital to a network’s survival is the development of ‘hubs’ or ‘nodes’

which “play a crucial role in the robustness of the network… bridging the many small

communities of clusters into a single, integrated network.”126 Indeed, when looking at the

governance and organizational structures of those entities from which V&TCs draw their

inspiration, we see that structure occurs organically throughout online networks and

communities. In some of these cases, the research has shown that an aversion to articulating

good governance for a network leaves it vulnerable to the occurrence of informal hierarchy –

that is, the type of hierarchy that develops ‘naturally’ between individuals. This type of

hierarchy can actually be far more detrimental and debilitating to a network than a

predetermined organizational structure.

Case Examples

Open-source software development communities In open-source software development communities, software projects are ‘built, assembled, and maintained’ by distributed groups of technical experts.127 Some prominent examples of software developed by open-source communities include Mozilla Firefox and Android technology. In their study of Self-organization versus hierarchy in open-source social networks, Valverde and Sole began with the idea that “these communities are known to display a large amount of distributed, bottom-up organization.”128 Yet, their study revealed a ‘rich-club phenomenon’ and ‘elitism’ within these communities, stemming from a core group of programmers who “introduce top-down control” and who become “strong hubs [that] control the global flow of information.”129 Their final conclusion is that “even distributed systems develop internal hierarchies, thus suggesting that some amount of centralized, global knowledge might be inevitable.” This is important to be aware of, especially in

124 Tapia et al., "Coordinating humanitarian information: The problem of organizational and technical trajectories," p 244. 125 Erzsebet Ravasz and Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, "Hierarchical organization in complex networks." Last modified February 01, 2008. Accessed July 25, 2013, p 1. 126 Ibid, p 6. 127 Sergi Valverde and Ricard V. Solé, "Self-Organization versus hierarchy in open-source social networks," Physical Review E. 4 (2007), <http://pre.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v76/i4/e046118>, (accessed August 21, 2013) p 1. 128 Ibid, p 1. 129 Ibid, p 6.



35 | 84

technical communities where those with robust technical skills may naturally be seen as stronger individuals within the network. As we shall see in further examples, those who are perceived to have strength, or higher status,130 generally move towards the top of a naturally developing hierarchy – despite any other positive or negative qualities that that individual may possess.

The problem with hierarchies is that while they have a multitude of downsides, they also provide a number of benefits. The authors of Status Hierarchies and the Organization of Collective Action “[point] to a fundamental duality to status hierarchies, namely that while they operate as systems of inequality with damaging effects on individuals’ self-conceptions and respect in groups, they can also have advantageous outcomes, structuring group efforts in functional, productive ways.”131 The negative aspects of hierarchy are what horizontalist groups are attempting to avoid, however, it is important to acknowledge the naturally occurring hierarchy within social interactions that may unavoidably endow certain members with power anyways.

Occupy Wall Street As a manifestation of the social discontent within the United States following the economic collapse of 2008, Occupy Wall Street became a movement that unified the world against inequality. More fundamentally, “OWS [sought] a total transformation of the hierarchical structure of human relations that [perpetuated] such gross inequality and injustice in the first place.”132 Sparked by a Twitter message from Adbusters in July 2011, protesters set up camp at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, lasting there for almost two months as the ‘Occupy’ movement infiltrated popular culture and inspired protest around the world.133 In addition to a protest movement, Occupy became the greatest experiment in leaderless horizontal organization and distributed decision making that we have seen to date. Yet, the logistics of keeping the camp going resulted in the creation of a ‘General Assembly’ and ‘Spokes Council’ in order to facilitate more accountable, transparent, and directly democratic decision making.134 Syrek describes these bodies as ‘plebiscites’ which:

constantly [responded] to their members' demands and [tested] for consensus on both decisions and the process by which decisions are made. In order to maintain as high a degree of transparency and fairness as possible, the

130 Brent Simpson, Robb Willer, and Cecilia L. Ridgeway, "Status Hierarchies and the Organization of Collective Action," Sociological Theory 3 (2012): 149-166, <http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375870>, (accessed Aug 21, 2013). 131 Ibid., p 150 132 Steven Syrek, "'Why am I talking?' Reflecting on language and privilege at Occupy Wall Street," Critical Quarterly 2 (2012): 72 - 75, <http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375872>, (Accessed August 21, 2013), p 72. 133 Alasdair Roberts, "Why the Occupy Movement Failed," Public Administration Review 5 (2012), <http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375873>, (accessed August 21, 2013), p 755. 134 Ibid., 4.



36 | 84

facilitators of these larger bodies [had to] maintain a mien of humility, constantly asking for the approval of the group on even minor points of process. The group, in turn, is expected to communicate its feelings non-verbally - using the celebrated hand signals - so that nobody feels excluded by loud acclamation or condemnation.135

An interesting side note is that the Merriam Webster definition of ‘plebiscite’ also includes the caveat that, “because plebiscites offer a way to claim a popular mandate without permitting an opposition party, totalitarian regimes have used them to legitimize their power.”136 While the Occupy General Assembly and Spokes Council were attempts to avoid the development of informal hierarchy, they were also incredibly controversial within the community, as they seemed to confirm that “a pure form of horizontalism simply did not work.”137

At the time, prominent scholars such as Noam Chomsky implored the Occupy Movement to ‘form the structures that will be sustained’138 and others later reflected that “absent an extended strategy, experienced networks, and a stabilizing organizational structure, Occupy [could not] parlay small victories into action for long-term potential.”139 Despite being ‘leaderless,’ “the inner core of the movement was phobic about the risk of being co-opted.”140 Therefore, they refused to make the necessary alliances with politicians and other civil society groups they needed for sustainability and instead, made enemies.141 Ultimately, the movement turned on itself, alienating community members who were “accused of being ‘intellectuals’ or dismissed as ‘middle-class’ and therefore not true members of the ninety-nine per cent.”142 Despite a spectacular ascent, the Occupy Movement quickly crashed and was unable to maintain the momentum it needed to truly affect societal change. Gitlin concludes that “Occupy 2.0, if there is to be one, requires reconfiguration. It would have to be powered by people of many sorts and networks and organizations of many sorts. It can't be run horizontally - there's too much frictional energy spent in self-maintenance.”143

135 Syrek, "'Why am I talking?' Reflecting on language and privilege at Occupy Wall Street," p 74. 136 “plebiscite, n.”, Merriam-Webster, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plebiscite (accessed Aug 21, 2013). 137 Roberts, "Why the Occupy Movement Failed," p 757. 138 Ibid, 758. 139 Todd Gitlin, "Occupy's predicament: the moment and the prospects for the movement," The British Journal of Sociology 1 (2013): 3-25, <http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375877>, (Accessed August 21, 2013), p 22. 140 Ibid., p 8. 141 Roberts, "Why the Occupy Movement Failed," p 759-760. 142 Syrek, "'Why am I talking?' Reflecting on language and privilege at Occupy Wall Street," p 75. 143 Gitlin, "Occupy's predicament: the moment and the prospects for the movement," p 23.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plebiscite



37 | 84

Wikipedia In contrast, Wikipedia is one of the internet’s most enduring experiments in building a public product through collaborative processes. Wikipedia has evolved over time to have a complex, yet distributed, policy development and governance structure which maintains the integrity of the project, while still encouraging wider participation. Forte says that, “In Wikipedia, governance is less akin to rule imposition by external authority than to constant reform and refinement of social norms within the community.”144 However, despite an effective working model, Wikipedia is also prone to the downsides of horizontalism. Similar to the social dynamic we saw in the Occupy movement, Forte’s research revealed that a degree of hyper-political activity also occurs in Wikipedia in pursuit of consensus building. As one of his interviewees stated, “power in Wikipedia is: sufficient people listen to you and are inclined to consider what you want done.”145 There was also evidence of the ‘elitism’ that the open-source community research identified in that there is a ‘core community’ of Wikipedia made up of those with the technical or personal skills that ‘naturally’ endow them with authority over others. Forte notes that despite the perception of “openness that might initially give the appearance that policy on Wikipedia is “up for grabs” by anyone who wanders along … in fact the creation and refinement of policy is a complex social negotiation that often takes place across many communication channels and in which power, authority, and reputation play decisive roles.”146

In response to these downsides, Wikipedia has developed a number of mechanisms that mitigate the worst effects. For example, they have created a dispute-resolution processes through the creation of an ‘arbitration committee’ which allows for the community and external actors to effectively mediate any problems which occur.147 Wikipedia has also created a system of ‘wikiprojects’ which effectively distributes decision making into ‘jurisdictions’ which can decide on their own rules and regulations within smaller spheres.148 Each jurisdiction has the ability to designate arbitrators who have the power to apply ‘graduated sanctions’ when a user breaks written or unwritten technical or behavioral policies.149 This role of ‘administrator’ for the site is a consolidation of power, but individuals promoted to these roles must go through a rigourous selection process.150 Forte concludes his study of Decentralization in Wikipedia Governance by saying that “the community has (so far) gracefully distributed the pressure of expansion” by moving governance outward into smaller

144 Andrea Forte, Vanessa Larco, and Amy Bruckman, "Decentralization in Wikipedia Governance," Journal of Management Information Systems 1 (2009), <http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375878>, (Accessed August 21, 2013), p 52. 145 Ibid., p 55. 146 Ibid., p 58. 147 Forte, "Decentralization in Wikipedia Governance," p 60. 148 Ibid., p 62. 149 Ibid., p 65. 150 Ibid., p 67.



38 | 84

and smaller “nodes of governance.”151 Despite the presence of elitism and politics within Wikipedia, their model of distributed governance may be a model upon which V&TCs could build their networks.

Hierarchy is not (necessarily) the enemy As we can see in the case examples, even the most cited examples of horizontalism and

networked organizational structure find themselves engaging in hierarchical behaviour. In

Formal and Informal Hierarchy in Different Types of Organization, Diefenback and Sillince set

out to determine why, “despite all the rhetoric about flat, lean or virtual organizations, family-,

team- or net-work-based modes of organizing, most organizations still function on the basis of

hierarchical principles and mechanisms.”152 They conclude that wherever formal hierarchy is

absent, informal hierarchy occurs unchecked. Formal hierarchy is defined as “vertical formal

integration of official positions within one explicit organizational structure whereby each

position or office is under the supervision of a higher one.”153 Informal hierarchy is defined as

“person-dependent social relationships of dominance and subordination which emerge from

social interaction and become persistent over time through repeated social processes

(especially routine behavior).”154

In their analysis of hierarchy within network organizations, they found that, despite the initial

intentions to be hierarchy free, “hierarchical structures emerged over time.”155 Within the

digital communications between network members, the authors found that “members

developed systematic pattern of addressing certain issues in unequal ways and of using

rhetoric in order to signal superiority or inferiority, dominance or submissiveness.”156 In an

absence of predetermined organization and governance structures, informal ones took over

that were entirely based on social interactions. Sadly, the authors found that “in addition to

trust, flexibility, adaptability, deregulation, cooperation, voluntarism, decentralization, team

spirit, empowerment and transparency, there can also be deception, inflexibility, gaming

behavior, regulation, antagonism, coercion, concentration of power, egocentrism, oppression

and secrecy.”157 These negative elements are just as bad, if not worse, than the negative

151 Ibid., 70. 152 Diefenback and Sillince, "Formal and Informal Hierarchy in Different Types of Organization," p 1530. 153 Ibid., p 1517. 154 Ibid., p 1517. 155 Ibid., p 1529. 156 Ibid., p 1529. 157 Ibid., p 1529.



