The new paradigm, called eHealth, is being adapted widely, from primary to tertiary health care in many countries. However, looking at the current literature on the subject, the reviews have been mixed. For every successful and sustainable initiative that has been adopted several have fallen on the wayside. This lecture will look into the experiences of eHealth in Asia. Especially, using more appropriate and relevant technologies, such as mobile technologies in telehealth and health informatics.

Dr. Angelo Ramos, Project Mentor of the PANACeA e-health project under IDRC, will deliver the lecture; Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, General Secretary of the Lanka Jatika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya, Sri Lanka, Dr. Gordon Gow, Associate Professor in Communication and Technology at the University of Alberta, Canada, and Dr. Jayantha Weerasinghe, affiliated with the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, will serve as discussants.

More details of the event can be found here.

The Health Workers collecting data in Sri Lanka are trained youth, in primary healthcare, belonging to the Sarvodaya Shanthi Sena Movement. Before the project they had not known each other. Now they have formed a social network to SMS each other of any health related issues or other. The same was not found with the Village Health Nurses and Publich Health Clinic staff in India. However, the Deputy Director of Health Services office, in Sivagangai, use www.way2sms.com, a SMS service offered (limited to 40 free SMS per day) in India, to schedule their monthly, weekly, or emergency meetings.

The project will be introducing a Common Alerting Protocol based SMS/Email/Web alert publishing module that is part of the Sahana Free and Open Source Software. In general both public health departments in India and Sri Lanka are in favor of an alerting/messaging system to communicate downstream with health workers at all layers.

From 15 – 23 June, Gordon Gow and I visit several, real-time biosurveillance program, pilot project sites in Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka and Sivaganaga District, State of Tamil Nadu, India. To learn more on the observations made, click to see the full report.

In addition reports provided by Sarvodaya and RTBI

1) Sarvodaya meetings report, Sri Lanka

2) RTBI meetings report, India

Dr. Gow who was previously at the LSE is now an Associate Professor at University of Alberta.

The presentation began by looking at situations where systems/programmes are developed but only to fall to disuse. The focus will be on the last-mile. The presentation looks at the long term viability of a system. Financial resources are eimportant. The need to tap everyday communicative acts was also highlighted. The need to move beyond a narrow scope of early warning. As investment in last mile systems fall, the vulnerability increases. The cycle continues. The need for more moderate investment was stressed.

If the vulnearbilities of the local communities are reduced then their ability to eliminate or mitigate the disaster increases. This over time leads to risk reduction.

What role does community media play in hazard warning?

The stages of disaster management cycle were introduced as mitigate, prepare, response and recover.

Technologies with local contributions and variety of technologies were discussed. A differentiation was made with the ‘cult media’ such as twitter. Peer to peer was recongised as the best in terms of emergency communication. A lot of this is going on already, in examples such as California wildfires. The idea of crisis informatics was also introduced. The idea of effective use was stressed. The importance of local knowledge and participation for effective use.The UN has similar ideas about warning to risk reduction.

Three related ideas was introduced. Early warning linked to disaster risk reduction and for it to be sustainable the effective use of ICTs should be done.

The need for knowledge sharing was stressed leading from talking amongst community members about risk reduction.

3 stories were highlighted.

story 1 was highlighted the creation community based hazard warning system. Successful but long term sustanance is in doubt. An example of community media bridging communities and the global media.

Story 2 on bridging the generational gap. In Andaman and Nicobar island, it was stories passed down for generations as folklore that saved lives. But there are risks due to false positives. However, it is an example of informal early warning over time. An inter-generational warning system.

Story 3 is on bridging both space and time. An individual who heard about the news 1000s miles away, called village elders and an emergency evacuation plan was put in place.

The road to disaster resilience needs both time and space and hence relationships. The importance of social capital in sustainability hazard warning systems.

The importance of the sharing economy was highlighted. 3 insights were identified as being necessary for the sharing economy  to work.

How does this work? The need for tools for sharing is necessary, phone calls, texting, pictures. Looking at the Haz Info project, mobiles were the most popular. Specialised technology maybe abandoned. Use of everyday technology will lead to better sustainability. These tools need to be given to the community.

