Crisis Response Makerspaces
This is a modal window.
The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported.
Formal Metadata
| Title |
| |
| Title of Series | ||
| Number of Parts | 21 | |
| Author | ||
| License | CC Attribution - ShareAlike 3.0 Germany: You are free to use, adapt and copy, distribute and transmit the work or content in adapted or unchanged form for any legal purpose as long as the work is attributed to the author in the manner specified by the author or licensor and the work or content is shared also in adapted form only under the conditions of this | |
| Identifiers | 10.5446/36101 (DOI) | |
| Publisher | ||
| Release Date | ||
| Language |
Content Metadata
| Subject Area | ||
| Genre | ||
| Abstract |
|
re:publica 201811 / 21
10
11
12
16
00:00
Dependent and independent variablesOrder (biology)Letterpress printingInstance (computer science)MathematicsDigitizingExtension (kinesiology)Event horizonWordGoodness of fitMereologyProjective planeSoftware developerLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
01:31
SpacetimeVideo gameExtension (kinesiology)Self-organizationSoftware developerForestDigitizingLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
02:28
SoftwareSystem callPower (physics)Self-organizationLevel (video gaming)Computer-assisted translationAreaSpacetimeComputer programmingRevision controlExtension (kinesiology)Group actionFood energyInternet forumCatastrophismLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
04:58
Human migrationSpacetimeSelf-organizationMereologyDependent and independent variablesMobile WebMetropolitan area networkWater vaporLocal ringData managementLie groupLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
06:13
File formatLevel (video gaming)Field (computer science)Goodness of fitTraffic reportingSelf-organizationInternet service providerData conversionView (database)outputMeeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
06:59
Dependent and independent variablesProjective planeSpacetimeGoodness of fitFlagCategory of beingRule of inferenceWaveTerm (mathematics)Multiplication signLecture/ConferenceMeeting/InterviewComputer animation
08:38
Online helpGoodness of fitPlanningComputer wormCuboidConnectivity (graph theory)Civil engineeringDrop (liquid)Self-organizationChannel capacityDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Computer animation
10:23
Similarity (geometry)Buffer solutionDialectGoodness of fitPhysical systemCivil engineeringComputer animation
11:33
Information securityGoodness of fitSoftware testingRoundness (object)AuthorizationMereologyState of matterField (computer science)Basis <Mathematik>SpacetimeDependent and independent variablesComputer animationLecture/Conference
12:31
Channel capacityUniverse (mathematics)Field (computer science)SpacetimePoint (geometry)Dependent and independent variablesMeeting/Interview
13:17
Office suiteGroup actionSpacetimeDependent and independent variablesMoment (mathematics)Mobile WebSelf-organizationLocal ringMultiplication signSoftwareComputer animationMeeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
14:37
Presentation of a groupField (computer science)NumberComputer virusLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
15:30
Open sourceField (computer science)BitFrustrationInternet forumCore dumpSoftware development kitBuildingContext awarenessAreaWave packetWebsiteLetterpress printingGame controllerAssociative propertyDigital electronicsPole (complex analysis)AdditionTerm (mathematics)Meeting/Interview
17:43
FrustrationPotenz <Mathematik>Multiplication signLogic synthesisSoftware developerChainWater vaporLimit (category theory)QuicksortSampling (statistics)Atomic numberProduct (business)Virtual machineDigitizingSpacetimeComputing platformMereologyField (computer science)CASE <Informatik>Local ringMultiplicationContext awarenessStapeldateiScaling (geometry)Endliche ModelltheorieWave packetBitComputer animation
19:40
Field (computer science)QuicksortProcess (computing)Software testingIterationRule of inferenceCalculus of variationsType theoryPower (physics)Social classSpacetimeElectronic mailing listRow (database)Lecture/ConferenceComputer animationMeeting/Interview
21:11
2 (number)Game controllerIntegrated development environmentPhysical systemSpacetimeSoftware developerRevision controlProduct (business)Computer animation
21:59
Renewal theoryDependent and independent variablesReliefAsynchronous Transfer ModeMachine visionComputer virusoutputCommutatorToken ringPresentation of a groupMultiplication signMachine visionType theoryService (economics)Different (Kate Ryan album)SpacetimeReliefImage resolutionMeeting/InterviewComputer animation
23:21
Wave packetLibrary (computing)SpacetimeProjective planeGroup actionWave packetLibrary (computing)Software testingComputer animation
24:07
Business & Information Systems EngineeringSurface of revolutionPhysical systemStructural loadFamilyDependent and independent variablesLocal ringLevel (video gaming)AreaComputer animation
24:59
Internet service providerGroup actionDependent and independent variablesLocal ringChannel capacityProjective plane1 (number)Decision theoryLattice (order)Computer animation
25:44
SpacetimeFood energyAddress spaceComputer animation
26:34
Electronic visual displayExecution unitWage labourAreaTrailActive contour modelConstructor (object-oriented programming)SpacetimeGroup actionBuildingControl flowExterior algebraComputer animation
27:44
Integrated development environmentExistenceGreen's functionInformationProjective planeUniverse (mathematics)Integrated development environmentSpacetimeMeeting/InterviewComputer animation
28:32
ImplementationIntegrated development environmentSpacetimeIntegrated development environmentGroup actionQuicksortProjective planeWater vaporLattice (order)Position operatorComputer animation
29:53
Group actionSpacetimeComputer animationLecture/Conference
30:42
Complex (psychology)Perspective (visual)Different (Kate Ryan album)View (database)Point (geometry)Mobile WebPhysical systemQuicksortMultiplication signSerial portMeeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
31:31
Projective planePoint (geometry)State of matterLine (geometry)Endliche ModelltheorieMedical imagingMobile WebSet (mathematics)Commitment schemeTrailLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
32:26
HypermediaSpacetimeProduct (business)Dependent and independent variablesPerspective (visual)Meeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
33:30
CatastrophismCovering spaceGroup actionField (computer science)Online helpReliefQuicksortWhiteboardSoftwareLetterpress printingSpacetimeBitProduct (business)Point (geometry)Chromosomal crossoverMultiplication signData storage deviceBuildingDependent and independent variablesCommutatorIntegrated development environmentLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
35:13