39 | 84

elements of pre-determined organizational structure. It is vitally important for those involved

in developing a network organization to consider the restrictions that governance can place

on human nature – restrictions that may improve the viability of an organization by

regulating social interactions and reducing raw inequality between members.

Elements of Informal Hierarchy:

POSITIVE NEGATIVE

• Trust • Flexibility • Adaptability • Deregulation • Cooperation • Voluntarism • Decentralization • Team Spirit • Empowerment • Transparency

• Deception • Inflexibility • Gaming Behaviour • Regulation • Antagonism • Coercion • Concentration of Power • Egocentrism • Oppression • Secrecy

c. Why further development? Individual V&TCs need to consider taking an active stance towards governance and

organization models in order to prevent against the negative aspects of informal hierarchy,

elitism, and hyper-politicization that occur within naturally evolving networks. This is entirely

possible to do while retaining a flat organizational structure and distributed decision making as

we have seen in the Wikipedia case example. As outlined in Annex A, those V&TCs which are

part of the Digital Humanitarian Network have already developed a spectrum of organizational

structures. However, a more intellectual exercise of developing a governance structure will be

required for many, especially for emerging V&TCs. This same sentiment applies to the newly

established Digital Humanitarian Network as well; thoughtful governance of the umbrella

organization will ensure that the DHN is not subverted or de-legitimized by unrestricted

actions of its members.

Secondly, this effort will go a long way to building the sustainability, legitimacy, and reliability

that is required from the formal humanitarian system before V&TCs can become an equally

weighted force in disaster response. As Crowley says, “federal agencies have a much easier

time working with corporations that engage in collective intelligence than with the



40 | 84

communities that emerge from grassroots processes.”158 This is because corporations have an

organizational structure, policies, and procedures that can be easily meshed with those of the

humanitarian system and provides an inherent level of trust and accountability. The

participation of digital citizens in crisis response has not always been helpful, as we saw in the

frenzy following the Boston Bombings in April where countless innocent individuals were

singled out as perpetrators by internet communities.159 In addition to the challenges resulting

from digital humanitarianism, and new ICTs themselves, V&TCs potentially put their volunteers,

humanitarian workers, and affected populations at risk due to a disregard for traditional

protective frameworks. Stempeck mentions that a “liability report produced by the Wilson

Center identified several areas of legal risk for these new organizations, and recommended

that V&TCs legally incorporate, require volunteers to agree to liability waivers, purchase

insurance, and consult legal

counsel”160 in order to mitigate some

of these risks. Further development

of the DHN and individual V&TCs will

also open up the possibility of

sustainable funding that could

enable these networks to better

manage their volunteers, increase

surge capacity, and allow for paid

staff to be consistently dedicated to

the effort.161

158 John Crowley, Connecting Grassroots and Government for Disaster Response, p 16. 159 Matt Stempeck, "Participatory Aid Marketplace," p 37. 160 Matt Stempeck, "Participatory Aid Marketplace," p 43. 161 Boehmer, Coordinating Efforts by Volunteer and Technical Communities for Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Relief p 5-10.

Open-source software communities, Occupy Wall Street, and Wikipedia have forged a new path towards horizontal organizational structure. However, they have also experienced significant downsides in the absence of predetermined organizational and governance structures. V&TCs should continue to be inspired by these groups, but also seek to improve upon their models.



41 | 84

4.2. RELINQUISHING THE REINS: BECOMING AN ADAPTIVE FORMAL ORGANIZATION

a. The need to open up As stated by OCHA itself in Humanitarianism in the Network Age, “the ways in which people

interact will change, with or without the sanction of international humanitarian organizations.

Either those organizations adapt to the network age, or they grow increasingly out of touch

with the people they were established to serve.”162 Or, in other words, if formal humanitarian

organizations do not develop the systems and tools needed to manage the influx of

information from affected populations and the V&TCs, they risk irrelevance. To the outside

world, the formal humanitarian system and international organizations are perceived to be

“still firmly rooted in a paradigm of documents and databases passed through hierarchies.”163

We have discussed previously the efforts that OCHA is taking to improve information

management and coordination within the humanitarian system. Yet, that is not enough.

OCHA and members of the humanitarian system will need to consider changes to their internal

organizational structures and look at ways that their structure could be opened in order to

better interface with non-traditional actors.

b. Becoming an ‘adaptive organization’164 As Colonel John F. Price states, “the antiquated organization is at odds with what everyone

else is doing; flattening organization structure, decentralizing operations, and creating more

direct communications.”165 Price draws on lessons from the private sector as outlined in

William Fulmer’s book Shaping the Adaptive Organization and makes recommendations to the

U.S. military that would make it a more flexible and responsive organization. We see similar

calls for the formal humanitarian organizations to look inward and address the ‘stifling’166

aspects of their hierarchies and bureaucracies.167 In the coming years, climate change is

expected to cause more frequent natural disasters and exacerbate the type of societal 162 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "Humanitarianism in the Network Age," p 7. 163 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, "Disaster Relief 2.0," 34 164 William E. Fulmer, Shaping the Adapative Organization: Landscapes, Learning and Leadership in Volatile Times (New York: American Management Association, 2000). 165 John F. Price, Jr., "Napoleon's Shadow Facing Organizational Design Challenges in the U.S. Military," Joint Forces Quarterly 68 (2013), <http://go.galegroup.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE|A323503428&v=2.1&u=utoronto_main&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w> (accessed June 27, 2013), p 1. 166 Price, Jr., "Napoleon's Shadow Facing Organizational Design Challenges in the U.S. Military," p 2. 167 Meier, "New information technologies and their impact on the humanitarian sector," p 1261.



42 | 84

pressure that could inflame political tensions and increase conflict.168 These predictions,

coupled with the fact that economic crisis has reduced the financial resources available to

humanitarian response, means that the humanitarian system will be under increased pressure

to streamline its operations.169 In order for new technologies and actors to have a positive

impact on the work of formal humanitarian organizations, the formal system must become

adaptive, engage with participatory aid, and allow new partners to take the reins in certain

areas.

Quoting Arno Penzias, Bell Lab's chief scientist, Fulmer states that "the problem with

hierarchies is that people at every level have the power to say no. You have to get to the

person who can say yes."170 OCHA echoes this statement by saying that, “while information

can be used by anyone, power remains concentrated in the hands of a limited number of

decision makers.”171 Furthermore, Price argues that hierarchy, to the degree that we see in

international institutions, “undermines creativity, hinders empowerment and sense ownership

… fosters cynicism … and serves to fracture teamwork, collaboration, and knowledge

distribution.”172 However, the humanitarian system is the only system that can be truly relied

upon to meet the basic needs of devastated populations in times of crisis.173 Therefore, the

humanitarian system should adopt some of the lessons learned from the private sector in

organizational innovation.

Fulmer analysed early technical innovators in Silicon Valley at the turn of the century. He

found that there were “at least five general characteristics of an adaptive organization’s

structure: It tends to be relatively decentralized, have high spans of control, make extensive

use of temporary structures, have a powerful information system, and constantly evolves the

structure.”174 As we have seen, OCHA has taken significant strides towards developing the

‘powerful information system,’ and is currently in the midst of a number of structural changes.

Decentralization and increasing spans of control require an organization to reduce the amount

168 John Holmes, "Humanitarian Response in the 21st Century," p 114-115. 169 OCHAFilms, "Valerie Amos - Transformative Agenda Video," Uploaded June 13, 2012, Accessed July 28, 2013, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQBmiA-Wxmw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1>. 170 Fulmer, Shaping the Adapative Organization, p 184. 171 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "Humanitarianism in the Network Age," p 55. 172 Price, Jr., "Napoleon's Shadow Facing Organizational Design Challenges in the U.S. Military," p 2. 173 Matt Stempeck, "Participatory Aid Marketplace," p 21. 174 Fulmer, Shaping the Adapative Organization, p 179.



43 | 84

of layers it takes to ‘get to yes.’ It requires empowering people on the ground to make

decisions quickly, based on the information at hand. The primary take away from Fulmer’s

book is the advice to “use temporary structures as much as possible.” 175 For formal

humanitarian organizations, this will mean authorising specific individuals to connect with non-

traditional partners and technologies on an ad hoc basis and reducing the levels of approval

needed to move forward. Especially when considering the advance of information and

communication technologies, it is impossible to try and devise guidelines, policies, and

procedures based on what is available today; by the time the specific policies are drafted, the

technology in question will have changed.176 Instead, formal humanitarian organizations

should invest in an interface between themselves and those on the other side of the equation

– those on the frontlines of technological change who are best positioned to inform

humanitarian organizations of what’s coming.

c. Coming together on the ‘edge of chaos’ Fulmer argues that, “complex organizations and economies… function best when they are just

at the ‘edge of chaos’ – a place that is orderly enough to ensure stability yet full of flexibility

and surprise.”177 This edge of chaos exists between two types of organizational regime: the

ordered and the chaotic. The ordered regime is one where an organization or system has

reached a point where it had to stop being competitive to survive, and therefore became

comfortable and complacent.178 The chaotic regime on the other hand, is one where actors in

the system are constantly introducing underdeveloped changes that are more disruptive than

they are innovative.179 In the humanitarian system, traditional organizations find themselves

in an ordered regime and some V&TCs may find themselves in a chaotic regime. Both sides of

this equation need to come towards the middle, towards working on the edge of chaos, in

order to meet the true potential that participatory aid has to offer. In order to become an

adaptive system, a space must be created where stakeholders can ‘encourage individual

learning, share individual learning, and leverage individual learning’ in order to be continuously

on top of a changing landscape.180

175 Ibid., 182. 176 Fulmer, Shaping the Adapative Organization, p 67. 177 Ibid., 62. 178 Ibid., 175. 179 Ibid., 176. 180 Ibid., 154 - 157.



44 | 84

5. TOWARDS INTEGRATION: THE DIGITAL HUMANITARIAN NETWORK As we have seen, both the formal humanitarian system and V&TCs are pushing to capitalize on

the potential benefits that new ICTs have for humanitarian response. However, of equal

difficulty are the internal challenges that these two groups are facing to on one hand be

sustainable and on the other hand, maintain adaptability. Currently in the field of

humanitarian affairs there is a great sense of possibility and optimism for the future of

humanitarian response. The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery explains this

sentiment thus:

When Thomas Kuhn defined paradigm change in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he described a state where a traditional framework and several experimental approaches existed in parallel - a period when the explanatory power of the old system wanes while some inchoate new system explores and codifies the methods that are strong enough to begin replacing the old ones. While VTCs will never replace the current institutional frameworks, crisis response and other elements of the disaster risk management cycle are approaching a state resembling a shift in paradigm.181

If both sides of this story manage to address the technical and organizational challenges they

face, “Disaster Relief 2.0… has the potential to save many lives, mobilise international interest

and resources, and improve the effective allocation of limited resources.”182

181 Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, "Volunteer Technology Communities: Open Development," p 15. 182 Jeffrey Villaveces, "Disaster Response 2.0," Forced Migration Review, <http://www.fmreview.org/technology/villaveces.html> (accessed July 30, 2013),p 9.