The need to respect diversity was highlighted. Allow community members to spend little or more time as they want. A selfish motivation can lead to collective value eg: tagging pictures on flickr, but the tag is now available for everyone.

3rd Insight was identified as the need to build open systems. Allowing people to create and share as they wish.

Standards for information sharing is necessary for this, as in open application interfaces and non propriety licensing for the building of open systems.

The success stories from 2004 tsunami highlights the need for relationships across space and time. Importance of Social capital.

Local risk mapping was also introduced. A pilot in Vietnam found that ownership of the system to the community leads to long term sustainability.

The presentation concluded with idea that a successful strategy needs to go beyond early warning. Time and Space in terms of relationships is key. The findings of the 2004 Tsunami need to be shared.
Ms. Helani Galpaya asked if there is example on the disaster world that related to this concept. Dr. Gow replied that he idea was to look at the overarching aspects.

Prof. Rohan Samarajiva asked if flickr the best example of this concept or is it open source. The reply was Open source.

Dr. Gow in response to a question said that the emphasis in more on sharing economy as opposed to social media. The idea behind the concept is to understand what makes people share knowledge and build relationships that go beyond technology.

RS: The central argument of the concept is around sharing Economy.

Comments by RS: In Sri Lanka, most activity in open source is through payment. The platform maybe open source but people do not contribute willingly. In order for the sharing economy to work, other aspects such as infrastructure and other economic aspects may need to be in place. The sharing economy is more visible in more economically developed countries.

Community sharing will be more relevant some hazards as opposed to others.

Response from GG: Where hazards are likely to often, the systems are likely to work better. If government supply of hazard information is scarce, then community based solution is what will work. Eg: Call from a mobile. The more the community is used to sharing information about slow onset disasters, the better the community is prepared to deal with the situation.

Comments by RS: Sarvodaya may have data on this. Communities will do it if there is stimulus from outside. Salaried staff will be needed to provide the stimulus.

GG: Agree with the idea that stimulus is needed for community sharing. The need for the community to see the value of disaster preparedness is important. In a system where the hazard knowledge is not provided by the government, where does one go?

RS: In Sri Lanka we have examples of community based activity however, we seems to have difficulty in channelling it to productive purposes.

TW: How do we convince people (first responders) using two-way radio to use the internet? Demonstrating the value of the internet. With new digital generation this might not be an issue in the future.

NW: What can replace ‘internet sharing economy’?

RS: Issue between private and public goods.

HG: Examples of sharing traffic information on radio.

RS: The examples are there, village knowledge sharing will work. But the sharing economy in terms of the economy may not work in Sri Lanka.

RS: The catalyst in the form of salaried employees will be needed to tell the community to work on its contingency plans.

GG: The idea is to ensure that this method (sharing economy) to benefit all areas rather than just hazards.

RS: It is possible that this maybe happening in some of the villages as seen during the haz info projects.

DS: The knowledge sharing is already happening among the village. Why not piggy back on that?

GG: Yes if possible.

RS: So how do we find these people who already have system to share knowledge between villages?

DS: Systems already in the health sector at local government level.

RS: Will the system be sustainable?

DS: Recongnition acts as motivationas there is personal gain. Identity brings about value. Can that replace money value?

RS: However in order for the system to work there would be a need for money at some level.

Exactly seven years from yesterday (still today to some), early in the morning on September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers took control of four commercial airliners en route to San Francisco and Los Angeles from Boston, Newark, and Washington, D.C. The hijackers flew two of the airliners, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center. Another group of hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. A fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, whose ultimate target was either the United States Capitol or White House, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The rest, as we say, is history.

What 9/11 was to the West, ‘the’ tsunami was to the South. Caught unaware, more than 225,000 lives in eleven countries were lost on that fateful Boxing Day of 2004 by a tsunami caused as a result of an earthquake with that reached 9.1 in the Richter scale, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were the hardest hit.

The two were different. The tsunami was a natural disaster and 9/11 was man-made. 9/11 events took 3,000 lives – and tsunami nearly 75 times of that. The tsunami did not create a recession as in the aftermath of 9/11 though the misery that it caused to millions of families and individuals in Asia was immeasurable.

They were similar. Both were universal tragedies that had an impact far beyond national boundaries. Both were turning points of modern human history. Both made the entire world stand still with utter shock and grief.