Operator (mathematics)Multiplication signChaos theorySpacetimeGroup actionPresentation of a groupPoint (geometry)Power (physics)Process (computing)Internet service providerService (economics)ReliefOctaveSampling (statistics)Meeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
36:02
ReliefSpacetimeInternet service providerService (economics)Lattice (order)Point (geometry)Inheritance (object-oriented programming)Computer programmingLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
36:58
Hacker (term)SpacetimeSelf-organizationQuicksortProcess (computing)Physical systemUsabilityGoodness of fitArmSoftwareMultiplication signField (computer science)Meeting/Interview
38:13
Self-organizationWindowOpen setMoment (mathematics)Bridging (networking)Integrated development environmentLecture/Conference
38:57
Value-added networkSelf-organizationComputer clusterBitShared memorySampling (statistics)Extension (kinesiology)LogicFrustrationQuicksortReal numberComputer programmingSoftware developerTerm (mathematics)MathematicsMeeting/Interview
40:10
State of matterMathematical analysisTerm (mathematics)Integrated development environmentBit rateContext awarenessField (computer science)QuicksortMeeting/InterviewLecture/Conference
40:59
VacuumSelf-organizationSoftware developerBitError messageDependent and independent variablesLecture/Conference
41:58
QuicksortSoftware testingField (computer science)BitIdentity managementSensitivity analysisPosition operatorContext awarenessImplementationFood energyPower (physics)Adaptive behaviorMeeting/Interview
43:40
Element (mathematics)Point (geometry)MereologyDifferent (Kate Ryan album)QuicksortConstraint (mathematics)Factory (trading post)Software testingService (economics)Meeting/Interview
44:37
Self-organizationPresentation of a groupProduct (business)Network topologyContext awarenessDependent and independent variablesDirection (geometry)Field (computer science)Denial-of-service attackBitOpen set
45:22
Database normalizationLine (geometry)Local ringBitDependent and independent variablesRight anglePressureResultantReal numberLecture/Conference
46:10
Goodness of fitQuicksortImage resolutionLocal ringRight angleStorage area networkLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
47:20
Different (Kate Ryan album)Revision controlRight angleMechanism designLocal ringWave packetPhysical lawLevel (video gaming)Latent heatBitMeeting/Interview
48:22
Self-organizationBasis <Mathematik>Right angleMechanism designField (computer science)QuicksortLocal ringPoint (geometry)Integrated development environmentLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
49:21
QuicksortBitSound effectSpacetimeBuildingFactory (trading post)Lecture/Conference
50:09
Storage area networkProcedural programmingSelf-organizationCommunications protocolLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
50:58
BitScaling (geometry)Field (computer science)PlanningConnected spaceOpen sourceProduct (business)Meeting/Interview
52:14
BitField (computer science)SoftwareScaling (geometry)Confidence intervalQuicksortMeeting/Interview
53:18
WordDependent and independent variablesSpacetimeVector potentialMappingService (economics)SoftwareRight angleGoodness of fitDenial-of-service attackTask (computing)QuicksortLocal ringLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
55:35
ArmReal numberSelf-organizationMultiplication signHecke operatorHypermediaTable (information)MereologyWordFocus (optics)Lecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
56:42
Process (computing)Self-organizationMultiplication signSign (mathematics)Closed setDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Graph coloringPhysical systemAssociative propertyTraffic reportingMeeting/Interview
57:30
SoftwareMultiplication signSpacetimeMereologyLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
58:17
Internet forumExpert systemSpacetimeMereologyShared memoryRule of inferenceSoftwareMeeting/Interview
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:16
A warm welcome to all of you. I'm very much delighted to open this session on behalf of the BMZ, the Ministry of Economic
00:27
Cooperation and Development, and of GIZ. It's part of the serious Tech for Good, for which another event has already taken place. I think this will be another session which will show us to what extent digitalization
00:47
will change development cooperation. There are already very impressive examples. One example, for instance, the Markanet project in Kenya, which has cooperated with Kenyan
01:00
makers and they have managed through 3D printing to produce vital spare parts for hospitals and even stethoscopes in order to allow to hear heartbeat of unborn babies. And this, I find, is an extremely interesting example for what you can do in critical
01:25
situations, in crisis situations, where supplies are not available, spare parts are not available, medical supplies are not available, and that you can really save the lives of people by using makerspaces.
01:44
I think this session will also show to us to what extent development organizations have to change under the challenge of digitalization. I think all of us are still at the beginning to changing their own behavior, their own
02:03
approaches. There is a tendency in development organization, and I say this being myself, a member of a development organization, to just repeat the solution. And we have to try and we are trying really to use digitalization to a much larger extent
02:24
in future than we did in the past. Let me just say a personal remark. I was two years ago in northern Iraq, and I met an amazing network of makerspaces,
02:41
maker initiatives in northern Iraq, not only in certain urban places, but even in refugee camps. And that has brought us the idea, why not establish such kind of makerspace? Why not encourage the establishment of makerspaces to a much larger extent?
03:06
And two years later, now, I'm very proud to announce that by now, there is two years later a new program, Prospects for Modern Youth in ICT, that supports various makerspaces
03:20
in Iraq cities, but also in refugee camps across the country. And I'm sure that this is an example which can be repeated in many other areas of the world, especially under crisis situation. How this can function and what examples we have already, we will now learn from the
03:43
very interesting panel. And I'm very delighted to welcome Geraldine, the moderator here on stage, who will lead you through this session. Let's enjoy a very exciting and interesting session. Geraldine, good to have you here, bye. Thank you so much, Andreas. Thank you very much.
04:05
So I'm not sure if all of you saw it, but in his opening keynote yesterday on the main stage, Ranga Yogeshwar reminded us that if we have the ability and the power, the technology to innovate all our industries, our sectors, why don't we put that to good use?
