What was your role in the data sector before you embraced the humanitarian sector? Before making my way to the humanitarian sector, I worked in the US as an academic researcher and in the private tech sector. As a researcher, I studied how student retention could be optimized based on…

Creating a Humanitarian Data Ecosystem Today, there is more data produced in a year than the rest of human history combined. The humanitarian sector, which once struggled with data scarcity, is now overwhelmed with the amount of data collected for a single project. A massive amount of primary and secondary…

Mitigating data collection challenges in humanitarian contexts during COVID-19 pandemic through United Nations (UN) partnerships and other actors — The WHO Director General has characterized the coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic since March 2020, creating harm to peoples and economies in all countries. Access to quality structured information in humanitarian contexts will be elusive for the foreseeable future. Most humanitarian responses will be made on the basis of…

by Doug Smith Disney’s Board recently announced the return of Bob Iger after kicking CEO Bob Chapek to the curb because of his two years of poor performance at the Mouse House. The Board needed to make more than an adjustment, so they chose to make a statement. …

The Board of Directors of Data Friendly Space (DFS) has announced that Karin Maasel will lead the organization in its next phase of growth as Executive Director. “When looking for our next Executive Director, the Board wanted a creative mix of technical understanding and field experience. Karin Maasel is a…

Six years ago, on April 25th 2015, at 11.56 am local time, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 Mw hit Nepal. The news spread like a ripple around the world. The shocked humanitarian community lept into action without losing a minute. Nearly 9,000 people were killed, many thousands more were injured…

Not too long ago, humanitarian organizations working in crisis zones could only access telephone or fax, limiting their ability to communicate and supply data to their headquarters. Digital Humanitarian Space In recent years, the public and private sectors have been embracing a complete digital transformation. Humanitarian organizations have invested heavily…