Then the inevitable questions: Can we let these repeat? Can Homo sapiens think of their common future in the blue planet if they are not ready to face the increasing threat from disasters – be they natural or man-made? What can WE do? What can I do?

What LIRNEasia did can be best presented in the words of International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in one of their electronic newsletters entitled ‘Research that matters’:

IDRC’s lead research partner was LIRNEasia, a non-profit organization that aims to improve the lives of Asia’s people by using information and communication technologies (ICTs). LIRNEasia has had considerable experience on the use of ICTs in disaster situations. The project also drew upon the extensive networking resources of Sarvodaya, a large village-based self-help movement in Sri Lanka, and upon the disaster communication expertise of Buddhi Weerasinghe of TVE Asia Pacific, Peter Anderson of Simon Fraser University, and Gordon Gow of the University of Alberta, among other partners.

The pilot study had two broad objectives. First, it sought to evaluate the suitability of various configurations of five technical systems, each with unique capabilities, for reaching Sri Lankan local leaders in an emergency: (a) a stand-alone “remote alarm device” incorporating a radio, siren, and flashing lights; (b) versatile Java-enabled mobile phones set up to receive text alerts in English, Sinhala, and Tamil; (c) “addressable” satellite radio sets capable of remote activation and of issuing targeted messages to vulnerable areas; (d) a warning system based on Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite technology that delivers pop-up screen alerts to personal computers; and (e) conventional fixed wireless telephones linked to the public network.

These options were tested for reliability under varying conditions, reaction time, bidirectionality (so that alerts can be confirmed and false warnings minimized), and degree of integration into daily life.

This last-mile system aims to complement and “amplify” the Sri Lankan government’s national alerting function, rather than to issue official public warnings. Project leaders hope that if they can demonstrate an efficient lastmile mechanism, the government will adopt it.

This goal may be advanced by pressure from Sri Lanka’s coastal villagers themselves. The project’s training exercises heightened their awareness of the importance of disaster preparedness, and many communities have demanded that such programs be continued and expanded. Many of the Sarvodaya villages have started emergency response committees to strengthen local disaster resilience.

Meanwhile, the technology and the training have been tested in an actual emergency situation. In September 2007 an earthquake triggered a government order for coastal areas to evacuate ahead of a possible tsunami. Most villages did so, but at least one community — thanks to links with the Colombo hub by satellite radio and Java-enabled phones — decided instead to monitor the situation. The emergency response coordinators observed the ocean before mobilizing the people to flee. In the end, the tsunami did not happen. The government order had been an overreaction, and so the system served to avoid a costly and needless evacuation.

This multi-faceted research endeavour has drawn attention to the many technical and people-centred problems that must be confronted if such hazard alert systems are to work.

(Full document can be downloaded from here or available at the IDRC site here.)

We know that research per se will not prevent the recurrence of 9/11 or a tsunami disaster. Still, we believe will help by allowing us to be more prepared. We are happy that we completed this research. And we are happy that our efforts have been recognized.

One of Gordon Gow’s key contributions to the HazInfo project was the Common Alerting Protocol Profile for Sri Lanka, which was a hard case as far as integrating the multi-language scenario as it is the case in Sri Lanka. The CAP Profile for Sri Lanka was designed for disseminations in Sinhala, Tamil, and English languages. Such a complex profile of CAP was field tested in Sri Lanka’s HazInfo project. This was the first time a Multilanguage profile was field tested in the World. The same problem appears in the European Union, for example, where they have a plan to use CAP for internetworking between emergency communicators of the member states in their “command control and coordination system”.

Gordon Gow is an Assistant Professor, Graduate Program in Communications and Technology (MACT), Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta, Canada Currently, his research interests include development of WLL voice and data systems, especially with respect to regulatory concerns such as spectrum policy and management, telecom reform, technical standardization, public safety, and location based services.