04:20
And it was kind of a call to action to really focus on the humanitarian needs and the most biggest challenges we have and try to fix those with all this creative energy we have. In the next session, you're going to meet four people who are doing exactly that. We want to take a look at the question of how do we help those in need more effectively and how do we use all these digital innovative tools that we have to
04:44
help people living in conflict, disaster or humanitarian catastrophes. So this next session, like I said, is going to feature four people and three organizations who are doing just that. And I'd like to introduce them to you and welcome them on stage here. Kaddas has founded the world's first crisis response maker space in Berlin, which is
05:03
solving problems of humanitarian aid and problems of people in migration status and refugees. He's going to be represented by Sebastian Huememann, who has developed a concept for a cheap mobile hospital, which is being deployed in Syria and northern Iraq with Kaddas. Please welcome him warmly.
05:27
Also representing Kaddas today is Ruben Neugebauer, who is a photojournalist and part of the artist collective PENG. He's helped build up an organization called Sea Watch, which since 2015 is saving people from drowning in the European borders and the waters
05:41
surrounding Europe and has saved over the lives of 30,000 people. Please welcome Ruben warmly. Also, please welcome Bahar Kumar, who is the manager of an innovation space, community space called Communitaire in Kathmandu, Nepal.
06:03
And she's going to be telling us how they helped build the community with local innovators to really reshape the lives of people there after the devastating earthquake. And last but not least, please welcome Susan Long from an organization called Field Ready.
06:20
And she's Susan Long is going to report for us from her teams and also Nepal and Syria and the work they're doing there to provide people with important medical tools, but also other 3D printed goods as Field Ready. I'm very excited to be sharing the stage with you for the format of the session is going to be such that each three parties, so
06:42
Sebastian and Ruben, Bahar and Susan are each going to give us a short input, a short talk, presenting their work, and then we'll just sit here on the panel discussing and exchanging our views and experiences. And we're going to invite you to join this conversation as well. So first up, Sebastian Ruben, would you like to take the stage?
07:09
Yeah, first of all, a big thank you for the invitation and for the possibility to speak in front of you. Normally when we talk about the work of Cardos, we talk about our mobile hospital because this was the biggest project last year.
07:24
So we decided to take this opportunity to give a brief introduction to another project, to explain how our maker space, our crisis response maker space is working. On September the 20th of 2017, the Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.
07:44
This meant more than 30 hours of a category five hurricane that left back the island with a complete destroyed infrastructure. For the first, I think, eight days after the typhoon, the problem was that there was still the so-called Jones Act.
08:02
The Jones Act is a regulatory act meant to support the US industry, and it says that only ships that are flying under a US flag are allowed to enter Puerto Rico and their ports. So for the first eight days, there were no opportunities to bring any goods and any equipment to the island.
08:27
After these eight days, President Trump waived this act for 10 days, so a lot of goods and a lot of equipment could reach the island, but still it was stacked because all the roads were still
08:40
blocked for a lot of days. There was no fuel to transport the things, and the help couldn't reach the people it should reach. When we took a look at this timeline of this disaster, we immediately thought like, why didn't they just took the goods and
09:01
bought the donations by air, by airdrop? Because, obviously, every year, there are thousands and thousands of people who jump out of working planes freely and with fun, so there are obviously ways to bring people and to bring payload down to the earth, safe and secure.
09:23
When we looked into this, we found out that airdrop is mainly made by military, and there are only a few possibilities to do this in a way that humanitarian NGOs can adopt to that. So we have a problem, and we have a solution.
09:43
But unfortunately, the solution is so lately in the hands of the military, and if you want to do things without the military, you have to consider different things. For example, if you want to organise a net conference, you might expect a shitstorm. If you want to organise civil airdrop capacity, you have to
10:04
get together a lot of fancy equipment, but you will not have the endless budget the military has. So we thought about how to get these components together so we can also drop boxes of goods out of an aircraft.
10:23
So, first of all, you need an aircraft. Therefore, we teamed up with the Swiss humanitarian pilots initiative, and we found out that there is actually availability of aircrafts, because, if you look at the disaster, normally, it's quite hard to get a helicopter or a
10:42
transport aircraft, but there is a fun industry, and the fun industry of parachuters is available all over the world, so, actually, it's quite easy to access the aircraft. Similar it is with the parachutes. Here also the fun industry provides a solution.
11:00
I myself, I'm a paracliding pilot, as our colleagues from the humanitarian pilots initiative are, and that's how also the idea was born to set up civil airdrop capacities, because with a paraclider, you have to reserve parachute, you have to throw away every few years because it expires. And so there are hundreds, there are even thousands of old
11:23
parachutes we could just use to airdrop goods in disaster regions, which are pretty much needed there. So the only thing that was missing was a nice buffer system to kind of secure goods like you can see here in the picture from getting destroyed of the impact on the ground.
11:44
So, if we take all those things together, we have a solution in parts, and even the Swiss state is quite interested already in that solution. We already have the authorisation to do a first round of test drops, we already have the aircraft in
12:03
place, but now we have to get things together. And that's why we need actually a crisis response maker space. And this is actually how the maker space is running. We are out of the fields, we see a problem, then we're coming back. We're taking a look at the market, what is available, and
12:23
mostly we see that solutions are too expensive, even too expensive for us as a society that has plenty of money, but especially too expensive to provide these solutions to communities that are much more affected and not in the best situation regarding funding and stuff like that.
12:42
So our idea was to bring together the people who are out there in the fields or see the problems, together with people from the affected communities who know best how to solve the situations right from the start, together with universities here in Germany, because they have a lot of
13:01
capacity to support us with science and research, and nerds and geeks who are already experienced in things that we need, like, for example, how to land a parachute directly on the points that you need. In this mobile, in this crisis response maker space, we're working on different solutions, not only this airdrop, this
13:21
mobile hospital I spoke about, we built one last year, and we worked with this mobile hospital in Northern Iraq. At the moment, we're waiting for the permission to cross the border to go to Northern Syria, and in the crisis response maker space, we are working together with a big group of people on a solution based on used sea containers, because
13:40
they're much cheaper than our first solution, they're available all over the world, and we're working on developing a blueprint that we can deliver to local NGOs to help them improve their situation. So, this is basically all that we are doing. We face two main problems.