45 | 84

5.1. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FORMAL HUMANITARIAN SYSTEM The formal humanitarian system must become increasingly adaptive and responsive to the

changing landscape of technologies and actors in humanitarian response. It is important for

the humanitarian system to remain focused on its strengths: upholding the humanitarian

principles, maintaining the political space for humanitarianism in the international system,

managing international donor relationships, and coordinating the provision of aid. However, it

is also vitally important to continue on the trend of placing information management and

innovation at the centre of humanitarian response. Research has shown that the formal

humanitarian system is moving in the right direction towards adaptiveness by investing in

innovation projects aimed at improving information management and inter-organizational

coordination. However, there is very little public awareness about the internal changes that

OCHA and the humanitarian system are making and this perpetuates the perception that the

formal humanitarian system is stagnant. Greater emphasis should be placed on making these

dynamic initiatives more transparent to the outside world. Additionally, the formal

humanitarian organizations should consider dedicating human and financial resources to

supporting the work of the Digital Humanitarian Network and operationalizing the

recommendations for collaboration set out by the Guidance for Collaborating with Volunteer &

Technical Communities.183

ACTIONS: • As financial and human resources are increasingly allocated to information

management, take advantage of restructuring opportunities to flatten organizational

structure of these departments and decentralize decision making.

o This will require that more individuals are empowered to make significant

decisions.

o Therefore, decision making jurisdiction and parameters must be clearly

defined for each individual and level of the organization.

o Articulate what each person has the right to ‘say yes’ to and reduce

bureaucratic obstacles to making those decisions quickly.

183 Capelo et al., Guidance for Collaborating with Volunteer & Technical Communities.



46 | 84

• Develop a ‘Partnership Package’ that can be used to establish quick and temporary

partnerships with V&TC and technological actors (if being established outside of the

Digital Humanitarian Network). This should include:

o Template legal documents needed to establish the partnership.

o Articulated expectations of the V&TC (i.e., point of contact, regular

communication, vetting processes, etc.) with space for tailored additions.

o Articulated expectations of the formal humanitarian organization (i.e.,

volunteer recognition, consultation on product use, feedback, etc.) with space

for tailored additions.

o Outlined workflows for how input from V&TCs will be managed by the formal

organization.

o This should be based on a predetermination of the types of products and

support that will benefit formal humanitarian response.

o A protocol for receiving, considering, and potentially adopting new ideas from

the V&TC.

• Create a resource where internal information management initiatives are discussed

and explained.

o Past, current, and future projects should be included and details should be

provided regarding the project’s lead and contributors.

o Describe the process of innovation for each project:

What problem is being addressed?

What are the expected outcomes?

What has been successful?

What has failed?

What is enabling this effort?

What are the obstacles?

Why were certain decisions made?

• Allow other organizations, including the V&TCs, to access this information so that they

may offer suggestions, develop greater understanding, align their own initiatives, and

potentially even contribute where appropriate.

• Designate individuals who would act as liaisons with the Digital Humanitarian Network

on an ongoing basis and provide support to this initiative.



47 | 84

5.2. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR V&TCS Volunteer and Technical Communities have proven to be valuable partners in humanitarian

affairs and are making significant strides to becoming reliable, trusted, and sustainable

organizations. Their commitment to community based, experimental, and technical

organizational structures has inspired many to adopt new methods and push for innovation

within the humanitarian system. However, adherences to ideology leave V&TCs vulnerable to

instability, hyper-politics, and informal hierarchy. While analysis of the DHN members, as

outlined in Annex I, reveals that the more established V&TCs have in fact already moved

towards organizational development, a more active approach towards governance is essential.

Cognisant governance will mitigate some of the risks faced by network/non-hierarchical

organizations, while still allowing V&TCs to adopt alternative forms of organizational structure

- as modeled by Wikipedia. A basic primer on where V&TCs could go with their governance

models is outlined in Annex II. Additionally, it is important for V&TCs to build relationships

with the formal humanitarian system in order to remain a welcome actor in the humanitarian

field. Fulmer found in his analysis of technological companies that “one of the challenges

faced by technology companies is that their leaders often become enamored with their

technology. Leaders of technology firms often have to learn … that technology is not

particularly important unless the customer wants it.”184 The literature has repeatedly stated

that those V&TCs that successfully collaborated with the formal humanitarian system were

those that developed relationships prior to crisis.185 Detailed recommendations for V&TCs on

understanding and collaborating with formal humanitarian organizations have been put

forward by the DHN’s Guidance for Collaborating with Formal Humanitarian Organizations.186

184 Fulmer, Shaping the Adapative Organization, p 215. 185 See works by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Homeland Security, Science and Technology. 186 Annie P. Waldman, Andrej Verity, and Roberts Shadrock, Digital Humanitarian Network, "Guidance for Collaborating with Formal Humanitarian Organizations," last modified July 29, 2013, accessed August 22, 2013, <https://app.box.com/s/w25sqotkg4qc2f2ch1ii>.



48 | 84

ACTIONS • Individually, each V&TC may wish to conduct an inventory of organizational structure

and make active decisions regarding the direction in which the network is moving.

o See Annex I for areas to consider

• Consider elements of non-profit governance and determine which mechanisms are

most appropriate for the V&TC to guard against informal hierarchy, while still allowing

for network flexibility.

o See Annex II for further explanations and possibilities for V&TC governance

models

• Determine the V&TC’s relationship to the Digital Humanitarian Network and designate

individuals to represent the V&TC at this organization.

5.3. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE DIGITAL HUMANITARIAN NETWORK Across the board, literature on the subject of V&TCs and humanitarian affairs have

recommended the development of an ‘intermediary,’ ‘interface,’ or ‘board,’ to act as a

connection between the two sides. Although in some cases these recommendations have

been negatively received,187 it has become clear overtime that in order for the work of V&TCs

to meet its true potential, they will have to meet formal organizations halfway. Likewise, the

humanitarian system must take responsibility for ensuring that this work is encouraged,

supported and integrated - in order to better meet the needs of affected populations. As such,

both sides need to invest in a neutral space for collaboration, discussion, development and

problem solving.

Numerous suggestions have been made regarding the possible development of this

intermediary organization. In Disaster Relief 2.0, the Harvard Humanitarian Institute

extensively details an ‘interface’ that would provide a forum in which to identify common

problems, experiment with new ideas, cross-train relevant personnel, deploy experts, share

tools and practices, as well as evaluate results.188 Erin Boehmer discusses the potential of

establishing a V&TC Coordination Board made up of knowledgeable members of the 187 Anonymous, "Why We Need a Disaster 2.1 Report," Blog post reply to Disaster 2.0 (blog), September 15, 2011, <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sFyTz6Q9yd9gfmG96F4Utu6Ri_EPVieLHjVkXap1TF8/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLPKl6ED&pli=1> (accessed August 22, 2013). 188 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, "Disaster Relief 2.0," p 45-46.



49 | 84

community who could be approached with common problems and who would work to

develop solutions.189 Matthew Stempeck argues for a ‘participatory aid marketplace’ where,

via an online platform, V&TCs could share projects, improve coordination, and connect with

interested funders.190 Each of these efforts provide valuable input into the types of activities

and role that an intermediary could take, if not a perfect template. Only the stakeholders who

would be impacted by such an endeavour can devise this structure.

Recently, a small group of V&TCs established the Digital Humanitarian Network (DHN) to act as

a unified face for the networks to the formal humanitarian organizations. The DHN is not

currently a proper organization, but serves as a focal point for formal humanitarian

organizations to request assistance from V&TCs. If given proper attention from the formal

humanitarian system and the V&TCs, the DHN has the potential to become the ‘interface’

which would enable a full integration (not assimilation) of the V&TCs into the humanitarian

system.

The DHN as a coordination body could:

• Provide support to its members in terms of organizational development, project

management and collaboration arrangements.

• Facilitate dialogue, collaboration and partnership between to the groups -

operationalizing the recommendations set forth by the Guidance for Collaborating

with Volunteer & Technical Communities and the Guidance for Collaborating with

Formal Humanitarian Organizations.191

• Support the sustainability of its members by leveraging the idea of a participatory aid

marketplace,192 or by securing private and public partners to fund the further

development of V&TCs and their initiatives.

• Raise public and institutional awareness about the V&TCs and what they offer.

• Actively liaise with formal humanitarian organizations to mesh policies, procedures,

standards and mechanisms.

189 Boehmer, Coordinating Efforts by Volunteer and Technical Communities for Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Relief, p 13-14. 190 Matt Stempeck, "Participatory Aid Marketplace," p 144. 191 Digital Humanitarian Network, “Materials.” 192 Matt Stempeck, "Participatory Aid Marketplace."



50 | 84

• Create a neutral space for the mediation of disputes between V&TCs themselves and

with the larger humanitarian system.

• Continue to act as an activation mechanism for V&TCs by the formal organizations.

A fully formed DHN would relieve pressure on both sides by allowing each to focus on what

they do best, while taking on the administrative and integration issues. It is important to

understand that this form of the DHN would not be in a position to make binding decisions on

any of the members, but would exist solely to support development, dialogue, and mutually

beneficial integration of the system. In order to achieve this goal however, the DHN itself will

have to undergo significant organizational development and will require investment from both

the V&TCs and from the formal humanitarian system.

ACTIONS • Seek investment of funding, expertise, and skills from both the V&TCs and formal

humanitarian organizations for this effort.

o The DHN will need to be properly incorporated as a not-for-profit in order to

receive funding from formal organizations, but could also seek funding from

foundations, the private sector, or through platforms such as Kickstarter.

o Proper investment will allow for the DHN to retain dedicated personnel who

will be able to focus their energy on driving this initiative forward.

• Develop a sophisticated, yet minimal governance and management structure that will

ensure that the DHN is able to effectively and legitimately act as an intermediary body

between the V&TCs and the formal humanitarian system.

o This will require that the governance structure, potentially a Board of

Directors, is representative of both the technological and humanitarian fields.

o The management structure should be made up of individuals who are highly

technologically literate and are experienced in not-for-profit management,

coordination efforts, and collaboration initiatives - but are neutral in the eyes

of both the V&TCs and formal humanitarian organizations.

o This is vital to the DHN’s ongoing legitimacy and effectiveness as a middle

ground.

• Representatives from the V&TCs, as well as representatives from humanitarian

organizations, should be engaged as members of the organization.



