DotAsia, Utilizing Connections and Technology for Disaster Relief Efforts
Conversation with Edmon Chung of DotAsia
by Chuck Kisselburg
ICANNWiki.org
The month of May proved to be a disastrous month for many living along Myanmar’s coast and in China’s Sichuan province. It was during this time we saw Relief.Asia, through the DotAsia Organisation, mobilize to help provide relief efforts to those in the disaster areas.
Today the Sichuan province was struck by a 6.0 aftershock of May’s original quake.
Because of this I wanted to talk with Edmon Chung, DotAsia’s CEO, as such efforts not only shed light on what others within the ICANN Community can do, but what the ICANN “Community” can do in providing international relief efforts.
What is “Relief.Asia”?
Relief.Asia is a platform bringing together the Internet community around Asia for relief and rebuild efforts. While the portal itself is being built into a social network site, Relief.Asia is more than an online information or discussion forum. Relief.Asia is also a platform bringing together open source and open knowledge technologies to support relief and rebuild efforts. Today, a number of technologies such as SAHANA — a web-based disaster relief management system (with features such as missing people registry, victims registry, inventory system, aid request/pledge/procurement system, etc.), DUMBO — an emergency mobile network infrastructure, as well as GPS tracking and SOS devices, are being coordinated through Relief.Asia and deployed into Myanmar and Sichuan to help relief teams in the field.
Furthermore, Relief.Asia is a platform for driving online donations. As we progress, Relief.Asia intends not only to be facilitating the deployment of these technologies but also become a platform for open development, sharing and enhancement of software, technologies and experiences on relief and rebuild efforts.
The vision for Relief.Asia is that information technology saves lives. In the wake of natural or other disasters, information technology can deliver the efficiency and effectiveness at a time when it matters most, and at a time when it could mean life or death. The previous experiences of disaster recovery had often been local and seldom shared. Technologies were often built for specific tasks on ad hoc basis. Relief.Asia hopes to provide a platform for integrating and learning from these experiences. It is also meant to be a social network which could help in driving volunteers as well as ongoing support such as psychological support which is not always well planned at the initial often chaotic rescue phase.
Relief.Asia is an Internet platform that facilitates relief response, rebuild efforts and knowledge sharing for disaster recovery by leveraging the social and technological networks of the Internet community.
Who started Relief.Asia?
DotAsia could be said to be the host and coordinator for Relief.Asia. The DotAsia team grafted together the platform in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar during May 2-3, 2008. Without the collaborative efforts from organisations and institutions from around Asia, or the open technologies already being developed since the 2004 Asia Tsunami, for which the origins of Relief.Asia owes its conception, it could not have happened nevertheless. Most notably the participation and help from Charles Mok of ISOC HK, the Asia Institute of Technology (AIT), APNG (Asia Pacific Networking Group), APNIC and the Museum of World Religion (MWR) has been instrumental to the early developments of Relief.Asia.
While running a relief effort can take a major effort, why start Relief.Asia?
Relief.Asia exemplifies DotAsia’s commitment to the Asia community. It is a major and ongoing effort. As mentioned, the vision of Relief.Asia is to build a platform that can deliver open technologies and expertise when it matters most in relief and rebuild efforts. We feel that Relief.Asia is a meaningful project and the whole team at DotAsia was working overtime from our already packed launch schedule for the ongoing auctions and our commitments such as at www.think.asia, yet we all felt it was well worth our time as we were truly able to provide help, leveraging our expertise and network, to the relief efforts in Myanmar and Sichuan. Through the partnership with the Museum of World Religion (MWR), who was a .Asia Pioneer, we have been able to secure cargo space and channels into the hardest hit areas in Myanmar and were one of the very few international efforts being able to deliver relief materials in. The project while demanding was refreshing for our morale. This would be one of the first times DotAsia really made some difference for the Asia community.
I see there are several partnerships in place for Relief.Asia. Were the partnerships in place prior to the Myanmar and China natural disasters or were they established during the creation of Relief.Asia?
The origins of Relief.Asia can be traced back to the 2004 Asia Tsunami.
