Geek, trainer, technophile… Bobby Soriano is all that and more. From talks in Africa on human-rights-based software, to demos related to blogging, links in cyberspace point to the diverse interests of this 40-year-old Filipino übergeek.
Soriano is part of the IPD-Philippines, the Institute for Popular Democracy, an organisation whose goal is "research for change, education for empowerment, analysis for action, democracy as advocacy". IPD-Philippines is one of the APC’s youngest members and Soriano’s current concerns with shaping-up an open source disaster management software reflect only a tiny but emblematic part of what IPD does. Excerpts from an interview with APCNews.
APCNews: To begin, tell us about some of your current work with Sahana, the free and open source software disaster management system…
Soriano: Sahana is a project from Sri Lanka done by Lanka Software Foundation. They created it two weeks after the (Indian Ocean killer 2004) tsunami. Then it grew. It is now available via (the collaborative software development management system) Sourceforge.net, and has also been the Free Software Foundation award-recipient for the best humanitarian software.
APCNews: So what are you guys planning to do with Sahana? What does it currently achieve?
Soriano: The idea is that it’s a disaster management software; so you can only use it during an actual disaster. Its modules are currently designed to be that way. Take a look at sahana.lk. But, in actual life, it would help to have a pre, during and post coverage for any disaster.
The limitation with Sahana is that it is useful only during the actual disaster because it has been developed in that way and to meet those needs.
APCNews: Could you explain how it works?
Soriano: Currently, Sahana has different modules. It has a volunteer-management module where trough the web, people can sign on and input their name and areas of expertise.
There is also a missing person’s registry. If you have a relative missing, you can upload descriptive information with full details, and also add a picture. People can pick up on your entry and contribute by identifying a missing person.
There’s also a relief inventory management. People can log in and declare what they would like to help with. The camp management tool can be used to take care of relief camps that have been set up. It helps sharing information at the press of a few keys, on how many families there are and what requirements need to be fulfilled.
It would also help you know whether you can manage it from the inventory listing. Very often, during times of disaster, it happens that most relief goes to one camp, because the others have not been registered. It also has a geographic information system (GIS) module, so you can put in the actual locations of different camps.
APCNews: In what directions could Sahana go?
Soriano: The Sahana version only has Google Maps application programming interface (API). But in the newer version, you can put in your own maps or get other versions for the maps.
Maybe one could pull out some of the modules. These could be placed in some other sites. For instance, a volunteer management module could be built in your own site, and kept running 24×7. Those wanting to volunteer in the case of a disaster could register on your site. When the disaster happens, such sites could share information with each other, as well as the listings.
Instead of waiting for an actual disaster and then putting in information for volunteers, you can have a campaign call for people who want to do volunteer work. If a disaster happens, getting the listing of potential volunteers is just an XML feed. You can identify one Sahana site close to you and simply dump that entire effort under one common site.
It would be faster to build up the database in times of need.
APCNews: What are the possible ideas of linking up Sahana’s disaster management strengths with those of a content management system (CMS) such as Joomla or Drupal (tool to build easy and ready websites)?
Soriano: What we need to do is to just pull in the actual code from Sahana to the CMS -not changing the code of Sahana. It means integrating a Sahana module in any CMS – say, for instance, volunteer management, relief inventory – into one’s own site. It is possible.
The entire project and its impact would then grow much bigger; and you would not even have to set up own Sahana site to make the solution work.
We have talks with the IOSN (UNDP-backed International Open Source Network). IOSN is looking at the possibility of setting up a Sahana central, a pointer to different Sahana sites. You could then have a central server, which points you to Sahana websites in different areas, to be deployed speedily in times of disaster.