51 | 84

V&TCs and the services they provide offer massive potential to benefit disaster response and

affected populations. Therefore, it is the responsibility of both the V&TCs and the formal

humanitarian community to ensure that their efforts are sustainable and continue to grow,

adapt, and integrate. The DHN has the potential to become the vehicle through which this

vision is achieved.



52 | 84

Annex 1: INVENTORY OF DHN MEMBER ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT The following is an inventory of organizational development based on publicly available

information. As such, it is unlikely to be completely accurate due to the reality that many

websites and public records are not kept up to date, nor do they reflect current behind-the-

scenes discussions. This inventory is simply meant to serve as an initial clarification of the

organizational and governance structures of the more established V&TCs, so that they may be

better understood by formal humanitarian organizations and emerging V&TCs.

ORGANIZATIONAL REGISTRATION Is the DHN member a registered not-for-profit or corporation?

REGISTERED NOT-FOR-PROFIT

REGISTERED CORPORATION

SUBSIDIARY OF LARGER NOT-FOR-PROFIT ENTITY

SUBSIDIARY OF LARGER PRIVATE SECTOR ENTITY

NONE

● Humanity Road

● Translators without Borders

● MapAction

● DataKind US

● GISCorps ● Statistics

without Borders

● HOT ● UN Online

Volunteers

● Esri Disaster Response and Assistance

● Standby Task Force

● Geeks without Bounds

Registered not-for-profit: These organizations are standalone entities that have formally acquired not-for-profit or charity status.

In this category we have 3 organizations from the DHN:

• Humanity Road, Inc.: Established 2010, Virginia, USA. • Translators without Borders – US Inc.: Established 2011, Connecticut, USA. • MapAction: Established 2009, Buckinghamshire, UK.

Registered Corporation These organizations are standalone entities that have formally acquired for-profit corporate status.

In this category we have 1 organization from the DHN:

• DataKind, Inc.: Established 2012, New York, USA, o DataKind (UK) Ltd: Established 2013, London, UK.



53 | 84

Subsidiary of Larger, Registered not-for-profit These entities are projects or programs created within a larger not-for-profit organization. As

such, they do not need to register separately as individual not-for-profits, but benefit from the

not-for-profit status of their parent organization. These entities may receive administrative

and financial support from the larger organization, for example, by allowing their employees to

use office space or work hours for the subsidiary’s activities. The parent organization could be

a larger charity, a professional association, or an international organization. Typically, the

subsidiary entity is a way for the parent organization’s employees or members to volunteer.


• GISCorps, subsidiary of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association o URISA is a “not-for-profit association of professionals using Geographic

Information Systems and other information technologies to solve challenges in state/provincial, regional and local government agencies and departments.”193

• Statistics without Borders, subsidiary of the American Statistical Association o The ASA is an international association of statisticians which “supports

excellence in the development, application, and dissemination of statistical science.”194

• HOT, subsidiary of the OpenStreetMap Foundation o The OpenStreetMap Foundation supports the OpenStreetMap Project. The

Foundation manages funding, technical requirements, and legal issues on behalf of the OpenStreetMap community.195

• UN Online Volunteers, subsidiary of UN Volunteers o UN Volunteers “is the UN organization that contributes to peace and

development through volunteerism worldwide.”196

Subsidiary of Larger, Registered For-Profit Corporation These entities are projects or programs created within a larger private sector organization.

These entities may be aspects of a Corporate Social Responsibility program or a branch of the

corporation’s products and services. Similarly to the not-for-profit subsidiaries, these entities

will receive administrative and financial support from their parent organization.

193 URISA, The Association For GIS Professionals, "About Us," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.urisa.org/main/about-us/>. 194 American Statistical Association, "About ASA," Accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.amstat.org/about/index.cfm>. 195 OpenStreetMap Foundation, "Main Page," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Main_Page>. 196 UN Volunteers, "About Us," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.unv.org/about-us.html>.



54 | 84

In this category we have 1 organization from the DHN:

• Esri Disaster Response and Assistance, subsidiary of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (Esri)

o Esri, “develops geographic information systems (GIS) … [and] offers project consulting and implementation services.”197

No Registration These organizations have specifically chosen not to register as a not-for-profit or corporate

organization, or, they may not have reached the decision point in their organizational

development.


• The Standby Volunteer Task Force • Geeks without Bounds

Summary of Organization Registration • The majority of DHN members have decided to register as formal not-for-profits or

corporations in their primary jurisdictions. o This means that they have had reached a point of organizational development

to the degree that their home jurisdiction would approve their application for incorporation.

o This will be reflected in the existence of certain organizational structures such as a Board of Directors.

• Those which exist as subsidiary organizations have not had to proceed with this process, but as we shall see, still mirror many elements of the organizational structure of their parent organization.

o Subsidiary organizations are usually answerable to their parent organizations and must conduct their activities in compliance with the larger organization’s policies and procedures.

• Two organizations have not incorporated: The Volunteer Standby Task Force and Geeks without Bounds.

o In the case of Geeks without Bounds, incorporation is most likely in their near future. As they already market themselves as a not-for-profit and are currently seeking a grant writer to join their staff, incorporation will be necessary to fulfil their goals.198

o In the case of SBTF, this organization has deliberately chosen not to incorporate in favour of remaining informal. This allows them to forgo financial and organizational obligations, allowing them greater adaptability

197 Esri, "About Esri," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.esri.com/about-esri/credentials>. 198 Reference needed



55 | 84

and flexibility. The trade-off being that the SBTF will not have legal personhood and will not be able to enter into formal contracts, partnerships, or funding arrangements.

o The primary downside to not being an incorporated organization is that in order to receive funding, the network’s organizers will need to personally take on responsibility (and risk) in entering into contracts.

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE Governance Structure refers to the organizational bodies that exist above the management

structure of an organization. If an entity has formally incorporated as a not-for-profit or

corporation, they will have had to form a governance structure – typically meaning a Board of

Directors. Those who have not formally incorporated may have no governance structure or an

alternative governance structure.

Does the DHN member have a Board of Directors? YES PARENT

ORGANIZATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

NO UNKNOWN

• Humanity Road • Translators

without Borders • Statistics without

Borders • MapAction • HOT

• GISCorps • Geeks without Bounds

• DataKind • Standby Task

Force

• Esri • UN Online

Volunteers

If yes, is the DHN member’s Board of Directors centralized or decentralized? DECENTRALIZED CENTRALIZED NOT APPLICABLE UNKNOWN

• Humanity Road • Translators

without Borders • GISCorps • Statistics without

Borders • HOT

• MapAction • Geeks without Bounds

• DataKind • Standby Task

Force


Volunteers

Decentralized

The members of the body physically reside in different locations and conduct the entity’s

business via online communications such as virtual conferencing, email, Skype, Google Groups,

etc.



56 | 84

Centralized

The members of the body reside physically in one location and would conduct the entity’s

business in person at a centralized location.

Does the DHN member have an Advisory Board? YES NO UNKNOWN

• Translators without Borders • Geeks without Bounds • DataKind • Standby Task Force

• Humanity Road • GISCorps • Esri Disaster Response and

assistance • Statistics without Borders • MapAction • HOT

• UN Online Volunteers

Is the Advisory Board centralized or decentralized? DECENTRALIZED CENTRALIZED NOT APPLICABLE UNKNOWN • Translators without

Borders • Geeks without

Bounds • DataKind • Standby Task Force

• Humanity Road • GISCorps • Statistics without

Borders • MapAction • HOT


Volunteers

Summary of Governance Structures • All members of the DHN have either a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board which

assists them in achieving their goals and ensuring the organization’s viability.199

o Only one organization – Translators without Borders – has both.

o Those organizations that have their own Board of Directors coincide with

those that are formally incorporated as not-for-profits, or, that are subsidiaries

of larger not-for-profits.

• Those organizations that have only an Advisory Board coincide with those that have

not incorporated.

o The only exception to the above point is DataKind, which has incorporated as a

private sector entity and has an Advisory Board instead of a Board of Directors.

199 Excluding Esri Disaster Response and Assistance and UN Online Volunteers who did not have this information publicly available.



57 | 84

• Typical of most Director and Advisory Boards, the members of these bodies are

primarily decentralized.

o The only exception to the above point is MapAction which has a very

centralized structure overall, with its Board of Directors, staff, and volunteers,

all based in the UK.

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE For the purposes of this study, ‘management structure’ refers to the organization of roles and

responsibilities, below the governance structure and above the volunteer level.

Does the entity have a management structure? In short, all of the DHN members have a management structure of some kind. However, that

does not speak to their command or decision making processes.

Crowdsourcing Umbrellas

Humanity Road

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE200 ORG CHART

• President • Vice President • Cluster Team Leads

200 Humanity Road, "2011 Annual Report," Last modified 2011, accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.humanityroad.org/LiteratureRetrieve.aspx?ID=149698>.



58 | 84

Standby Volunteer Task Force


• Core Team • Team Coordinators

o Media Monitoring Team

o Reports Team o Geolocation Team o SMS Team o Translation Team o Tech Team o Verification Team o Satellite Imagery

Team o Humanitarian Liaison

Team o Human Resources

Team

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)


• Executive Director • Senior Field Coordinators • Project Managers

201 Standby Volunteer Task Force, "Frequently Asked Questions," last modified May 3, 2013, accessed August 22, 2013, <https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Wsjucf2s7AuRV3cIGbhAqMNALGG1coB52COCJJlpqI/edit?pli=1>, p 8 - 19. 202 Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, "Leadership," Accessed August 22, 2013, <http://hot.openstreetmap.org/our_board>. 202



59 | 84

Community Centralizers

Geeks without Bounds


• Director • Content Creator • General Assistant

DataKind


• Executive Director • Director of

Operations • Data Staff

203 Geeks Without Bounds, "Who is GWOB?," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://gwob.org/about/who-is-gwob/>. 204 DataKind, "Who We Are," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://datakind.org/our-mission/>.



60 | 84

MapAction


• Chief Executive • Full Time Staff • Part-Time Specialists

Volunteer Connector Platforms

Translators without Borders


● President ● Directors ● Managers ● Digital Volunteers

205 MapAction, "About MapAction," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.mapaction.org/about.html>. 206 Translators without Borders, "Leadership and Governing Principles," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://translatorswithoutborders.org/Leadership-and-Governing-Principles>.



61 | 84

UN Online Volunteers


● UNDP Executive Board ● UN Volunteers ● United Nations Online

Volunteer section ● Digital Volunteers

Statistics without Borders


• Chair • Committee:

o Vice-Chair o Secretary o Ex-officio Board

Member • Subcommittees:

o Immediate Past Chair

o Chair New Projects Committee

o Program Chair o Communications

Director o Chair Media and

Publicity Committee o Website

207 UN Volunteers, "About Us," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.unv.org/en/about-us.html>. 208 Statistics without Border, "Statistics Without Borders Charter," accessed August 22, 2013, <http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/AMSTAT/ea9d01bf-dbfe-46f6-a681-fd7890cf1357/UploadedFiles/86c4995d96b6401fadd3c233ef54297d.pdf>.