DotAsia at that time was still organized around volunteer efforts and toiling through the ICANN TLD process. The team at that time nevertheless still tried to facilitate and drive donations where possible. Some of the core technologies being coordinated through DotAsia to Myanmar and Sichuan also had its roots from the aftermath of the 2004 Asia Tsunami. For donation drives, we work specifically with partners when disasters hit.
While Relief.Asia quickly integrated in the wake of the Myanmar Cyclone, plans have been in place throughout the preparatory phases at DotAsia even as we were launching the .Asia registry, as can be evidenced by our own pioneer domain application for the domain “relief.asia”.
The DotAsia footprint is quite large. Given the natural disasters that occurred in both Myanmar and China, would Relief.Asia be able to handle other disasters in Bangladesh, Iran and New Zealand? If so have the relationships been developed with the various organizations in countries throughout the whole DotAsia footprint?
We certainly hope that disasters would not hit so often and so closely with each other. The Myanmar Cyclone and then the Sichuan Earthquake did present great challenge for us. Just as we had put together the platform for Myanmar, the Sichuan Earthquake hit. It was not an easy decision, but one which I believe is correct, when we made commitments to exert as much efforts to both disaster areas. Besides working with local and international charities and NGO, DotAsia will continue to utilize its relationship with its member ccTLDs and other ccTLDs in the region. For our efforts in Myanmar, we had, with the help of the .MM registry been able to better deliver materials into the affected areas. As for Sichuan, we worked with CNNIC (.CN) and the Internet Society of China. In the future, we will continue to use this model to reach out to the local communities when and if disasters hit. On top of which, we intend to strengthen our relationships with international organisations such as World Vision, Oxfam and Red Cross to leverage their footprint around the world as well. But as the case in Myanmar shows, being able to leverage local presence through our online platform can be extremely critical for relief and rebuild efforts.
Have other regionally-based TLDs created a formalized relief effort before?
I am not sure. For DotAsia, this is consistent with our mandate and vision.
For others who wish to do the same, what were the major barriers you encountered that made establishing Relief.Asia difficult? In other words, if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
A major barrier is driving online donations. Both setting it up as well as driving actual donations. In setting up the system, the payment gateway and processing was troublesome and expensive. This cascades to the issue of driving donations as well because of the high overhead. As a new online platform, there will of course be an issue of trust, which we understand. Nevertheless, we are glad that there are people who believe in our cause and also we were able to drive donations through our partners as well.
For regionally-based TLDs, existing and new, do you foresee the need for such organizations to budget for, if not have a person covering a “Relief Coordinator” role?
I think it really depends on the mission and vision of a TLD.
While there are many aspects to a complete relief effort, what can Relief.Asia do well and what should one NOT expect Relief.Asia to handle?
The vision of Relief.Asia is that information technology can save lives.
Relief.Asia leverages the technology and social network over the Internet community to bring together people and open technology to contribute to relief and rebuild efforts. Also, Relief.Asia is a platform that facilitates collaboration and sharing, and is focused on supporting relief and rebuild teams with technology. We will continue to work with other organisations such as World Vision, Oxfam and Red Cross to drive donations and support their operations for more general relief work.
I have heard of many organizations that organize relief efforts around natural disasters. This is the first time I have personally heard of any organization within the general ICANN community organizing a relief effort. What might organizations within the general ICANN community bring to disaster relief that traditional organizations struggle with?
Many organisations in the ICANN community has extensive networks within their locality and industry. Often, great work can be built from these social and technological networks. I think those are the types of thing the ICANN community can really make a difference. I believe there has been different initiatives in the past as well. As I recall, Afilias and PIR also contributed efforts in the wake of the 2004 Asia Tsunami.
Anything else I may not have covered that you wish to be told?
If you feel that Relief.Asia is a meaningful project, please support us by adding a button or ribbon to your website! See http://support.relief.asia.
The children of the disaster ridden areas need your help! Relief.Asia will focus not only on relief efforts but also rebuild and through your help, we can bring better technology to these deprived children, and give them a better hope for a better future!
3 comments August 5th, 2008