14:00
One problem is the sector of humanitarian aid is really, really not innovation friendly, because a lot of big organisations are not really keen on changing the ways they're working at the moment. And the other thing is that we really need an access through local communities, because, one, there was a disaster, it's
14:20
much too late for small organisations like us to try to start to find the access to the communities. So, I think we have the time to speak about this today with people from other countries how to develop these networks. Thank you very much.
14:48
Next up is Susan Long from Field Ready, and we're just pulling up her presentation. We're going to hear all three talks, and then we're going to start the panel on the Q&A. But please keep your questions in mind.
15:09
Hello? Hello? This is going to be embarrassing. I can't see it on the mic. I think you just need to keep talking. It's number one, please.
15:24
Shall I use this, or? Oh, yeah, great. Sorry. Hi. Hello. So, I am Susan from Field Ready, and this is Usama. Usama is a mechanical engineer in Idlib, northern Syria, one
15:41
of the few areas which remains under moderate opposition control in Syria, and I'm sure you may have heard in the news has been subject to very heavy bombardments. When Usama started working with us just over a year ago, we found that the search and rescue teams were struggling with the equipment they had to rescue civilians from
16:01
collapsed buildings. They had airbags, but they cost $5,000 a go, and they couldn't replace them, so Usama worked with our core engineering team to develop this airbag kit. It uses heat welding of polyester, so a technology and a material which is available in every truck stop in Syria,
16:21
and to create this airbag kit which costs $460, can lift five tonnes of rubble, and has been used so far to rescue at least 20 civilians, and has recently been nominated for Fast Company's Innovation Awards. This is RAM. So, when Field Ready first went to Nepal in 2015, they
16:45
looked on 3D Hub's website to see if anyone had listed a 3D printer in Nepal, and they found one in Kathmandu. So, they called him up and said, do you have a 3D printer? And he said, no, I don't actually have a 3D printer, but I'm very interested in them.
17:01
I was like, well, great, that's a good start. And now, two years later, RAM has become well known around rural health clinics and other places in Nepal. 3D printing, items like these, he also has established Nepal's first 3D printing association,
17:20
and has several interns of his own under Field Ready. In addition, he's actually set up his own company, which imports 3D printers and trains others in design, and recently was commissioned to make the trophy for Nepal's answer to X-Factor. Exciting. So, a little bit of context.
17:43
So, Field Ready was really born out of a frustration with the exponential time and financial waste that can be involved in getting just a simple part where it's needed post-crisis, post-disaster. But I say it's really, it's involved into a way of working, which is about seeing people
18:01
living in complex situations for what they can do, not just what they lack. And to do this, we often make use of digital manufacturing technology. So, CNC machines, 3D printers, laser cutters, et cetera,
18:20
which is transforming production anyway globally. And this allows us to use digital designs, which means we can share things so that we share, so that we send atoms, sorry, that we share bytes, not atoms, over borders. And which allows teams of Syrians in northern Syria to work with Syrians in southern Turkey, to work with Turks in Istanbul,
18:41
and the rest of our sort of global team, including the guys in Nepal, to solve the problems that they identify, whether that be how do you produce crops with limited water? How do you get spare parts for expensive equipment, medical equipment when the chain is broken? Or how do you help an entrepreneur with his research and development?
19:01
The digital designs also allow us to have a distributed manufacturing model, and this is where we take maybe a sort of medium-scale production batch of an item developed often for that context, and distribute it between multiple local makers, in many cases, trained and equipped by Field Ready.
19:22
And just to mention, in doing this, we often partner with, well, we're part of the MakerNet Alliance, who have a platform for NGO procurement. And I think they're 3.35 tomorrow, they're also in a space somewhere. Sorry, that wasn't a great plug. Anyway, today I'm also gonna talk a little bit
19:41
about health, because it's something that comes up everywhere we are, and also because I thought it was a topic of Republica. So, oh, oh yeah, sorry. So, Field Ready really sort of started in Haiti, with our engineers going out there and visiting the rural clinics,
20:00
talking to the guys on the ground about what things they couldn't get, and going through an immediate process of design, prototyping, iteration, testing, and producing. For example, this umbilical cord clip went through multiple variations to come up with this design, and that's now available on Thingiverse,
20:21
and people around the world have downloaded them. We're now working on a more systematic approach, working with the WHO-led healthcare cluster, which records every piece of broken equipment in healthcare facilities in northern Syria. And so we're looking at how to get the most value
20:43
from that by working with those facilities to understand what has most impact for the clinicians, and also to understand things like which are the items which commonly break and how do they break. So we have 1,000 broken pieces of equipment.
21:01
Over half of them are eight types of piece of equipment out of a list of 50. And so we can get kind of more value out of what we do, and it's exciting, because we're doing it from our space in northern Syria, we're doing it with a partner in Mosul in northern Iraq, and also in Nepal, where they are also making use
21:22
of the distributed manufacturing system for some of the healthcare items, like the thermosetting wrist braces. And yeah, so in summary, to say that this is where we hope we can see development going, that there are systems in place to localize production,
21:41
even in the immediate aftermath of crisis disaster conflict, so that people who are living in complex environments are able to access this digital global economy, and in doing so, take control of rebuilding their own future. Thank you.
22:07
And the last input talk is gonna be given by Bahar Kumar from Communitaire Nepal, just putting up her presentation as well. Hello.
22:20
My name's Bahar, and I'm from Kathmandu. I have a hard time answering the question where I'm from these days. I'm actually from India, grew up in the US, but my partner is now Nepali, and so I'm rooted, very rooted to Nepal now. So Nepal Communitaire is a magical space.
22:40
It started about two and a half years ago, and our vision is really that a disaster can be a catalyst for innovation. So what happened is after the earthquake, Communitaire comes in, provides relief services, and then very quickly sees that a community that doesn't have everything at their disposal
23:00
is really creative and really innovative at problem solving. So we thought, well, why not harness some of that brilliant thinking and create a resource center, and what should that resource center look like? Well, it looks like a really dynamic, funky space that attracts a lot of different types of people, and our vision is really to try and take innovators
23:22
into becoming successful entrepreneurs, and the way we do that is through our space. We have a maker space and a tool lending library. We have a coworking space, a training lab, and now we also do business incubation, and a lot of this stuff is plugged into the larger ecosystem where we support
23:40
a lot of these groups into trying to find further investment to further their projects. So this is a glimpse of our space. We had 16 shipping containers that were donated to us after the earthquake, and we've used that to build out our maker space, our coworking space, a funky bar that opens up for networking,
24:01
and that's basically what our space looks like, and it continues to evolve as people come through. What I want to do quickly is take you back to when the earthquake actually happened. So in April of 2015, what we saw was an amazing response by local communities.