62 | 84

GISCorps


● Core Committee ● Activity Committees

Technological Solutions Providers

ESRI Disaster Response and Assistance

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE ORG CHART

● ESRI, Inc. ● Esri Disaster Response

and Assistance ● Esri Volunteers

209 GISCorps, "Organizing Principles and Policies," Accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.giscorps.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=52>. 209



63 | 84

Is the DHN member’s management structure centralized or decentralized? DECENTRALIZED CENTRALIZED UNKNOWN

● Humanity Road ● Translators without

Borders ● Geeks without Bounds ● GISCorps ● Staticians without

Borders ● HOT ● SBTF

● DataKind ● MapAction

● Esri Disaster Response and Assistance

● UN Online Volunteers

Does the DHN member have paid or unpaid management structures? PAID MIXED UNPAID ● DataKind ● MapAction ● HOT ● Esri Disaster Response

and Assistance* ● UN Online

Volunteering*


● Geeks without Bounds

● Humanity Road ● SBTF ● GISCorps* ● Statistics without

Borders*

*Assumptions

Volunteers Are the DHN member’s volunteers sourced from internal or external communities?

The majority of V&TCs source their volunteers from an external community of interested

individuals. Those that source volunteers internally are subsidiaries of a larger professional

association or private sector corporation.

INTERNAL EXTERNAL

● GISCorps ● Esri Disaster Response and Assistance ● Statistics without Borders

● Humanity Road ● Translators without Borders ● Geeks without Bounds ● DataKind ● HOT ● SBTF ● UN Online Volunteers



64 | 84

Are the DHN member’s volunteers primarily digital or physical?

Depending on the work being facilitated, DHN members will utilize their volunteers entirely

through digital means, or by using large groups of digital volunteers and deploying select

expert volunteers, or finally, by centralizing digital communities into physical meetings that

focus on a specific problem.

DIGITAL VOLUNTEERS DIGITAL VOLUNTEERS AND PHYSICAL EXPERTS

DIGITAL COMMUNITIES AND PHYSICAL MEETINGS

● Humanity Road ● Translators without

Borders ● SBTF ● UN Online Volunteers

● MapAction ● GISCorps ● Esri Disaster Response ● Statistics without Borders ● HOT

● Geeks without Bounds ● DataKind

How do volunteers join the DHN member?

Those entities which require highly skilled volunteers, the volunteer must apply online and

then go through a screening process to be accepted into the volunteer pool. Some other DHN

members simply require prospective volunteers to signup online to gain access to the

community. HOT uniquely requests that volunteers just jump in to contributing the

OpenStreetMap project in order to get involved. Finally, those organizations which are private

corporations or subsidiaries of private corporations may require interested individuals to

actually be hired into the entity.

APPLY ONLINE – SCREENING

SIGNUP ONLINE JUMP IN HIRED


● MapAction

● Humanity Road ● SBTF ● UN Online

Volunteers ● DataKind ● Geeks without

Bounds ● GISCorps ● Statistics without

Borders

● HOT ● Esri Disaster Response and Assistance*

*Assumption



65 | 84

Are the volunteers trained directly by the DHN member?

Some DHN members provide specific training on their organization, their activities, the

technologies used and how to conduct the required volunteer work. Others assume that the

volunteers will bring their own unique skills and knowledge to the table and as such, do not

provide any direct training.

TRAINING PROVIDED NO TRAINING ● Humanity Road ● Translators without Borders ● MapAction ● SBTF ● Esri Disaster Response and

Assistance*

● Geeks without Bounds ● DataKind ● GISCorps ● Statistics without Borders ● HOT ● UN Online Volunteers

*Assumption

How are the DHN member’s volunteers engaged?

DHN members will differ on how they deploy their own volunteers. In some cases, volunteers

are activated collectively by the management structure on behalf of a requesting agency. In

other cases, the DHN member acts as a broker between requesting agencies and volunteers,

connecting the two sides directly on specific projects.

CONNECTED DIRECTLY TO REQUESTING AGENCY

ACTIVATED COLLECTIVELY ON BEHALF OF REQUESTING AGENCY

● Translators without Borders ● MapAction ● Esri Disaster Response and Assistance ● GISCorps ● Statistics without Borders ● UN Online Volunteers

● Humanity Road ● SBTF ● Geeks without Bounds ● DataKind ● HOT

Do the DHN member’s volunteers require specific skills or general skills? DHN members will typically offer either volunteers with specialized knowledge, such as

translation skills, or a generalized group of volunteers from various backgrounds. However,

there are a couple of entities that offer both: a group of generalized volunteers and access to

volunteers with specific skills to requesting partners.

SPECIFIC SKILLS GENERAL SKILLS BOTH*

● Translators without Borders ● Esri Disaster Response and

Assistance ● Statistics without Borders

● Humanity Road ● Geeks without Bounds ● SBTF ● UN Online Volunteers

● DataKind ● HOT



66 | 84

Funding Does the entity accept external funding?

YES NO

● Humanity Road ● Translators without Borders ● Geeks without Bounds ● DataKind ● GISCorps ● HOT

● Esri Disaster Response and Assistance ● Statistics without Borders ● SBTF ● UN Online Volunteers

If yes, where does the DHN member’s funding come from? PUBLIC

DONATIONS GRANTS PRIVATE

SECTOR PUBLIC SECTOR

Humanity Road x Translators without Borders

x x x

Geeks without Bounds x x DataKind x x GISCorps x x x x HOT x x

Does the DHN member report publicly on income and expenditures? YES NO NOT APPLICABLE

● Humanity Road ● Geeks without Bounds ● HOT


● DataKind ● GISCorps

● Esri ● Statistics without

Borders ● SBTF ● UN Online Volunteers

Policies and Procedures Does the DHN member have P&Ps regarding its own activities?

YES NOT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

● Translators without Borders ● Statistics without Borders ● SBTF ● GISCorps

● Humanity Road ● Geeks without Bounds ● DataKind ● Esri Disaster Response ● MapAction ● HOT ● UN Online Volunteers



67 | 84

Does the DHN member have P&Ps regarding its volunteer’s activities? YES NOT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE ● Humanity Road ● Geeks without Bounds ● GISCorps ● SBTF

● Translators without Borders ● DataKind ● Esri Disaster Response and Assistance ● Statistics without Borders ● MapAction ● HOT ● UN Online Volunteers

Collaboration with Other Organizations To what degree does the DHN member collaborate with other organizations?

Level 1 Collaboration Collaboration with other V&TCs or community organizations

Level 2 Collaboration Collaboration with regional or national government agencies and/or NGOs

Level 3 Collaboration Collaboration with international organizations and/or major INGOs

LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3

Humanity Road x x x Geeks without Bounds x x GISCorps x x x Esri Disaster Response x x x Translators without Borders x x x DataKind x x x Statistics without Borders x x x MapAction x x x HOT x x x SBTF x x x UN Online Volunteers x x x



68 | 84

Annex 2: ELEMENTS OF GOVERNANCE AND ORGANIZATION Typically, a V&TC will have developed organically in response to a specific problem or crisis. At

this initial stage, the network will have established ad hoc workflows, policies and procedures,

and will most likely have an informal ‘management structure’ of some kind. When the

problem or crisis that provided the catalyst for the network’s emergence is resolved, those

who found themselves within this management structure may wish to sustain the community

for future initiatives. As a result, a formalization of the network’s operations may be required.

In order to be sustainable, the ‘network organization’ will need to actively consider the

issues of organizational registration, management structure, governance structure, and

stakeholder relations. This guide is meant for V&TCs who have reached this crucial stage in

their development and provides a basic framework of organization and governance. It is

hoped that if these basic rules are better understood, V&TCs may determine how best to

break them - reducing hierarchy and bureaucracy, while still retaining a protective framework.

Organizational Registration Sustaining the network may lead the primary organizers to consider registering the entity with

their relevant government as a not-for-profit or for-profit corporation:

Advantages of incorporation include:

• “A legal status separate and distinct from its members. Members may come and go, but the corporation continues until it is dissolved or wound up.

• The corporation can enter into contracts, buy and sell property, [establish funding agreements,] etc.

• Individual members of a corporation are generally shielded from liability…. • The formal corporate structure facilitates ongoing operations and decision-making. • There may be increased credibility with the government funders, and the public. • The not-for-profit corporation has an enhanced ability, through its governing

documents, to address membership status issues [For example, removing a director or member for misconduct]. ”210

210 Industry Canada, "Primer for Directors of Not-For-Profit Corporations," last modified 2002, accessed August 22, 2013, <http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cilp-pdci.nsf/vwapj/Primer_en.pdf/$FILE/Primer_en.pdf>, p 1.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cilp-pdci.nsf/vwapj/Primer_en.pdf/$FILE/Primer_en.pdf




69 | 84

Disadvantages of incorporation include:211

• Regular paperwork including annual corporate registration and the filing of income and expenditure reports to government agencies.

• Limits on the types of activities and organizational changes a corporation can make. For example, charities are limited in the amount of lobbying activities they might undertake.212

• The redirection of resources to maintenance of the organizational structure versus the organization’s activities.

Depending on how the organizers of a V&TC weigh the advantages compared to the

disadvantages, they may choose to proceed with incorporation, or choose to forgo

incorporation in favour of remaining a more informal network. If they choose to proceed with

registration, the exact process will vary depending on which country, or province/state, in

which the entity is seeking registration. The entity will need to register a physical address for

its incorporation, regardless of the decentralized nature of the entity’s volunteers,

management, or governance structure. This will have implications for which laws and

regulations the corporation will be subject to regarding its finances, activities, and the actions

of its members. Typically, the primary reason a group will choose to incorporate is so that they

can fundraise and enter into funding agreements. Sustainable funding often becomes an

essential element of an organization’s ability to expand capacity, retain talent, and build

relationships with important stakeholders (for example, by attending conferences). The topic

of funding is discussed in greater detail below.

Not-for-profit or For-profit Incorporation? When incorporating, an organization can become a not-for-profit or for-profit corporation.

Some not-for-profits are charities, but not all. 213 If registering as a not-for-profit, and

especially as a charity, the organization will be subject to greater scrutiny by their relevant

governments and the public, especially in regards to financial management. As a result,

registering as a business is typically a very straightforward process of submitting forms and

payment, registering as a not-for-profit usually requires an approval process from the relevant

jurisdiction.214 Not-for-profit and for-profit corporations differ in three main ways:

211 Ibid. 212 Ibid, p 83. 213 Industry Canada, "Primer for Directors of Not-For-Profit Corporations," viii. 214 Ibid., p 1.



70 | 84

• “The not-for-profit corporation is composed of members, whereas the for-profit corporation is owned by shareholders.

• The members of a not-for-profit corporation cannot receive any financial (or pecuniary) gain during the life of the corporation, whereas a for-profit corporation may distribute profits to its shareholders in the form of dividends.

