Author: Devin Balkind
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Major German Broadcaster to German Federal Government: Use Sahana for Refugee Data
German volunteers using free/libre/open source Sahana software are successfully managing refugee information in Manheim, Germany while the German Federal government, using antiquated proprietary software, are struggling with the issue. The juxtaposition between the success of volunteer managed Sahana systems and the failure of myriad of Federal and local systems is so stark that major German…
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2015 End of Year Update
In the past, only the biggest NGOs and best-funded government agencies could afford custom information management systems designed specifically for disaster management. Thanks to you, the Sahana community, we are reducing the cost and improving the quality of the information management solutions accessible to communities of all shapes and sizes. Please consider making a tax-deductible…
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Update from the International Conference of Crisis Mappers
I had the pleasure of attending the International Conference of Crisis Mappers (ICCM) in my home town of New York City. I was particularly excited about this event because I provide emergency management solutions to nonprofits in the New York City area, and I see lots of opportunities for these organizations to adopt some of…
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Sandy, Sahana and Sarapis
THE FOLLOWING POST FROM JANUARY 2013 IS REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE SARAPIS FOUNDATION. When “Superstorm Sandy” hit New York City on October 30th, dozens of relief organizations, hundreds of grassroots groups and thousands of people mobilized to provide aid to those most affected. The challenge of coordinating such a relief effort was felt by…
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Occupy Sandy’s FLO Databases
Have you ever been working on a spreadsheet and found that you just couldn’t get all the information you wanted into it? Have you ever looked at the horizontal and vertical cells and wished there were—somehow—a third dimension that gave you the ability to define more stuff? Well, that’s what databases do: they provide you…