Report on WRECOM Conference by G. Gow

Power Point Presentation used by G. Gow in his talk at WRECOM

Paper on Wireless ICTs for Community-based Hazard Warnings in Sri Lanka

WorldSpace, a lead technology partner in the HazInfo research project, field tested 16 Addressable Radios for Emergency Alerts (AREAs) in the Sarvodaya Communities and 34 AREAs in the Sarvodaya District Centers. Although the AREA solutions lacked bi-directional communication and seemed the least effective, the AREA solution proved to be the most reliable that worked with utmost certainty and greatest efficiency even when GSM and CDMA cells were deactivated for over 2 months, at the beginning of this year, during military operations in the conflict prone North-East regions of Sri Lanka. The HazInfo research introduced a concept called “complementary redundancy”, where coupling the AREA addressable/broadcast technology with a GSM mobile phone or CDMA nomadic phone improves the overall performance (reliability and effectiveness) of the HazInfo system. The HazInfo system was used in a “live” scenario during the Bengkulu earthquake on September 12th.

The HazInfo project realized that early warnings via Information Communication Technology (ICT) must be a point-to-multi-point application and is best accommodate by Wireless ICTs. The HazInfo pilot included outfitting and field-testing an initial 32 villages with various combinations of wireless communication equipment, which could provide features such as: early warning wake-up, addressability and provision of information in three languages (English, Sinhalese and Tamil).

In December 2005, LIRNEasia, an ICT policy and reform research organization, initiated a research project to evaluate the “last-of-the-mile” communication component of an all-hazards warning system for Sri Lanka. The project entitled, “Evaluating Last-Mile Hazard Information Dissemination”, or the “HazInfo Project”, was funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada. Its research design was based on recommendations of a “participatory concept paper” for a national early warning system (NEWS:SL) completed in the months following the 2004 tsunami.

The socioeconomic see the key problem is not software but accurate and timely entry of data by Medical Practitioners. Hence the project will extend the user interfacing to the last mile using information communication technology (ICT) networks that already span the island of Sri Lanka. They would be the GSM and CDMA Wireless Local Loop (WLL) markets that are far beyond the fixed phone market, it is intuitive to introduce WLL applications opposed to traditional personal computer applications in order to increase the early detection and warning of diseases outbreaks in Sri Lanka.

The proposed Biosurveillance project is an extension of the Last-Mile HazInfo project. The intent of this colloquium is to validate the research and objectives of the Biosurveillance project proposal.

The presentation Nuwan is making can be downloaded HERE

Skype participants: Dr Artur Dubrawski (AutonLabs), Dr Gordon Gow (University of Alberta) and Shanmugarajah

Nuwan: 80% of the Haz-Info project completed.
The research question is: Can Biosurveillance Algorithms coupled with Wireless Local Loop Network Applications increase the early detection and warning of Communicable diseases in Sri Lanka?

Biosurveillance as defined by the Ministry of Health. WLL includes GSM and CDMA Wireless Local Loop (WLL).

To be more specific, we need to look at reliability of WLL ICTs in communicating health information, reliability of Biosurveillance Algorithms, the contribution of organizational level, gender specific responses and the degree of integration of ICTs.

DG: Is this proposal geared towards IDRC and if it is going to be for the Gates foundation?

Nuwan: That is undecided so far.

The surveillance and alerting system was described, step by step as seen in Slide 7 of the presentation.

DrDubrawski: Need for feedback from MoH at 9.

RS: It wont make sense to get feedback after 9. Step 7 would be the feedback point.

Nuwan: Message verficiation and feedback takes place at 7 anyways.

Slide 9: The data algorithms to be used will be What’s Strange About Recent Events (WSARE 3.0), SpatialScan and TIPMON.

For WLL data exchange, we will be making use of GSM mobile phones and CDMA fixed phones.

Examples of patterns that can be detected using this system: diarrhea cases among children, respiratory syndrome cases among females, Botulinic syndrome cases and number of wrist injuries in a Base Hospital, etc.

Checking with archived records (last year’s record) and recent records (yesterday’s patient records) with current records (today’s information) is a costly affair.

The WSARE software obtains recent and baseline datasets, searches for rules, determines the significance level of best scoring rule, and reports all rules that are highly significant.

The SpatialScan statistics looks for over densities – the regions where counts are significantly higher than expected, given the underlying population.

Dr Dubrawski: The SpatialScan system collects data from pharamcists on drug purchases on a daily basis. This can be indicative of any impending outbreaks of disease.

The NoisyCopy model was built for the USDA for screening possible food complaints. Basically, the consumers submit complaints through phone interface and the system scans the complaints for similarities. If there are similarities, this may indicate that the product problem has generated by the same underlying process.

