A crisis camp is a BarCamp gathering of IT professionals,

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, Computer programming, programming, software documentation, documenting, software testing, testing, and Software bugs, bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applic ...

s, and computer

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

s to aid in the relief efforts of a major crisis such as those caused by

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

s, or

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s. Projects that crisis camps often work on include setting up

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

s for people to locate missing friends and relatives, creating maps of affected areas, and creating inventories of needed items such as food and clothing. Previous efforts of crisis camps reveal common themes such as the use of mobility, the use of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

as a common coordination platform, the requirement of volunteers, and the need for alternative community communication access areas. This initiative is reported to have a unique format that features free or nominal attendance fees as well as agenda that are created in real time by the participants. This format has also been referred to as "unconference", which reject one-size-fits-all presentations in favor of innovative gathering with no predetermined speaker or sessions as activities are led by participants themselves. The emergence of

EdCamp An EdCamp is a participant-driven conference – commonly referred to as an "unconference". ''EdCamps'' are designed to provide participant-driven professional development for K-12 educators. ''EdCamps'' are modeled after BarCamps, free participan ...

, which is a user-generated gathering for educators has been modeled after BarCamp. Following the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

, many crisis camps were set up around the world, often under the name "Crisis Camp Haiti", to help with the relief effort. Due to the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

, the Crisis Commons volunteer community was mobilized and part of the effort is being coordinated by Japanese students at U.S. universities. The first Crisis camp was held in Washington, DC on June 12–14, 2009.

References

External links

CrisisCommons.org
Technology in society Natural disasters Emergency organizations Unconferences {{Disaster-stub