History

CrisisCamp began in March 2009 as a barcamp event to connect crisis management and global development practitioners to the technology volunteer community. During the Haiti response, CrisisCamp became a movement and added a response mechanism to the community.

In 2010, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars granted a planning grant  and a Trustee Grant to support the development of CrisisCommons to help curate a new body of knowledge, document lessons learned from volunteer response and to convene communities to support the growth of CrisisCamps at the local level and the partnership capacity of CrisisCommons to provide infrastructure and other resources to the CrisisCamp and other volunteer technology communities.

Since 2009, CrisisCommons has coordinated crisis event responses such at the Haiti, Chile and Japan Earthquakes and the floods in Thailand, Nashville and Pakistan. Over 3,000 people have participated worldwide in over 30 cities across 10 countries including France, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Chile and Colombia.

CrisisCommons Today

CrisisCommons collaborates through several communication channels. We have a mailing list for announcements and discussions that is open to everyone. Our Wiki is where we collect notes, plan projects, and capture and share information. We also meet in person at CrisisCamps. We are currently building a CrisisCamp Directory so that people can connect locally and build resources like open data profiles which can be used if there was ever a crisis. If you are looking to sign up to create a CrisisCamp or if you just want to let us know you want to volunteer to help out.

Be sure to join the conversation on our email group – its where the latest and greatest information is shared.