• The powers of a not-for-profit corporation are limited to what is written into its objects (purposes), whereas, typically, the for-profit corporation has no such limits.”215

Within the V&TC community housed by the Digital Humanitarian Network, there are examples

of entities which have incorporated as both not-for-profits and for-profits.

Non-Traditional Approach to Incorporation There are examples of V&TCs who have chosen to forgo incorporation in favour of remaining a

more informal entity. The advantages to this approach are that the network remains

untethered to a physical location, is able to focus all resources on its activities, and allows for

its organizational structure to remain fluid. However, the disadvantages include an inability to

enter into contracts, meaning that legal agreements (including with volunteers, funders, and

partners) will be very difficult to devise. Funding agreements may be entered into by an

individual, but their personal assets are then potentially at risk. A lack of incorporation also

opens up the network’s members and volunteers to liability, regarding use of funds or harm

occurring from their actions, which might otherwise be covered by the ‘corporate shield.’216

However, for the individual V&TC, the benefits might outweigh the risks in this regard.

Regardless of incorporation, it is still important for all networks and communities to consider

issues of governance, management, and stakeholder relations in order to remain sustainable

actors in humanitarian affairs.

Governance A primary aspect of good organizational practice is the development of a governance model

for the organization. Good governance is defined as “achieving desired results in a way

consistent with democratic values and social justice.”217

• The elements of good governance are:

o Vision – envisioning the future o Direction – setting goals and providing a general ‘road map’

215 Ibid., p 1. 216 Ibid., p 3. 217 Industry Canada, "Primer for Directors of Not-For-Profit Corporations," p x.



71 | 84

o Resources – securing resources necessary to achieve the goals or reach the direction

o Monitoring – periodically ensuring that the organizational vehicle is well-maintained and progressing, within legal limits, toward its destination

o Accountability – ensuring efficient use of resources; reporting progress and detours to stakeholders (whether they are employees, volunteers, partners, and/or funders).218

It is entirely possible to create a governance structure that embodies these elements without

formal incorporation or the establishment of a ‘Board of Directors,’ as many organizations

have traditionally done. What is more important is the establishment of a framework which

ensures that decisions are made transparently, that power is distributed in ways that are

perceived to be legitimate, and that conflicts or disputes are mediated fairly. Typically,

organizations have created this structure in the form of a Board of Directors which would

guide the organizations strategy and develop organizational policy. However, alternative

models exist (advisory board, steering committee, core group, etc.) and both will be discussed

below.

Board of Directors Traditionally, governance is provided to an organization by a Board of Directors. In terms of

development, a Board of Directors will most likely be put together by the individual, or group,

that has naturally found themselves in a leadership position for the V&TC in question.

Whether this group or individual becomes part of the governance structure - or the

management structure - will depend on the decisions made by those people at that time.

However, it is important to understand that the Board of Directors is created as a

mechanism to distribute power and limit the degree to which one individual, either from a

governance or management position, could cause harm to the entity. The Board of Directors

is placed in a highly ethical position where they are responsible for the stewardship of the

organization and are expected to conduct themselves with “loyalty, honesty and good faith”219

towards the organization.

A Board of Directors should be made up of a diverse group of individuals who bring practical

skills and experience to the organization. The Board of Directors is typically tasked with

“supervising senior staff, providing strategic planning to the corporation, and developing and

218 Ibid., x. 219 Ibid., 14.



72 | 84

implementing corporate policy.”220 Members of a Board of Directors are subject to a range of

legal duties, liabilities, rights, and powers as laid out by the laws of the country in which the

corporation is registered. The exact makeup of the Board of Directors, the activities it has

control over, and the decision making processes are determined by those who draft the

organization’s constitution and bylaws - typically those who are leading the development of

the network into an organization. A necessary component to having an effective Board of

Directors is constant communication between the governance and management structures.

Policies and Procedures A primary task for the Board of Directors is to assist management in the development of

policies and procedures (P&Ps) for the organization. Traditionally, P&Ps would address the

conduct of two key areas:

• The Organization Itself o Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals o Annual Strategy and Budget o Financial Management and Reporting o Programs and Activities

• The Organization’s Members o Human Resources o Volunteers

Traditionally P&Ps have been developed from the top down, by the Board of Directors and

senior management, and then disseminated to the wider organization. This is due to the idea

that the Board of Directors should be in an expert position relative to the management and

volunteer structures of the organization. P&Ps are designed to provide a protective

framework around the organization that outline exactly what the organization does, what is

expected from the conduct of its members, and how instances of misconduct or abuse will be

handled. They also usually outline the decision making processes for the organization and

determine how individuals become part of the governance or management structures. For

example, how do individuals become part of the Board? Are they appointed or elected? Do

decisions made by the Board require consensus or a majority vote? What types of actions or

activities could a member be sanctioned or removed for? These and many other questions are

traditionally answered by the development of P&Ps.

220 Ibid., 14



73 | 84

Advisory Board In addition to a Board of Directors, an organization may also consider striking an Advisory

Board. This type of body is created “typically to advise on fulfilment of the corporation’s

mission and/or to enhance its public credibility.”221 The members of an Advisory Board

typically provide thematic skills and experience to the organization. They should not be

concerned about the operational, management, or financial affairs of the organization, but

should advise management on issues related to program development or advocacy initiatives.

Compared to the Board of Directors however, the Advisory Board has no power to enter into

contracts on behalf of the organization or make decisions regarding the organization’s

operations.

Non-Traditional Approach to Governance Boards of Directors in all sectors are increasingly decentralized. Especially in organizations

which are national or international in their activities, it is important that their Boards are

representative of the cultural contexts in which they want to work. ICTs allow this

diversification to take place while keeping costs low by facilitating Board Meetings via web

conferencing, skype, and immediate exchange of documents via Dropbox and email.

Additionally, the policy making process does not necessarily need to be centralized within the

governance and management levels of an organization. Many open-source and community

based initiatives, such as Wikipedia, have adopted a distributed model of governance where

the development of P&Ps is a multi-way process. Collaborative technology, such as the use of

Google Docs, enables decentralized individuals to provide input on central documents. For a

network organization, P&Ps could potentially be divided into ‘overarching’ and ‘jurisdictional’

areas. P&Ps related to the overarching existence of the organization can be developed at the

upper levels and then opened up for input by all members before finalization. P&Ps related to

the individual ‘jurisdictions’ of team, or program areas, can be determined by those individuals

working in that area, so long as the jurisdictional P&Ps do not conflict with the overarching

P&Ps.

221 Industry Canada, "Primer for Directors of Not-For-Profit Corporations," p 59.



74 | 84

An example of how this breakdown might occur is as follows:

OVERARCHING P&PS JURISDICTIONAL P&PS

• Organizational Mandate o Mission, Vision, Values,

and Goals • Human Resources • Global Workflow and Internal

Communications • Partner Relations • Funding Agreements

• Program/Team Purpose and Goals • Local Workflow and checks • Volunteer Management

o Code of Conduct o Expectations o Consequences for

Misconduct • Output Framework

P&Ps can be posted within the website or system that supports the work of the V&TC for easy

access, consultation, and consideration for all the network’s members. V&TCs should also

consider conflict resolution mechanisms, and carefully consider who has the right to enforce

policy in a decentralized governance environment. For example, Administrators in Wikipedia

are given the authority and technical capacity to sanction or disable users, but first must be

established members of the community and then go through a week long approval process by

core members.

Policies and procedures should not be seen as restrictive ‘rules and regulations,’ but as a

protective framework which ensures the organization’s credibility, authenticity, and

legitimacy. The Board of Directors should continue to provide expert, objective, and thorough

oversight of the organization regardless of a distributed breakdown in order to ensure that the

activities of the organization remain above board.

Management Structure The management structure of an organization is responsible for managing the day-to-day

operations of the entity. Traditionally, a management structure would take the form of a top-

down hierarchy which would delineate areas of responsibility and decision making power with

both of these qualities being concentrated towards the top. The first level of management,

the President or Executive Director, acts as the liaison between the governance structure and

the wider organization. From there, the second and third levels are typically divided into

thematic areas such as: finance, administration, legal, information technology support, public

awareness and communications, programs, and stakeholder relations. Overtime, an



75 | 84

organization might find that their activities require full time support and dedication from their

management structure and begin to develop a paid-staff infrastructure.

Non-Traditional Approach to Management Structure So far, the V&TCs which have joined the DHN have tended towards having very flat

management structures with 2-3 levels of delineation. While some have Presidents or

Executive Directors, others have decided to have a ‘core group’ or ‘committee’ at the head of

their management structure. Most interestingly however, a number of V&TCs have taken

advantage of the fact that ICTs now allow organizations to conduct their operations through

entirely digital means. Despite the need for a physical address for registration, organizations

no longer need a physical headquarters to house their management structure. In contrast to

most existing humanitarian organizations and NGOs, V&TCs have taken full advantage of this

development and can manage their organization from different sides of the country and from

around the world. Needless to say, this significantly reduces elements of traditional

organizational concern; for example, overhead costs. That being said, organizations should

consult legal counsel for any possible legal implications of this change, especially in regards to

having paid staff in multiple countries.

Stakeholder Relations Volunteer Management Volunteers, and/or digital communities, are the defining feature of V&TCs and their greatest

‘value add’ to the humanitarian system. Initially, a V&TC may have developed as an entirely

volunteer network. As the network develops however, the management structure becomes an

interface between the volunteers and the governance bodies, funders, and partners who

support their work. However, each entity sources, trains, manages, and deploys their

communities differently. The management structure of a V&TC will need to determine the best

way to organize, facilitate, and sustain volunteer engagement. The answers to the following

questions will determine what types of structural supports are needed for volunteers, what

kinds of training or skill development will be required, and what kinds of P&Ps might be

needed regarding volunteers:

• Where are volunteers sourced from? o Do we source volunteers from an existing organization? o Do we source volunteers generally from outside the organization?

• Are our volunteers going to be engaged digitally, deployed physically, or both?



76 | 84

• What kind of process will volunteers have to go through in order to join us? o Do they need to be screened or approved? o Are the allowed to just jump in to our activities?

• Do our volunteers require specific skills or general skills? • Do we provide training to our volunteers?

o If so, do we provide training on technical matters? o Do we provide training on humanitarian matters?

• What is required to activate our volunteers? o Are they activated by management on behalf of a requesting agency? o Are they connected directly to a requesting agency? o Are volunteers allowed to work independently of requests?

Depending on the nature of the V&TC’s volunteers or community, V&TCs tend to divide

volunteers based on skill or interest area, task (data aggregation versus data analysis), or

allocate them to dealing with issues of organizational maintenance. Some of these issues, such

as specific training, can be taken on by the jurisdictional leads for the organization. Other

issues, such as activation of the network, should be outlined in overarching P&Ps. Overall,

most V&TCs devise some sort of centralized place where volunteers can sign-up, sign-in,

participate, and receive direction and feedback from those who are leading their teams. This

may take the form of a website and/or may utilize online tools such as Skype, Google, Dropbox

and social media spaces.