Nuwan explained the research matrix as described in slide 23.

Slide 24 – Project Task Matrix
EPID, Sarvodaya, Micro-image, AutonLab, Vanguard, and LIRNEasia will be partners in this project. Tasks have been allocated for each partner.

Slide 25 – Next steps
Proposal to be completed by November 2006.

We hope to seek $200,000 from the Gates Foundation or IDRC.

Target kick-off date March 2007.

Biological Psychology defines “Awareness” as a human or animal perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event; awareness does not necessarily imply understanding.

By selecting the best schema the human brain can be stimulated to get to an optimal solution- to quickly adopt a response plan -thereby, minimizing the risk of being in a unstable situation for a long period. Instead awareness will create cognitive representations. Research shows that the Cognitively represented schema tend to rise to the top of the stack of schema when the particular schema is utilized more often; i.e. repetition of drills. Therefore, both Peraliya and Thalpitiya should not be demoralized but should take the lessons learned to reform the community plans and continue to conduct the drills, at least, once a year.

Considering the existing knowledge on the dynamics of the human heart, it is safe to say that stabilizing a heart is much harder than preventing the heart from getting in to an unstable situation.

Having self controlling schema in the human controller the brain can reduce instability opposed to a human brain that does not have any schema.

We have seen the cases where inadequate training and improper prior notification has resulted in unstable behavior; i.e. create a havoc situation. The importance of training is already evident from the Thalpitiya and Peraliya cases; in comparison to the Thailand exercises, which claim to be smooth and error free — “The drill is successful since everybody knew what to do and played their role very well,” said Suranand. Thai government planned to conduct two evacuation drills each year; People’s Daily Online, December 17 2005.

As a result the Last Mile Hazard Information Project has decided to provide “self-learning” material to the villages that will not get any Shanthi Sena conducted formal HazInfo Training. The belief is that the Organized Sarvodaya villages will be able to learn and make their own controlled response plans.

A recommendation is that the drill evaluators should monitor the heart rates of at least a selected set of the community members shortly before, during, and shortly after the drills. By monitoring the heart rates of the selected individuals during the drills one can identify how long it will take for the individuals to stabilize their heart rates. The intuition is that initially the heart rate would increase as a result of shock and then come back to normal. Once the individuals start activating their response plans such as running to higher grounds, then the heart rate would stabilized at a higher equilibrium position as a result of the controlled action: running until the individual comes to rest at a safe zone. At which point the heart rate should return to it’s normal rate.

The Disaster Pressure and Release Model (Blaikie et al), presented at the Public Lecture in Colombo by Gordon Gow — “responsive innovation for disaster mitigation”, describes how Disasters occur in between unsafe conditions and hazards. When conducting drills in Mitigation such as evacuation drills it is important to reduce the risks by making the drills “safe”; i.e. do not make unsafe conditions; apply proper awareness programming prior to the drills;

“Among both developed and developing nations,the weakest elements concern warning dissemination and preparedness to act. … Root causes appear to be inadequate political commitment, weak coordination among various actors, and lack of public awareness and public participation in the development and operation of early warning systems.”

-UN Global Survey of Early Warning Systems, March 2006 (iv)

An event is said to be in control when the system shows signs of rapidly reaching its equilibrium state; well regulated systems can achieve the desired goals fast. During the start of the drill, if everyone gets chaotic then they must also react in a smooth controlled way. Getting the brain to react smoothly is only possible through proper training. Therefore the drills must be able to train the people precisely with a minimal set of repetitions to react to all hazards.

Erecting sirens and simply turning them on to see how a bunch of post primates react is possibly a humanly unethical and is too shocking for the system. The conventional way is to understand the environment and stimulate the environment to adapt through a learning process.

Disaster Mitigation – “Structural and non-structural measures undertaken to limit the adverse impact of natural hazards, environmental degradation and technological hazards.”

-UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR)

The concept can be analyzed through game theory as described in the paper – Learning to Respond: Using Heuristics in Dynamic Games by Michael Shor. If we say a drill is a game which is a sequential game where a siren is set off first and the people who hear the siren have to react to the noise of the siren. Empirical research on adaptive behavior demonstrates that people are often remarkably responsive to changes in their environment (Payne, Bettman, and Johnson, 1993; Schunn and Reder, 1998). Adaptive behavior comes from proper training. This note discusses that given the low-information design of an experiment and the nature of the investigation. In the cases of Thalpitiya and Peraliya where subjects were not privy to the underlying structure of the drill nor have any information about the payoff implies that forward-looking learning models may not be applicable, and learning should occur through some adaptive, or backward-looking mechanism.

A cornerstone of the psychological learning literature holds that if people are motivated by past events, then they should react positively to good outcomes and negatively to poor ones. Hence, the models considered here all incorporate Thorndike’s classic law of effect (Thorndike, 1898, Broadbent, 1961).

The responsive learning in a community’s memory is encoded solely in their responsive strategies. If, a community’s reaction to a hazard, based on a certain strategy, gives a certain payoff then the community should be able to update their strategies to achieve greater pay-offs. The strategies are similar to the cognitive frameworks.

Learning models show how pay-offs must exceed the aspiration levels of the community. Let us say the aspiration level of the community is to be able to sleep easy at night. Therefore the early warning system and response plans must be operational at a level that fits the aspirations of the community. Otherwise the entire game of disaster mitigation will fall short.

Gordon Gow’s Presentation — Gow public lecture.ppt

We will start the event by lighting the traditional oil lamp. Next is a 2 minute meditation.

Nuwan Waidyanatha –

Welcome all partners including, Dr. Gordon Gow (University of Alberta), Dr. Dileeka Dias (Director Dialog Communication Research Lab), Prof Rohan Samarajiva (Director LIRNEasia), Mr. Nanadana Jayasinghe (Director Sarvodaya Disaster Management center), most importantly the Sarvodaya Participants (ICT Guardians).

Rohan Samarajiva –

We started the lat Mile HazInfo Program on January 23, 2006. The objective of my talk is to introduce you to the framework used in this project. The attendees are people who have faced the great tragedy that happened in December 26, 2004. Since then, 20 months later, we still have no solution in our nation.

3 Tsunamis have occurred in the Indian Ocean within the last 20 months. The last tsunami killed over 500 in Indonesia.

We can excuse ourselves for not having a warning system for the 2004 tsunami. But what about the next one? We cannot give excuses any further.

Before we go in to the details I will present the evidence and how is our preparedness– (Associated Press)

- local time 14:19 a Earthquake happens in the Indian Ocean,- PTWC issues a warning 17 minutes later- 39 minutes later first wave hits the coast

- message reads … affective coutries Indonesia and Australia

According to the Associated Press, Indonesia promises to roll out warning system in 2009. Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie told Associated press “ we are preparing one, but is not finished”. “After earthquake occurred people ran up hill”, V. President of Indonesia

Warning system links

Link 1 – Issue message to from the detection centers

Link 2 – Warn the Government Officials of threats

Link 3 – Warn first-Responders such as police and local government agents

Link 4 – Warn the last mile

Can we talk in past tense instead of future tense. Two other Nations ARE QUIPED with early warning system. Thailand has built a warning towers on beaches across its southern coast. Malaysia HAS positioned two buoys off its coast and have tested the system.

Now countries that speak in future tense; Sri Lanka has a plan to install a national warning system and information will be passed to villages by phones or national media

Rohan asks questions from the audience …

Do you get warnings through the gov now – audience NO

Do you have sirens in Churches, Mosques, and Temples as the Government has promised – audience NO

“Physical world of hazards, symbolic worlds, link technologies & institutions that work imperfectly.”

The Last-Mile HazInfo project is not a public warning system, it is a closed network alerting system. The Last-Mile project envisions on overcoming the lessons learned from the 2004 tsunami — keep ahead of congestions, address point-to-multiple media

We will provides the knowledge for the last mile to make their own response plans and when they are provided with them risk information. The last-Mile First-Responders will react based on the training and the severity of the hazard information.

We do not tell people to evacuate or take action but we only provide the know how and the information for the last mile to make their own decisions

10 deaths and 5 premature births as a result of inappropriate warning by the government in after the great Nyas earthquake in March. The incident happened at night where a people were sleeping.
Disaster Management is a village level duty. Therefore, we will only provide risk information; but will not ask people to evacuate. Sarvodaya is not authorized to issue public warnings but can develop a good information communication network to provide the necessary Disaster related information for local awareness and response planning.