24:21
So the immediate response was by people living there. They weren't attached to NGOs. They were people who went back to their home villages. Kathmandu is a place where you get Nepalis from all over the country that have been living there, and this was an opportunity and a need for them to go back and respond to their families living outside the valley,
24:40
and what we saw was loads of citizens that mobilized and converted a cafe, a bed and breakfast into a staging area, and this is evidence that local communities are the best at responding immediately when a disaster hits. So what's evolved out of that,
25:01
some of you may be familiar with something called the Grand Bargain, and this is just a meeting of fancy countries, about 30 donor aid agencies and humanitarian players that come together to make decisions, and what they did in 2017 is they committed to dedicating 25% of the global funds to building the capacity of these local responders,
25:21
recognizing that they really are the ones that are best able to respond most immediately. So this is actually quite encouraging because it allows us to take projects like CADAS and FieldReady and say, you know what, we need to now use these innovative approaches to really build the skills
25:40
and the capacity of local communities to better respond. So I wanna give you a few examples of some of the things that we do in our space. So we've had a humanitarian maker fair back in 2016, and we're gonna have another one in 2018. I encourage all of you to come. It's a magical, wonderful experience. It's gonna be in September, but basically this was a way to showcase
26:03
a lot of the really wonderful, innovative solutions that are emerging in Nepal. And this is a really interesting, it was a glimpse for us to look at how Nepal is really looking at how can we recreate our country now? This is an opportunity after a disaster to apply some really new ways
26:22
to address agricultural challenges, to address challenges around energy. And so what we want to do is basically support a lot of those ideas and further them. And so we're gonna have this maker fair in September. It's the 22nd and 23rd. We're also considering doing a maker trek
26:41
where some of these innovative solutions that have been designed can now be introduced to communities living in remote areas in the Himalayas. So Round Earth Solutions is one of the groups in our space. They are a construction company that basically reintroduced a very traditional
27:01
way of building. And it wasn't applied very much before the earthquake, but afterwards it's increased significantly. So they've trained over 60 architects, engineers, and workers in the community, and they've provided an alternative to traditional bricks. Traditional bricks are extremely toxic for the air in Nepal.
27:24
So the brick homes basically release really polluting air, really horrible pollutants into the air. So the government has now approved this as a rebuilding methodology for schools and hospitals. And Round Earth Solutions is now rebuilding
27:40
schools and hospitals and districts that were affected by the earthquake. Another really wonderful project is the Informal Urban Communities Initiative. This is a cross-cultural project between the University of Washington in Seattle and Kathmandu University. And what they did is they went into communities and built a community-based project
28:04
into the built environment. And what they found is that communities were lacking green space. And what they really just wanted was a place to gather and a place for their children to play. So as you can see, now that it's three years after the earthquake, people are really looking at
28:20
how can we design our communities differently? How can we build on what we've learned to build not only resilience, but just a healthier way of sustainable living? So this was the PlayPod. These are PlayPods and playgrounds that can actually be mobile and moved from community to community. And they used our makerspace to design this
28:41
and develop this and place it into the communities. And then we have Drishti Kathmandu. Drishti Kathmandu is a really amazing environmental justice movement that was seeded at Communiteer. They started meeting every week. It's a group of citizens that said, we're tired of the air pollution in Kathmandu,
29:01
and we know that something can be done about it. So what did they do? They started placing air monitoring devices all over Kathmandu Valley and started making that data available to the public. And just before I came, we had a meeting with the local mayor who has agreed to have a public town hall meeting
29:20
to discuss on the low-hanging policy wins. So what are some things that we can collectively implement to mitigate air pollution in Kathmandu? So this gives you an idea of sort of the diverse projects that can come out of a space like this after a disaster. And that's why our Maker Faire, the Humanitarian Maker Faire in 2018,
29:41
the theme of it is looking at how do we design the future. So it's looking at design thinking and about a very sort of positive community future that we want to collectively build. So these are some of the groups that we've worked with in our space, and we're continuing to grow. Like I said, I think what's been highlighted
30:02
in the previous talks is how critically necessary it is for a lot of these innovative ideas to be locally grounded and locally applied. And I think that's what we're looking for today, are ways to basically integrate and collaborate on some of these ideas. Thank you.
30:27
Thank you very much to all four of you for sharing these insights into your work with us. What strikes me immediately is that you're all working in the same sector, but in very complimentary ways.
30:40
So it seems like the humanitarian aid sector is one that needs to be innovated from very different approaches and perspectives. I'd like to kind of start off with asking each and one of you, but like to start off especially with the two of you, these are highly technical and highly complex topics. And I'd like to know how you first got into doing this.
31:00
I mean, I'm sure it's not an overnight thing that you think I'm gonna come up with a mobile system hospital, or I'm gonna rent a boat and save people out of the sea. What was sort of the starting point for getting into this for you guys? For us, there was not a really clear starting point.
31:20
It was more like when we started our NGO in 2014, we started to work pretty quick in Northern Syria. And Northern Syria in these times didn't get a lot of support, to be honest, not from the big agencies, not from the state or from the UN. So we saw a big need to try to help them
31:44
more than through the project that we did. We did just education for paramedics. And then we said, what's needed here is a mobile hospital because the front line to the IS was moving so fast, and it was such a dynamic situation. So we decided, okay, we try to set up
32:01
such a mobile hospital, came back, took a look at the market, and then we saw that such a hospital would cost us millions and millions of euros. So it was definitely not possible to afford this. But we had an old truck, and said, like, then we just try to build our own mobile hospital. And then it came just step by step.
