When a tragedy happens anywhere in the world, Crisis Mappers are there to communicate what’s going on and what’s needed. Jen Ziemke, assistant professor of international relations at John Carroll University, cofounded Crisis Mappers along with Patrick Meier to organize a network of 4,000 mappers worldwide to assist in that communication.

The first International conference on Crisis Mappers was held at John Carroll in 2009 and the 100 attendees created the Crisis Mappers Network to gather and report critical information on catastrophes around the world. “Crisis Mappers really grew out of its own demand,” says Ziemke. “After the conference people wanted to stay in touch so we created a basic website. Now we’re a mix of every country in the world.”

The Crisis Mappers help get the word out and report on the situation in crises such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti or the uprising in Libya. “We’re seeing a change in how technology enables people to get the story out in real time,” Ziemke explains. “There’s a lot of sharing on the network and Google groups.” There are 1,724 Google group members in 161 countries. More than 4,000 are on the Crisis Mappers network.

During the Libya crisis, the United States called upon Crisis Mappers to identify refugees and where they were headed, as well as report food and water requests. “We were able to visualize and make sense of it really fast,” Ziemke says.

Now Crisis Mappers is working with Tremont Electric to provide portable nPower communication devices, charged through the user’s kinetic energy, to people who are off the network.

“Crisis Mappers are often off the grid,” says Ziemke. “They typically have cell phones, but no power.” The two organizations are working through Indiegogo to raise money for the devices.

Crisis Mappers will have its fourth conference in October in Washington, D.C. “We’re using the power of people to feed information into the system and having volunteers make sense of it,” says Ziemke.

Source: Jen Ziemke
Writer: Karin Connelly