The last-Mile system overcomes all these problems where a wakeup feature has been introduced. This is to help the Government by preparing the last mile.

First phase will evaluate how the organizational level of the villages and whether training is necessary for such a system.

Ultimate objective is to use the research findings to develop a model to implement an alerting solution in 226 of the Tsunami affected villages as a phase 2 of this project; phase 3 will implement a early warning solution for the 15000 Sarvodaya villages.

Gordon Gow –

Objective is to make everyone comfortable with the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). Presentation will highlight the most relevant aspects that deal with the LM-HWS project. It is a core function of the project

Several Needs:

• deliver messages to multiple technologies
• Need to ensure accuracy and consistency in the content
• - Need future expansion and interoperability

CAP is a mean to deliver information to a diverse set of technology which will be tested on Addressable Satellite Radio (ASR), Fixed Phones, Mobile Phones, Remote Alarm Device (RAD) and VSATs.

CAP Background

• standardize content of alerts across all hazards and enable multi-media dissemination
• Works started by the Partnership for Public Warning in 2002
• PPW submitted a report to OASIS in 2004 – Version 1.0 in the project we are using Version 1.1 approved in 2005
• XML-based data interchange format being implemented by government and private sector organizations

Why use CAP

• Open source protocol, which means it is free for us to use
• systematic Message Composition
• Multimedia distribution of single message
• Customization and filtering possibility
• Growing international recognition and implementation (e.g. WCATWC)
• Contribution to the evolution of CAP standard itself

All communication systems can be broken into 3 layers –

1. Content Layer: warning messages
2. Applicant Layer: mobile phones (WAP, Java, SMS, CB), telephone, radio (text display, text-to-voice), Internet (pop up display, email, rss)
3. Physical transportation layer (wireless networks and wired networks)

CAP fits in the Application Layer of the communication hierarchy.

A raw CAP message contains the XML tags and is annoying to read (raw software code). A CAP message viewed through a browser still looks very hard to read (raw information only). After applying a style-sheet to the message it can be converted in to a human readable message (clear message).

It very common to use web links in the message to direct readers to additional information such as a map of the effected areas.

A CAP “profile document defines its implementation for the LM-HWS, which is found in the Hazard-Information-Hub (HIH) guidelines; i.e CAP Profile. First-responders must understand certain features of the CAP profile: Alert, Information, resources, Area segments.

The 3 language problem has been solved by using multiple Information blocks; i.e. An Info block for Tamil, Sinhala, and English per message. The priority of the message is based on 3 pieces of the message: Urgency, Severity, Certainty. Urgent messages means that the community must act immediately; high priority implies that the community must be put on stand by; other a low priority message implies that the community must stay vigilant and keep a look out for hazards.

A government warning will be relayed by the HIH over the Sarvodaya network whenever it is issued. HIH will simply copy the government message and past it in the “description” element of the CAP message and set the “Event” as a “government warning”, which is one of the predefined hazard events in CAP.

Another workshop will be held on July 21, 2006 to introduce the standard operational procedures to the Community First-Responders. The program is a 1 day event to be held at the Sarvodaya Damsak Mandiraya in Moratuwa.

This lecture is free and open to the public. The lecture will address all-hazards warning and the use of the Common Alerting Protocol in disaster mitigation.

Gordon Gow is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Extensions at the University of Alberta, Canada. Co-author of the book: “Mobile and Wireless Communication: An Introduction” and most current book: “Policymaking for Critical Infrastructure”. Moreover, he is the communication systems consultant for “Evaluating a last-mile Hazard Dissemination: A Research Project” in Sri Lanka.

Gordon Gow –

It is a community-based last-mile warning system, being tried out in a selection of Sarvodaya‘s villages in Sri Lanka. Different technologies will be tested in 32 of Sarvodaya’s Tsunami-affected villages; some are ‘organized,’ some are ‘less organized and some have received training, and some have not.