32:23
We bought a second truck and we got more donations. And once we finished this mobile hospital, we said, this is a pretty good product, more or less. Let's see if we can improve this. And this was, like, the way how the Crisis Response Makerspace was born.
32:40
Just like we did this project, and after that we saw, like, now we have a workshop, and now we can tackle other problems that we see. Would you like to add anything also from the SeaWatch perspective? Yeah, I mean, from the SeaWatch perspective, it's already in the title a little bit. It's Crisis Response. So it's not that we thought about technical solutions in the first place, it was there was a crisis
33:02
and we had to respond to it. And we recognized when we were out there that there is a lot of things we could improve if we would have solutions for this. And then you start to kind of think about it and build up technical solutions.
33:21
So next time, if there is a crisis, you are prepared and you will be able to respond in a better way, maybe. Susan, how about you? Field Ready basically formed by a group of people who are engineers, 3D printers. How did you come to pinpoint, oh, there's a humanitarian crisis
33:40
that we can use these technologies to help in? I'm sure there's a couple of steps in between supplying basically the whole of Haiti during the catastrophe there with umbilical cord clamps, which is an amazing achievement that you had. So I believe the two co-founders met, I think they might have met at Singularity University,
34:01
slightly before my time. And so we had someone who came from the humanitarian emergency relief background for sort of 15, 20 years and had been very interested in the innovation. And then someone who actually was an industrial product designer, but had worked in 3D printing in a store environments, such as actually 3D printing in space.
34:22
So those two guys met, they had a sort of crossover interest and that kind of was the ignition point. And then they started it and then other people came on board. And I think it's sort of the approach, the approach has always remained that's about people, things being made where they're needed
34:40
and by the people who need them. And it has changed a little bit as we've sort of expanded and worked in different places. So myself and my colleague, George here, have been working more on the Syria response, which has got a little bit, which is no longer emergency, emergency response. It's rebuilding, reconstruction and we have slightly backgrounds that reflect that as well.
35:03
So that's taking the technology into a slightly different place as well and sort of building the networks of makers and skills and so on. What I really like about Communitare is this idea that you, in all the midst of chaos that you have during the disaster time,
35:21
but also of course in the time of operation after that you need a physical space for people to come together and exchange, a space for people to meet, sit down and actually strategize about what they're gonna do and a space for the, basically as you explained in your presentation, community to come and work from. But obviously if you come in as a new kind of space, I'm sure you have to take a lot of baby steps
35:41
to get to the point where you are now building that community and reaching out. How did that work for you? That's an excellent question and I have to say that the team that set up Nepal Communitare is the one, and Sam Block is here, so it's him and his team that did a brilliant job of working closely with the community
36:02
to provide relief services and then doing a lot of design thinking with them around if you needed a space, if you wanted a space, what would it look like? What would you need it to have? What would it need to be? And because it was so community based and so community grounded,
36:20
we were actually at a point where we were about to shut our doors because we couldn't pay our rent, we couldn't make it happen and we were like, it was a great idea but maybe it can't work. We went and organized a community meeting of all of our different users and they said, no, you can't shut your doors, you cannot, it won't happen.
36:42
And through that we were able to collectively find solutions to stay there and that is a testament to what was created on day one when it was always based on community needs and we're community responsive, constantly adapting and iterating our programs and services and activities to be based on what they need and what they want.
37:04
One thing I'd definitely like to discuss with all four of you is this idea that you're hacking this humanitarian aid system which desperately needs innovation. Obviously you're not coming into an empty space. This is filled with large organizations that have been around for decades doing their job. So maybe to start off with,
37:21
were you welcomed with open arms? Is it that people say, oh, thank goodness, now there's a finally sort of a rush of fresh air, some new ideas coming in? No, definitely not. Just the opposite. I think in the humanitarian field, the people are pretty,
37:44
I think they are, how to say this, it was not being mean. They really love what they do, so they have to believe in what they do. So it's really a problem if you come and say like, perhaps it's not the best way to do it, we could improve that.
38:01
So the established NGOs, it's really hard to get together with them to form networks. When we started to build this mobile hospital, we were asked like, why don't you go to this organization, do you want to do it? Go to that organization, make a network, let them finance you, let them give you donations. We tried all that. Most of them said like, oh no, we have our solutions. Some of these solutions are 10 or 15 years old.
38:23
Some solutions are coming from other conclusions, like they did not work in the same environment like us. But the exchange, I don't know, I think there is a kind of grassroots movement with a lot of ideas and a lot of innovations, and there was a kind of established NGOs.
38:41
And the bridge between them is small at the moment. I won't say that there was really a closed door, but it's a small bridge. There are people who are open and who try to change the big organizations, but it's a long way, I think. Susan, would you share the same sentiment? You worked together with large organizations.
39:01
You showed UN vans and that example that you shared from Nepal, that we can discuss a little bit longer, because I think that's a really powerful example. Have you had a different experience? I mean, I do think that within humanitarian and development organizations, there are lots of people who want to see change.
39:20
I think there are lots of people who, as personally, are sort of frustrated. And I also, to be honest, think innovation has become a bit of a buzzword as well. So there's a lot of people want to say they're doing innovation. I think the frustration sometimes is getting beyond that, being invited to a lunch
39:41
so you can show off your 3D printer and they can be with, we've got an innovation day, to actually getting in the kind of program somewhere and getting real funding out of it. And I don't think it's always a deliberate thing. I don't think people don't want to, but it's sort of working out where you can fit in and where you can support that.
40:00
I think there's a real challenge in that people say they want to do innovation, but they only want to do innovation once it's completely proved, which can be a little bit of a contradiction in terms. But some of that kind of comes from the political environment these days as well. I mean, I think you also appreciate people have politicians or donors and public people.
40:21
So yeah, it's a challenge. But I think it's kind of working about how to work together for it as well. Like, how do we support them to meet their aims as well? I was going to get to that a bit later, but I think you raised a really important point. You're working with experimental technologies and new ideas.
