Patrick Meier, PhD
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Patrick is an internationally recognized expert and consultant on humanitarian technology and innovation. Book: Digital Humanitarians. Previously: UN, World Bank, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Ushahidi. PhD from Fletcher School, Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford and MA at Columbia. Born & raised in Africa.
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Latest Posts
- Drones and the Coronavirus: Do these applications make any sense?
- WeRobotics for Humans in a Hurry
- Technology for Good is Broken. Here’s How We’re Trying to Fix It.
- Decolonizing Medical Cargo Drone Technology: Step 1
- Back to the Future: Drones in Humanitarian Action
- Testing Agile Cargo Drone Delivery to Improve Healthcare
- Drone Charter on Equal Opportunity and Inclusion
- Building Cargo Drone Expertise in Papua New Guinea
- How Local Drone Pilots Are Reducing Dengue Fever
- How Drone Natives are Decolonizing Robotics
- New! Online Training for Humanitarian Drone Missions
- Meet the Youngest Drone Pilots in Fiji
- Testing Underwater Drones: Lessons Learned from the South Pacific
- Field Testing Medical Cargo Drones in the DR
- Empowering Youths in Fiji to Explore their Islands with Aerial and Marine Robotics
- How Mosquitos are Hitching a Ride on Drones to Reduce Zika
- Entire Fleet of Cargo Drones Tested in the Amazon Rainforest
- Digital Humanitarians in Space: Planet Launches Rapid Response Team
- How to Defeat Zika with Flying Robots
- The Future of Crisis Mapping is Finally Here
Archives
Search Results for: match.com
From Russia with Love: A Match.com for Disaster Response
I’ve been advocating for the development of a “Match.com” for disaster response since early 2010. Such a platform would serve to quickly match hyperlocal needs with relevant resources available at the local and national level, thus facilitating and accelerating self-organization following … Continue reading
Posted in Crowdsourcing, Digital Activism, Humanitarian Technologies
Latest Findings on Disaster Resilience: From Burma to California via the Rockefeller Foundation
I’ve long been interested in disaster resilience particularly when considered through the lens of self-organization. To be sure, the capacity to self-organize is an important feature of resilient societies. So what facilitates self-organization? There are several factors, of course, but … Continue reading
Posted in Disaster Resilience, Social Media
Tagged Burma, Capital, Foundation, Providence, Rockefeller, social
Enabling Crowdfunding on Twitter for Disaster Response
Twitter is increasingly used to communicate needs during crises. These needs often include requests for information and financial assistance, for example. Identifying these tweets in real-time requires the use of advanced computing and machine learning in particular. This is why … Continue reading
Posted in Crowdsourcing, Social Media
Tagged Crowdfunding, Disaster, Response, TinyGive, Twitter
Using Waze, Uber, AirBnB and SeeClickFix for Disaster Response
After the Category 5 Tornado in Oklahoma, map editors at Waze used the service to route drivers around the damage. While Uber increased their car service fares during Hurricane Sandy, they could have modified their App to encourage the shared … Continue reading
Posted in Crowdsourcing, Humanitarian Technologies, Social Media
Results: Analyzing 2 Million Disaster Tweets from Oklahoma Tornado
Thanks to the excellent work carried out by my colleagues Hemant Purohit and Professor Amit Sheth, we were able to collect 2.7 million tweets posted in the aftermath of the Category 4 Tornado that devastated Moore, Oklahoma. Hemant, who recently spent half-a-year … Continue reading
Posted in Big Data, Crowdsourcing, Humanitarian Technologies, Social Computing, Social Media
Tagged analysis, Disaster, Moore, Oklahoma, Response, Tornado, Tweets, Twitter
Over 2 Million Tweets from Oklahoma Tornado Automatically Processed (Updated)
Update: We have now processed a total of 2 million tweets (up from 1 million). My colleague Hemant Purohit at QCRI has been working with us on automatically extracting needs and offers of help posted on Twitter during disasters. When the 2-mile wide, Category … Continue reading
Posted in Big Data, Crowdsourcing, Information Forensics, Social Media
Self-Organized Crisis Response to #BostonMarathon Attack
I’m going to keep this blog post technical because the emotions from yesterday’s events are still too difficult to deal with. Within an hour of the bombs going off, I received several emails asking me to comment on the use of social media in … Continue reading
Posted in Crowdsourcing, Digital Activism, Humanitarian Technologies, Social Computing, Social Media
Tagged #BostonMarathon, Boston, Marathon
MatchApp: Next Generation Disaster Response App?
Disaster response apps have multiplied in recent years. I’ve been reviewing the most promising ones and have found that many cater to professional responders and organizations. While empowering paid professionals is a must, there has been little focus on empowering … Continue reading
Posted in Crowdsourcing, Humanitarian Technologies
Tagged App, Apps, Check-In, Disaster, Foursquare, Match.com, MatchApp, Mobile, Response, Self-Help, Smartphone, Technology
How to Create Resilience Through Big Data
Revised! I have edited this article several dozen times since posting the initial draft. I have also made a number of substantial changes to the flow of the article after discovering new connections, synergies and insights. In addition, I have greatly … Continue reading