Funders A primary area of concern for the management structure of any organization will be that of

funding. A small scale or ‘in the moment’ V&TC might be able to sustain itself on little or no

funding, based solely on the dedication and passion of their volunteers. However, over time,

an organization is likely to require funding in order to sustain the technical and human

infrastructure required for its operations – especially if it wants to become an established

partner in humanitarian response. Initially, an organization can seek funding from entities or

individuals who provide start-up funding, or from public donations by adding a PayPal system

to their website, or by using crowdfunding sources such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter.

Eventually however, the organization may wish to seek larger amounts of funding from the

private sector, public sector, or foundations. This usually requires a significant investment in

application processes and success is typically dependent on the organization being developed

to the point where trust and reputation are high.



77 | 84

It is important for V&TCs to keep in mind, especially in humanitarian affairs, the political and

ethical concerns surrounding funding. Funding, especially from public or private sector

partners may come with certain expectations that may restrict or colour the activities of the

organization. For example, if a V&TC were to become primarily funded by the US government,

it may not be seen as an entirely impartial actor if it were to engage in a potential crisis in say,

Iran. This is an area where international organizations could play a larger role in supporting

V&TCs in a way that ensures continued neutrality. Additionally, as a not-for-profit or charity,

incomes and expenditures will typically need to be publicly reported. Either through the

production of annual financial statements or the publishing of annual budgets, a commitment

to transparency is [essential to the maintenance of public trust].222

Partners For any organization, partners who support or utilize its work, are essential to building the

organization’s reputation and sustaining its value within the system. For a V&TC, potential

partners include complimentary V&TCs, the Digital Humanitarian Network, and formal

humanitarian organizations. As previously noted, the output of a network is only valuable

insofar as it is used to facilitate better disaster response. Building relationships and

recognition of the V&TC’s work is essential to ensuring that it is called upon during times of

crisis. Therefore, an aspect of the V&TC’s governance or management structure should be

dedicated to partnership building. ICTs allow personal and professional connections to be

made in a variety of ways. However, of equal (maybe even more) importance are the in-

person connections made wherever possible. Attending conferences and high-level events,

such as the recent Humanitarian Affairs segment of ECOSOC in Geneva, afford representatives

of a V&TC valuable face-time with disaster responders and decision makers. Yet, this remains a

costly venture for most V&TCs and as a result, the V&TCs which have already made themselves

known to the humanitarian community will continue to be the one’s called upon, resulting in

better funding, and better networking opportunities. This emerging ‘barrier to entry’ is where

establishing partnerships with other V&TCs and the DHN can help smaller or newer V&TCs gain

access to those who might use their products. It is vital that a V&TC does not succumb to the

same ‘co-option phobia’ that the Occupy Movement suffered. For V&TCs to become an equal

actor in humanitarian affairs, partnership is essential.

222 Industry Canada, "Primer for Directors of Not-For-Profit Corporations," p xi.



78 | 84

Stages of Organizational Development for V&TCs

GOVERNANCE MANAGEMENT STAKEHOLDERS

STAGE 1 ● No formal governance bodies

● Core group of network members that direct workflow and facilitate decision making

● Entirely volunteer

● Ad hoc relationships with other V&TCs and/or humanitarian entities

● Products publicly available

● No official funding arrangements

STAGE 2 ● Small Board of

Directors or other governance body

● Basic formalized management structure

● Potential blend of paid/unpaid staff

● Basic P&Ps ● Basic workflows

● Semi-established alliances or partnerships with other V&TCs

● Receives support from the DHN

● Products familiar to humanitarian entities

● Informal collaboration ● Moderate Funding

STAGE 3 ● Robust Board of Directors and/or other governance body such as an Advisory Board

● Wider management structure with potentially paid staff

● Blend of paid/unpaid staff

● Potentially fully paid staff

● Sophisticated P&Ps ● Sophisticated

workflows

● Established relationships with other V&TCs

● Active member of the DHN

● Established relationships with humanitarian entities

● Products integrated into the work of humanitarian entities

● Diverse funding



79 | 84

BIBLIOGRAPHY "innovate, v.". OED Online. June 2013. Oxford University Press.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/96310?redirectedFrom=innovate (accessed August 21, 2013).

American Statistical Association. "About ASA." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.amstat.org/about/index.cfm.

Anonymous. "Why We Need a Disaster 2.1 Report." Blog post reply to Disaster 2.0 (blog), September 15, 2011. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sFyTz6Q9yd9gfmG96F4Utu6Ri_EPVieLHjVkXap1TF8/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLPKl6ED&pli=1. (accessed August 22, 2013).

Appleby, Lois. Internews. "Connecting the Last Mile, The Role of Communications in The Great East Japan Earthquake." Last modified 2013. Accessed August 21, 2013. http://www.internews.eu/docs/Publications/InternewsEurope_Report_Japan_Connecting_the_last_mile_Japan_2013.pdf.

Boehmer, Erin. Commons Lab of the Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Coordinating Efforts by Volunteer and Technical Communities for Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Relief. Last modified July 22, 2010. Accessed August 21, 2013. http://www.scribd.com/doc/126605125/Coordinating-Efforts-by-Volunteer-and-Technical-Communities-for-Disaster-Preparedness-Response-and-Relief.

Capelo, Luis, Natalie Chang, and Andrej Verity. Digital Humanitarian Network, "Guidance for Collaborating with Volunteer & Technical Communities." Last modified December 28, 2012. Accessed August 21, 2013. https://app.box.com/s/qpuu11mwadxfllcd7xwu.

Chowdhury, Abdur. Twitter, "Global Pulse." Last modified June 29, 2011. Accessed August 21, 2013. https://blog.twitter.com/2011/global-pulse.

Conoir, Yvan. Peace Operations Training Institute, "The Conduct of Humanitarian Relief Operations: Principles of Intervention and Management." Last modified 2002. Accessed August 2, 2013. http://cdn.peaceopstraining.org/course_promos/humanitarian_relief_ops/humanitarian_relief_ops_english.pdf.

Crowley, John. Commons Lab of the Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Connecting Grassroots and Government for Disaster Response. 2013. Forthcoming. http://www.scribd.com/collections/3840667/Commons-Lab-Science-and-Technology-Innovation-Program-STIP.

DataKind. "Who We Are." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://datakind.org/our-mission/.

Davey, Eleanor, John Borton, and Matthew Foley. Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute, "A history of the humanitarian system, Western origins and foundations." Last modified June 2013. Accessed August 2, 2013.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/96310?redirectedFrom=innovate

http://www.amstat.org/about/index.cfm

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sFyTz6Q9yd9gfmG96F4Utu6Ri_EPVieLHjVkXap1TF8/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLPKl6ED&pli=1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sFyTz6Q9yd9gfmG96F4Utu6Ri_EPVieLHjVkXap1TF8/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLPKl6ED&pli=1

http://www.internews.eu/docs/Publications/InternewsEurope_Report_Japan_Connecting_the_last_mile_Japan_2013.pdf

http://www.internews.eu/docs/Publications/InternewsEurope_Report_Japan_Connecting_the_last_mile_Japan_2013.pdf

http://www.scribd.com/doc/126605125/Coordinating-Efforts-by-Volunteer-and-Technical-Communities-for-Disaster-Preparedness-Response-and-Relief

http://www.scribd.com/doc/126605125/Coordinating-Efforts-by-Volunteer-and-Technical-Communities-for-Disaster-Preparedness-Response-and-Relief

https://app.box.com/s/qpuu11mwadxfllcd7xwu

https://blog.twitter.com/2011/global-pulse

http://cdn.peaceopstraining.org/course_promos/humanitarian_relief_ops/humanitarian_relief_ops_english.pdf

http://cdn.peaceopstraining.org/course_promos/humanitarian_relief_ops/humanitarian_relief_ops_english.pdf

http://www.scribd.com/collections/3840667/Commons-Lab-Science-and-Technology-Innovation-Program-STIP

http://www.scribd.com/collections/3840667/Commons-Lab-Science-and-Technology-Innovation-Program-STIP

http://datakind.org/our-mission/



80 | 84

http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8439.pdf.

Diefenbach, Thomas, and John A.A. Sillince. "Formal and Informal Hierarchy in Different Types of Organization." Organization Studies 11 (2011): 1515-1537. http://resolver.scholarsportal.info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/resolve/01708406/v32i0011/1515_faihidtoo (accessed July 18, 2013).

Digital Humanitarian Network. "Home." Accessed August 21, 2013. http://digitalhumanitarians.com/.

Digital Humanitarian Network. "Materials." Accessed August 20, 2013. http://digitalhumanitarians.com/materials.

Esri. "About Esri." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.esri.com/about-esri/credentials.

Forte, Andrea, Vanessa Larco, and Amy Bruckman. "Decentralization in Wikipedia Governance." Journal of Management Information Systems 1 (2009): 49-72. http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375878. (Accessed August 21, 2013).

Fulmer, William E.. Shaping the Adaptive Organization: Landscapes, Learning and Leadership in Volatile Times. New York: American Management Association, 2000.

Geeks Without Bounds. "Who is GWOB?." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://gwob.org/about/who-is-gwob.

GISCorps. "Organizing Principles and Policies." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.giscorps.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=52.

Gitlin, Todd. "Occupy's predicament: the moment and the prospects for the movement." The British Journal of Sociology 1 (2013): 3-25. http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375877. (Accessed August 21, 2013).

Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery. "Volunteer Technology Communities: Open Development." Last modified 2011. Accessed August 2, 2013. http://www.gfdrr.org/sites/gfdrr.org/files/publication/Volunteer%20Technology%20Communities%20-%20Open%20Development.pdf.

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. "Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies." Last modified 2011. Accessed August 2, 2013. http://www.unfoundation.org/assets/pdf/disaster-relief-20-report.pdf.

Holmes, John. "Humanitarian Response in the 21st Century." Brown Journal of World Affairs 2 (2011): 113-121.

Homeland Security, Science and Technology. "Lessons Learned: Social Media and Hurricane Sandy, Virtual Social Media Working Group and DHS First Responders Group." Last modified June 2013. Accessed June 20, 2013. https://www.nationalserviceresources.org/files/sample-forms/dhs_vsmwg_lessons_learned_social_media_and_hurricane_sandy_formatted_j

http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8439.pdf

http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8439.pdf

http://resolver.scholarsportal.info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/resolve/01708406/v32i0011/1515_faihidtoo

http://resolver.scholarsportal.info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/resolve/01708406/v32i0011/1515_faihidtoo

http://digitalhumanitarians.com/

http://digitalhumanitarians.com/materials

http://www.esri.com/about-esri/credentials


http://gwob.org/about/who-is-gwob

http://www.giscorps.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=52

http://www.giscorps.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=52


http://www.gfdrr.org/sites/gfdrr.org/files/publication/Volunteer%20Technology%20Communities%20-%20Open%20Development.pdf

http://www.gfdrr.org/sites/gfdrr.org/files/publication/Volunteer%20Technology%20Communities%20-%20Open%20Development.pdf


https://www.nationalserviceresources.org/files/sample-forms/dhs_vsmwg_lessons_learned_social_media_and_hurricane_sandy_formatted_june_2013_final.pdf




81 | 84

une_2013_final.pdf.