40:41
And you're coming into a field where people are very vulnerable and very needy. So this idea that, as you just said, things have to be tried and tested somewhere else before, before you use them in that context. How is that, maybe Ruben, how is that something that you sort of value in choosing sort of the approaches or the technologies that you work with? Sometimes it's not that easy to like choose
41:03
for a new technology, it's just you come into a vacuum. And for example, when we responded to the crisis on the Mediterranean Sea, there was a lot of new developments where we didn't know if it works out. But kind of the big organizations were just absent because it was not just a humanitarian crisis,
41:21
but also a political one. So as there was no political will to find a solution for this crisis, there were no fundings by the big UN organizations. So then it was up to the civil societies to somehow step in. And then it was try and error. And it's always difficult because it's about human lives.
41:45
And you might also put human lives at risk by trying out new things. But if there's no response at all to a crisis, it's better to try and error than to do nothing, I think. Yeah, there's a little bit of a, maybe not a juxtaposition,
42:01
but maybe it depends on sort of the situation in the field because very often there's this sort of fear that developing countries are used as a testing ground for new things, right? So this idea that especially this is a data sensitive context, often an issue when it comes to things like identity management, but also in other fields that we have still sort of this idea
42:22
that it's okay to test certain things in developing countries that we wouldn't be using ourselves here, which might be a little bit in juxtaposition to what you just said regarding the adoption of innovative approaches in the humanitarian aid sector. Anyone?
42:41
So this is actually a huge debate. And working in Nepal, I have to say, and being in Nepal, and we've talked a little bit about this already, the energy and the spirit around innovation and entrepreneurship is definitely there. But it's a very young population. It's a population that doesn't necessarily
43:00
have the right skills, to be honest. And what they need are ideas to be seeded. And then they can run to adapt and apply them. So that's why I do think that a lot of these approaches need to be really locally driven. At the end of the day,
43:20
they do have to be locally driven. But if there's a way to plant those seeds in those communities and really empower them to move them forward, so it's not testing, it's applying and implementing. And if that ownership is there, I think it's possible to do it in an inappropriate way. Yeah, yeah.
43:41
I mean, I think it's a really good point as well. And yeah, you have to be careful. But I think you said it's maybe about taking elements which are tried and tested, and using them. I mean, the way I see what we do is sometimes it's allowing us to leapfrog
44:03
the constraints of the infrastructure that isn't there. As you know, we don't have to have a million dollar factory to make things. We need to have sort of a 3D printer and a solar panel. But trying to make sure that the things that are done within that
44:23
can be properly tested and guaranteed. And so we do think, I mean, that's why we're sort of do testing in different parts of the world as well. Yes, and I know that's something that FieldReady thinks about a lot because we've had debates in the past on how can you make yourself accountable?
44:41
Like if you're, again, this example of Haiti, if you're supplying a whole country with something like umbilical cord clasps, 3D printed products, how can you make yourself as an organization liable in a positive sense with this new kind of technology where you haven't got something embedded in the thing, in the device saying this is coming from us?
45:00
Yes. I think that's a beautiful answer that you gave, Bahan. I think you showed that during your two presentations very well, how you were working very locally embedded. That might be a little bit of a different situation for you as you're coming from this very emergency direct response context. How is that something you try to address? We try it actually the same way. So although we're working in an emergency field,
45:24
we always try to work together with local structures because once we arrive, we don't know anything about the local community, we don't know about the local needs and stuff like that and even the first line emergency response that we did in Mosul wouldn't have been possible without the support of local communities.
45:40
So we are in a continuous discussion with these people, like what is your need that we have to solve? Because I think Humanitarian Aid has to have the aim to make itself... Redundant. Yeah, redundant. So it's basically the same.
46:01
It is a little bit harder because we have to work mostly faster and with more pressure, but we still try the same way. But I also think a low budget is sometimes helpful to reach this goal to work closely together with the locals because if you have a lot of money, you can just solve it by sending a lot of goods
46:22
into a country and solve problems by just adding equipment. And if you don't have this budget, you have to sort out things differently and then you have to get in contact with the locals and I think that's good sometimes. We only have 10 minutes left
46:41
and I definitely want to open this up for questions from you guys as well. So if you have one, please raise your hand and then lovely Kati is gonna come by with a microphone and find you. And have you seen somebody? Otherwise, I'm gonna... Oh, right in the back. Okay, we'll get your question and then I might have another one for you.
47:06
Thank you very much. Really impressive work that you are doing and also trying to bring in local community. What I'm wondering, we've seen attacks on humanitarian workers also from UN Ministre Sans Frontières.
47:21
So how does that work for you if you're working with local communities? They're probably having a different status. It's maybe more difficult for them, especially in conflict considerations. So how can that play out? Because it's almost, it seems to me, a tension on the one hand between the established, probably sometimes more protected, also in an international law, humanitarian worker
47:42
and bringing the locals in, which obviously is so important, but I'm just thinking what's really the protection mechanism that also can be in place for them. Thank you. Are you addressing it to somebody specific on the panel or the whole panel? Whoever feels like responding.
48:01
Sorry? Whoever feels like responding. Who'd like to take it? Did you all hear it well? It is acoustically quite difficult, right? So do you mind coming up here a little bit because it's kind of hard to hear you from all the way back here on stage and the train was passing as well. Can you summarize in just one sentence
48:20
and be so kind and join us a little bit in front. I'll try, sorry. So my question was how can you protect the local population when you're getting it in kind of as, yeah, humanitarian workers as well? Because there've been attacks on say, Medecins Frontières and how can you actually bring in protection mechanisms as you're working with the local community? Right, I got it now.
48:40
Did you get it now? How do you help yourselves be protected on the field? There's been attacks against organizations like Medecins Frontières, other organizations. How do you sort of protect yourself and your work as well? Thank you very much. I would say again, a good contact to the local community is the most crucial point about protecting yourself
49:00
and about protecting the people you are working with because you need to understand the environment you're working in. And like whatever threat, normally the local community knows best and that's the best way to establish a good relationship with the local community.
49:21
Yeah, I think I agree. I mean, really, I think for us, Asama is the one that's in a really dangerous place and it's completely up to him how public he wants to be about what he's doing. And we follow his lead and we just try and talk to him about it and make sure he's also sort of thinking through his risk.
