Humanitarian Assistance: Problem Statement

This week we met for the first time as a team and we were given our problem statement. We plan on blogging each week to reflect on what we learn individually and as a team. This will help us grow together and work towards a viable solution. Here is our problem statement:

Background: There is a need for a mobile and internet app that permits coordination, collaboration, and information sharing between International (e.g. U.N.), Federal (i.e. DoD, FEMA, US AID), State, local, and civilian populations. These apps would accelerate the fusion of information preceding a disaster, while also enabling better disaster response after a disaster has occurred.

Challenge: International, Federal (inclusive of DoD, FEMA, US AID), State, Local, and tribal organizations lack one common information sharing environment. This makes coordination and collaboration across these entities difficult, there by delaying an effective response during a disaster. This results in an increase to the loss of life (both from a pre and post disaster perspective). Additionally, the civilian populace lacks a single information environment for reporting damage and assistance requirements during a disaster recovery. This hinders the response from first responders, since damage/rescue requirements may be fist reported via social media (twitter, facebook, etc)