Disaster Management and Humanitarian ReliefAt Microsoft, we are driven by our passion to make a difference in people’s everyday lives. Disaster management is core to our commitment to develop technology solutions, tools, and practices that can help communities become more resilient. Through partnerships with leading nongovernmental organizations, international humanitarian organizations, and government organizations, Microsoft finds innovative ways to lend its expertise and familiar technology to develop joint solutions that help reduce the impact of disasters. Disaster ResponseMicrosoft works to improve the disaster response capabilities of lead response organizations through use of information and communications technology solutions, expertise, partnerships, and community involvement. The Microsoft Disaster Response Web page provides additional information about how Microsoft responds in times of disaster. Partnerships at WorkMicrosoft has a long history of collaborating with leading humanitarian and disaster response organizations to develop joint information and communications technology solutions. In collaboration with others, Microsoft has persevered to solve some of the toughest challenges in disaster management. NetHope and the Interagency Working Group on Emergency Capacity BuildingThe NetHope consortium is a membership organization that includes the chief information officers and chief technology officers of more than 25 leading global nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are engaged in international development. The Interagency Working Group on Emergency Capacity Building (ECB) comprises seven of the world's most active relief agencies, including Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, and Save the Children. NetHope and ECB work to increase their members’ disaster response capacity and efficiency through information and communications technology and interagency collaboration. In 2006, Microsoft donated US$41 million in software and cash to these organizations as part of its ongoing effort to improve humanitarian relief efforts worldwide. Since then, Microsoft has committed to annual cash grants to NetHope through 2010. American Red CrossIn 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, Microsoft worked with the American Red Cross to create a people-finder solution, Katrinasafe.org, now called Safe and Well. This Web-based tool reunites families and communities that have been affected by disasters. To date, more than 300,000 Katrina evacuees have registered. It has since been used to help provide relief to victims of the 2005 Pakistan-India earthquake and the 2008 Gulf Coast hurricanes. "Microsoft is dedicated to helping humanitarian and disaster response organizations achieve their disaster management goals, to enhance community safety, and help minimize the consequence of disasters." — Claire Bonilla, Senior Director, Disaster Management United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesThe Microsoft partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began in 1999, when refugees began streaming out of Kosovo. Microsoft mobilized 100 employee volunteers and developed a mobile refugee registration kit that used technology to help 500,000 Kosovo refugees establish their identities. This helped people reunite with their families, prove citizenship and property rights, and gain access to health care and other services. Since then, Microsoft volunteers have improved and refined the registration kits for use by UNHCR in many other parts of the world. Microsoft employee volunteers have worked with the UNHCR team in Uganda, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Rwanda, Guinea, Sudan, and Tanzania. Microsoft also established community technology centers in Kenya and Russia. These centers provide refugees with the opportunity to learn technology skills that can help them succeed as they establish their homes in new countries/regions. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian AffairsWhen a cyclone and extensive flooding devastated much of Myanmar in May 2008, Microsoft and 19 of its technology partners rallied to help the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) create a Web-based collaboration portal for aid workers in the region. Built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Virtual Earth technologies, the Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) Myanmar portal provided government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations with a single source of reliable data and a standard collaboration tool to coordinate their responses to disaster. The HIC Myanmar portal featured regularly updated news reports and announcements, links to the most recently uploaded documents, and a calendar of upcoming events. It also provided one-click access to an interactive map center, press materials, weather updates, and collaborative workspaces. The portal's interactive mapping features are built on the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform and Visual Fusion Suite software from IDV Solutions. Users can view satellite maps of the disaster area, superimpose weather charts and other images onto the map, and integrate data from elsewhere on the portal or the Internet. The site is a central resource that the organizations can use to access and share information and tools to help improve the planning and delivery of humanitarian assistance. Ongoing Technology InnovationsAround the world, people use Microsoft technology to connect to the things that are important to them every day, and to stay in touch during difficult times. Many of the products that help businesses and consumers be more mobile and productive can also enable government, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental organizations to meet the challenges of providing disaster relief. Microsoft technologies and Crisis and Disaster Management (C& DM) solutions enable efficient communication and decision-making in the planning, preparation, response, and recovery phases of a disaster. These solutions can help do the following in the event of a disaster:
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is a suite of server capabilities that enable people to design customized, Web-based, and security-enhanced interfaces to share critical data without divulging sensitive information. The SharePoint platform helps improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared processes, and facilitating information sharing. Organizations such as NetHope are deploying SharePoint portals to deepen their collaboration and to share information. Microsoft unified communications technologies deliver streamlined communications for users so that they can find and share information from the programs that they use most, whether Microsoft or other client applications. Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 enables users to securely and easily communicate with others in different locations, thereby expanding the range of communication options, including instant messaging, voice, and video. Microsoft Virtual Earth is a mapping services platform that enables first responders to visualize complex geospatial information, providing the necessary situational awareness. Virtual Earth provides mapping and imagery so that people can visualize incident and unit locations. Its collaborative and dynamic mapping feature enables responders to integrate weather forecasting data, assess affected areas in real time, track shipments, and pinpoint critical infrastructure. Windows Live is an online communications hub that synchronizes e-mail, online file storage and sharing, event planning tools, a real-time collaboration messenger, and customizable information-sharing spaces. Windows Mobile provides remote access to these tools, making the social media platform especially versatile. Microsoft Office Groove enables flexible peer-to-peer collaboration, providing organizations and others with access to make it easier to share information. A team of Microsoft employees used Office Groove to enable nongovernmental organizations and doctors to deliver medical care to remote areas of Afghanistan. Without infrastructure for power or mobile phone connectivity, the team piloted a program for the use of Office Groove and other technologies to help reduce the coordination time among doctors from weeks down to just two days. Microsoft .NET Framework is a common environment for building, deploying, and running Web services and Web applications—a set of software technologies that makes it easy to connect information, people, systems, and devices. Developers can assemble applications from new and existing code, regardless of platform, language, or object model. The .NET Framework enables developers to build applications of many types: Web, server, smart client, console, and database.
|
|
|