49:42
There's one thing I would mention that we sort of found a little bit of an accidental side effect of having these sort of small maker spaces. Right now, where Asama is in Idlib, any large building is being bombed. So any factory, any hospital and so on. So the fact that he is in quite a small workshop
50:01
and potentially if we get to having a distributed thing of workshops, that's another way they're sort of protected and resilient that they're not visible from the air. We're gonna do it like this now. If you have a question, please come and stand in the middle here and then Kati will see you. Okay, great. Then you and then Anna next. Niels. On a short side note, about the protection thing.
50:24
I work from Innocence Sans Frontieres and we have a lot of procedures in place and you don't need them if you're that small. You are better inside the community. So I think that's what's helping you a lot. I know a lot of people who have this, who are in small teams within the people,
50:41
with the people who are in place, like the communities and they protect you better than the protocols by the big organizations. So I would feel more safe with carders in Mosul than I would feel actually with MSF often. So just to, on this. My question was, I very much like each of your,
51:02
well, like your maker ideas how to change the humanitarian aid sector. But when you have something where you really go on, I mean, that's maybe mainly for carders and field ready. How do you want to deploy it in a large scale? Because to be honest, you're all very small
51:22
compared to the big NGOs. So what you gonna do? Are you cooperating with them? You said they don't like innovation, which I agree on a little bit. So how is your plan for the future? Because if you can't make it big, it's helping on a very small scale only.
51:40
Thank you. I think the solution again is the local communities. So our approach is not to develop and then produce products, but we develop products always as an open source. So always with the needs of the local communities and what can they build after that themselves.
52:00
So we can't rely on donations and fundings and stuff like that. So we can only rely on the connection to bring this idea as a kind of blueprint to the local communities and to persuade them that this is a good solution. What a wonderful answer. Anybody else?
52:21
Yeah, I personally, I'm a bit field ready. I would like to see a network of makers and I'd like to see Asama supporting a network of makers from across Northern Syria being supported by people in Southern Turkey and now working in Northern Iraq
52:41
who are able to work together to produce things and particularly kind of support. I could probably go on for a while actually. I'll try not to. Yeah, and it's a matter of, I don't know, it's just sort of trying to work out how to work with other people to really make that happen.
53:01
But I don't think it's about becoming as big as big as possible. I think it is about sticking to what we know and what we believe. But it's really exciting because Anna's gonna speak next who we like. Which is also another way that we're kind of interested in scaling.
53:21
Thanks. My question is specifically to Baha but also to anyone else who would like to answer it. I was just wondering if you could say a few words about the role of crisis response maker spaces in helping communities to become more resilient to potential future crises and whether there's also an impact there as well as in responding to something that's already happened.
53:42
Yeah, so one of the aims of a space like ours, a communitaire, is to help communities become more resilient. I think one of the things that we saw after the earthquake response is that we know that the social capital is there. So the networks are there.
54:01
And I think if we can sort of introduce some of these innovative ways to respond more timely and more efficiently and get more services to more people, that would be a really great success. One thing though, what we're seeing now, at least in our maker space, is people are really focused
54:21
on reconstruction and rebuilding. So a lot of the examples you noticed were all about, okay, now it's three years, we're really about rebuilding our future. However, Nepal is susceptible to regular disasters. So there's flooding and landslides and there's another earthquake that's imminent. And so there is a need, I think,
54:42
for the maker community, the local maker community, to understand that there is a need to proactively be prepared for another disaster and not be so dependent on the government response or the larger sort of humanitarian agencies there.
55:00
It's not something that's happening right now, but again, I'm curious and I do think that if those resources were introduced and available, I think communities definitely would want that. Right now what's happening though is definitely a lot of community mapping. So we do know that communities are really involved
55:22
in digitizing, creating digital maps to understand how they can move goods in and out and people in and out quite immediately. So that's something that's definitely happening. I'd like to ask two quick questions. One thing I'd like to know, especially from you guys, but anybody else who wants to answer as well,
55:41
since you've not been welcomed with open arms exactly, how much of your time do you spend advocating and lobbying these larger organizations to understand what you're doing or do you not? Do you just get on with what you're doing and not spend time on that diplomatic answer?
56:05
I think the question is what do you count as advocacy? I mean, where does it start? I mean, obviously we try to get into the media with new ideas and we try to speak about what we are doing and that's also part of advocacy.
56:21
It's not that we are like most of the time spending at a table with the big funders in the suits, but it's also part of it to try to spread the word about what we are doing and try to kind of push this to be picked up.
56:41
I think for us as a pretty small organization, it was just like a really tiring process. We try to get fundings from different big organizations, from big agencies and stuff like that. So we put a lot of effort and advocacy or things in our ideas.
57:02
I think at the beginning it was 50%, 60%. We try to find other associations, foundations and stuff like that, but it was always like, yes, you're new, you're small, you don't know what you're doing. Also a lot of people that are working with Carls are for more than 15 years in humanitarian aid.
57:20
So I think over the time we spent less effort on this, what is definitely not good, but just a sign of the child. Then let me ask as a closing question that I'd like each one of you to answer, but be very quick if you can, just like that one thing that comes to mind. You're all doing amazing work. How can we all support it?
57:41
What can we do to help you guys? Network, network, network, network. It is like bringing our advocacy helpers to advocate our cars because we are just perhaps too tired for that. Help us with the problems we have because we always have problems
58:00
when we are in the maker space. And there's always missing parts of the solutions and maybe you have them, so come to the maker space. I would say bring your ideas because there's a wonderful space and a place to cultivate them. I agree with everything that they said and also please give us more money.
58:23
Please give them more money. I would like to say thank you to all four of you here on the panel. I'd like to also say thank you to the audience. It's an absolute pleasure as a moderator to not just share the podium with experts,
58:40
but to have so many experts in the audience asking so many wonderful questions. And I'd also like to point out that you can hang out and meet us and learn more about all these people's amazing work at the maker space that we have in the back of the networking hall. And I'd also like to say thank you for being part of Republica and the Global Innovation Gathering.
59:00
It's an absolute honor to be working with you.