Humanitarian eXchange Language. "Project Overview." Accessed August 21, 2013. https://sites.google.com/site/hxlproject/home/project-overview.

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. "Leadership." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://hot.openstreetmap.org/our_board.

HumanitarianResponse.info. "About the COD/FOD." Accessed August 21, 2013. http://cod.humanitarianresponse.info/about-codfod.

HumanitarianResponse.info. "About the HumanitarianResponse.info sites." Accessed August 21, 2013. http://www.humanitarianresponse.info/about.

HumanitarianResponse.info. "Kiosk." Accessed August 21, 2013. http://kiosk.humanitarianresponse.info/.

Humanity Road. "2011 Annual Report." Last modified 2011. Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.humanityroad.org/LiteratureRetrieve.aspx?ID=149698.

Industry Canada. "Primer for Directors of Not-For-Profit Corporations." Last modified 2002. Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cilp-pdci.nsf/vwapj/Primer_en.pdf/$FILE/Primer_en.pdf.

Inter-Agency Standing Committee. "IASC Principals Trans formative Agenda." Accessed August 21, 2013. http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-template-default&bd=87.

Inter-Agency Standing Committee. "Key Messages: The IASC Transformative Agenda." Last modified June 13, 2012. Accessed August 21, 2013. http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-template-default&bd=87.

Macintosh, Ann. "The emergence of digital governance." Significance (2008): 176-178.

MapAction. "About MapAction." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.mapaction.org/about.html.

Mathews, Jessica. "Power Shift." Foreign Affairs 1 (1997): 50-66.

Meier, Patrick. "New information technologies and their impact on the humanitarian sector." International Review of the Red Cross 884 (2011): 1239-1263. http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375853.

OCHAFilms. "Valerie Amos - Transformative Agenda Video." Uploaded June 13, 2012. Accessed July 28, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQBmiA-Wxmw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1.

OECD/Statistical Office of the European Communities. "Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data." Last modified 2005. Accessed August 20, 2013. www.oecd.org/sti/oslomanual.


https://sites.google.com/site/hxlproject/home/project-overview

http://hot.openstreetmap.org/our_board

http://cod.humanitarianresponse.info/about-codfod

http://www.humanitarianresponse.info/about

http://kiosk.humanitarianresponse.info/

http://www.humanityroad.org/LiteratureRetrieve.aspx?ID=149698



http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/pageloader.aspx?page=content-template-default&bd=87




http://www.mapaction.org/about.html


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQBmiA-Wxmw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQBmiA-Wxmw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

http://www.oecd.org/sti/oslomanual



82 | 84

OpenStreetMap Foundation. "Main Page." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Main_Page.

Price, Jr., John F. "Napoleon's Shadow Facing Organizational Design Challenges in the U.S. Military." Joint Forces Quarterly 68 (2013): 48 - 52. http://go.galegroup.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE|A323503428&v=2.1&u=utoronto_main&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w. (accessed June 27, 2013).

Reimann, Kim D.. Georgia State University. "A View from the Top: International Politics, Norms and the Worldwide Growth of NGOs." Political Science Faculty Publications 4 (2006): 45-67.

Roberts, Alasdair. "Why the Occupy Movement Failed." Public Administration Review 5 (2012): 754-762. http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375873. (Accessed August 21, 2013).

Simpson, Brent, Robb Willer, and Cecilia L. Ridgeway. "Status Hierarchies and the Organization of Collective Action." Sociological Theory 3 (2012): 149-166. http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375870. (accessed Aug 21, 2013).

Standby Volunteer Task Force. "Frequently Asked Questions." Last modified May 3, 2013. Accessed August 22, 2013. https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Wsjucf2s7AuRV3cIGbhAqMNALGG1coB52COCJJlpqI/edit?pli=1.

Statistics without Border, "Statistics Without Borders Charter." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/AMSTAT/ea9d01bf-dbfe-46f6-a681-fd7890cf1357/UploadedFiles/86c4995d96b6401fadd3c233ef54297d.pdf.

Stempeck, Matt. "Participatory Aid Marketplace." (Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences diss. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2013). http://www.mattstempeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Matt-Stempeck-Participatory-Aid-Marketplace.pdf.

Stumpenhorst, Miriam, Rolf Stumpenhorst, and Oliver Razum. "The UN OCHA cluster approach: gaps between theory and practice." Journal of Public Health 19 (2011): 587-592. DOI 10.1007/s10389-011-0417-3 (accessed August 20, 2013).

Syrek, Steven. "'Why am I talking?' Reflecting on language and privilege at Occupy Wall Street." Critical Quarterly 2 (2012): 72 - 75. http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375872. (Accessed August 21, 2013).

Tapia, Andrea H., Edgar Maldonado, Louis-Marie Ngamassi Tchouakeu, and Carleen F. Maitland. "Coordinating humanitarian information: The problem of organizational and technical trajectories." Information Technology & People 3 (2012): 240-258. http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375862.

Tapia, Andrea H., Kathleen A. Moore and Nichloas J. Johnson. "Beyond the Trustworthy Tweet: A Deeper Understanding of Microblogged Data Use by Disaster Response and Humanitarian Relief Organizations." Paper presented+A14at the 10th International ISCRAM Conference, Baden-Baden, Germany, May 2013. Accessed August 9, 2013.

http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://go.galegroup.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA323503428&v=2.1&u=utoronto_main&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

http://go.galegroup.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA323503428&v=2.1&u=utoronto_main&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w



https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Wsjucf2s7AuRV3cIGbhAqMNALGG1coB52COCJJlpqI/edit?pli=1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Wsjucf2s7AuRV3cIGbhAqMNALGG1coB52COCJJlpqI/edit?pli=1

http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/AMSTAT/ea9d01bf-dbfe-46f6-a681-fd7890cf1357/UploadedFiles/86c4995d96b6401fadd3c233ef54297d.pdf

http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/AMSTAT/ea9d01bf-dbfe-46f6-a681-fd7890cf1357/UploadedFiles/86c4995d96b6401fadd3c233ef54297d.pdf

http://www.mattstempeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Matt-Stempeck-Participatory-Aid-Marketplace.pdf

http://www.mattstempeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Matt-Stempeck-Participatory-Aid-Marketplace.pdf





83 | 84

http://www.iscramlive.org/ISCRAM2013/files/121.pdf.

Tapia, Andrea, and Carleen Maitland. "Wireless Devices for Humanitarian Data Collection, the socio-technical implications for multi-level organizational change." Information, Communication & Society 4 (2009): 584-604. http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/375867.

Tapscott, Don, and David Agnew. "Governance in the Digital Economy." Finance &

Development 4 (1999): 34 - 37.

Translators without Borders. "Leadership and Governing Principles." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://translatorswithoutborders.org/Leadership-and-Governing-Principles.

UN Volunteers. "About Us." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.unv.org/about-us.html.

UN Volunteers. "About Us." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.unv.org/en/about-us.html.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "Cluster Coordination." Accessed August 20, 2013. http://www.unocha.org/what-we-do/coordination-tools/cluster-coordination.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "History of OCHA." Accessed August 20, 2013. http://www.unocha.org/about-us/who-we-are/history.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "OCHA in 2006, OCHA at Work, Coordination and the Indian Ocean Tsunami." Accessed August 20, 2013. http://www.unocha.org/ochain/2006/chap6_1.htm.

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "OCHA Policy and Studies Series, Humanitarianism in the Network Age, Including World Humanitarian Data and Trends 2012." Last modified 2013. Accessed June 4, 2013. http://unocha.org/node/11528.

United Nations. "OCHA in 2012 & 2013, Plan and Budget." Last modified 2012. Accessed August 21, 2013. https://ochanet.unocha.org/p/Documents/OCHA_in_2012_13.pdf.

URISA, The Association For GIS Professionals. "About Us." Accessed August 22, 2013. http://www.urisa.org/main/about-us/.

Valverde, Sergi, and Ricard V. Solé. "Self-Organization versus hierarchy in open-source social networks." Physical Review E. 4 (2007). http://pre.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v76/i4/e046118. (accessed August 21, 2013).

Verity, Andrej. "The [unexpected] Impact of the Libya Crisis Map and the Standby Volunteer Task Force."Ushahidi (blog), January 9, 2012. http://blog.ushahidi.com/2012/01/09/the-unexpected-impact-of-the-libya-crisis-map-and-the-standby-volunteer-task-force/ (accessed August 21, 2013).

Villaveces, Jeffrey. "Disaster Response 2.0." Forced Migration Review. http://www.fmreview.org/technology/villaveces.html (accessed July 30, 2013).

http://www.iscramlive.org/ISCRAM2013/files/121.pdf


http://translatorswithoutborders.org/Leadership-and-Governing-Principles

http://www.unv.org/about-us.html

http://www.unv.org/en/about-us.html

http://www.unv.org/en/about-us.html

http://www.unocha.org/what-we-do/coordination-tools/cluster-coordination

http://www.unocha.org/what-we-do/coordination-tools/cluster-coordination

http://www.unocha.org/about-us/who-we-are/history

http://www.unocha.org/ochain/2006/chap6_1.htm

http://unocha.org/node/11528

https://ochanet.unocha.org/p/Documents/OCHA_in_2012_13.pdf

http://www.urisa.org/main/about-us/

http://pre.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v76/i4/e046118

http://blog.ushahidi.com/2012/01/09/the-unexpected-impact-of-the-libya-crisis-map-and-the-standby-volunteer-task-force/

http://blog.ushahidi.com/2012/01/09/the-unexpected-impact-of-the-libya-crisis-map-and-the-standby-volunteer-task-force/

http://www.fmreview.org/technology/villaveces.html



84 | 84

Waldman, Annie P., Andrej Verity, and Roberts Shadrock. Digital Humanitarian Network, "Guidance for Collaborating with Formal Humanitarian Organizations." Last modified July 29, 2013. Accessed August 22, 2013. https://app.box.com/s/w25sqotkg4qc2f2ch1ii.

Wall, Imogen, and Lisa Robinson. BBC World Service Trust. "Policy Briefing 2, Left in the dark, The unmet need for information in humanitarian response." Last modified October 2008. Accessed August 21, 2013. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/humanitarian_response_briefing.pdf.

Williams, Anthony D. "Government 2.0, Wikinomics and the Challenge to Government." Canadian Government Executive 1 (2008). Accessed June 10, 2013. http://anthonydwilliams.com/wp-content/uploads/government-20.pdf.

Wohlers, Anton. "Digital Governance." Choice 4 (2010): 627 - 635.

https://app.box.com/s/w25sqotkg4qc2f2ch1ii

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/humanitarian_response_briefing.pdf

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/humanitarian_response_briefing.pdf

http://anthonydwilliams.com/wp-content/uploads/government-20.pdf