Digital Humanitarians

When a tragedy strikes, the amount of information created can be as overwhelming as the absence of information, which can stymie humanitarian efforts. Traditional humanitarian groups are finding it tough to make sense of this information, or Big Data, which is why they are turning to Digital Humanitarians. In order to directly support relief operations throughout the world, a new generation of humanitarians mobilize online to make sense of massive amounts of data, including social media and text messages, satellite imagery, and aerial footage. How? They create innovative crowdsourcing solutions using ground-breaking artificial intelligence insights. This book traces the astonishing growth of the "Digital Humanitarians," demonstrating how the combination of their compassion with cutting-edge Big Data technologies is fundamentally altering the way humanitarian aid is provided.

For the entirety of its recent history, Patrick Meier has served as the focal point of the digital humanitarian movement. This careful compilation of case studies and analysis offers a first-person perspective of how the methods, procedures, and digital humanitarian community have progressed, failed, and succeeded. There is a nice mixture of easily understandable technical information and, more crucially, stories about the people who have used technology to create tools to aid those in need.

Anyone who believes that new technology and big data, when used appropriately, can save millions of people's lives during disasters and times of crisis should read Digital Humanitarians, one of the best books on humanitarian aid. Meier is a practitioner and visionary who is demonstrating to governments, non-governmental organizations, and all of us how to think about and carry out disaster assistance in the twenty-first century. He is not merely a superb narrator of actual events.

Author: Patrick Meier

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Humanitarians-Changing-Humanitarian-Response/dp/149872647X/

Ratings: 4.2 out of 5 stars (from 26 reviews)

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