“Last mile hazard warning is a two-tier communication system; i.e. HIH first-responders and Village first-responders”

The socioeconomic belief is that a CAP message relay is one way of effectively managing disasters, and that is what is envisioned in the Last-Mile Hazard Warning System (LM-HWS) Pilot Project. I will be talking about the current Workpackage of the LM-HWS project, which is developing the Hazard Information Hub (HIH). The general objective of the LM-HWS project is to evaluate the suitability of a selected set of ICT that can communicate CAP messages and alert the village first-responders. The Sarvodaya HIH was specifically built with the intension of providing structured risk information such as CAP messages to the local communities.

The objective of the project is to find optimal ICTs for issuing the last mile warnings in Sri Lanka, which can be extended to other developing countries. It is a community-based last-mile warning system, being tried out in a selection of Sarvodaya’s villages (http://www.sarvodaya.org) in Sri Lanka.

Different technologies will be tested in 32 of Sarvodaya’s Tsunami-affected villages; some are ‘organised,’ some are ‘less organised’ and some have received training, and some have not.

Five kinds of ICTs have been selected in this experiment:

1. Dialog Early Warning Network Remote Alarm Device Dialog Telekom & University of Moratuwa, SL)

2. Sinhala/Tamil SMS with alarm for Java compatible phones (Dialog Telekom & MicroImage)

3. Internet Emergency Public Alerting System (IPAS) with pop-up message (Solana Networks)

4.Disaster Warning Recovery and Response Addressable Satellite Radio (WorldSpace Global Data Solutions)

5. Fixed phone

All of these devices will function if they’re in standby mode when an alert is received. But, sirens will be set off in the case of 1, 2, 3 and 4. Conventional warning relies on TV and radio, which will if switched off, will be of no use.

Sarvodaya has a hazard informaiton hub, where hazard information is collected, and relayed out to the villages.

Common Alerting Protocol, cutting edge software, is being used in the project. By using CAP, large amounts of information can be relayed, in a standardised manner, which can be relayed to the village level.

A key issue is how to make it (CAP) effective , how to make it readble, in Sinhala and Tamil. Have a language tanslator on SAHANA. it makes use of standardised phrases that replace the english text. Once edited, the message has to be relayed. The CAP message can be translated into voice (developing this feature). A configurator informs ‘teleporters’ (e.g Dialog Telekom) which areas to alert.

Info is received from various agents (eg govt). an alert is received, then it is authenticated (with paper trail). CAP message is generated in software at the same time. But only after approval is recieved from Sarvodaya, the message is relayed to the relavant villages. Phone logs can be incorporated for reduncancy.

And now a live demonstration of IPAS by Solana…..

With some intro from Nabil Seddigh, Rupinder Singh, Dr. Gordon Gow and Biswajit Nandy (in Ottawa, via Skype): Solana has carried out field trials for public alerting using Television, the Internet and Telephone Dialers.
Users subscribe to receive certain alerts, they can choose the geographical area for alerts, the alert type (public security, health, etc), and the severity of the alert.

IPAS (internet emergency public alerting system) consists of alert servers (responsible for sending out alerts), public alert client software (resides on computer of end users), public official web portal (to issue alerts) and system admin tools.

This system was trialed three times – first in July 2004, then in November 2004 and finally in February 2005. The key objectives of the trials were to assess technology, to get feedback from public officials, and to get feedback from end users on the usability of the system. Seven Canadian municipalities participated, and included a diverse group of users (students, municipal staff, general public, officials, etc).

LIRNEasia released A Concept Paper for a Dam-related Hazard Warning System in Sri Lanka: A Participatory Study on Actions Required to Avoid and Mitigate Dam Disasters in collaboration with its project partners, the Vanguard Foundation, Sri Lanka National Committee on Large Dams (SLNCOLD), Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) and Sarvodaya. This work was funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Executive Director of LIRNEasia, handed over the final concept paper to U. W. L. Chandradasa, Director, Disaster Management Centre, Government of Sri Lanka. Excerpts from Kantale: 19 Years Later, a video documentary that was directed by Divakar Goswami and produced as part of the dam hazard project was screened on this occasion.

LIRNEasia and Sarvodaya formally launched a project to prepare tsunami-affected Sarvodaya villages to be disaster resilient. In the first instance, this project would evaluate disaster mitigation training and a number of ICTs for last-mile connectivity to 32 tsunami-affected villages in Sri Lanka. Based on the relative effectiveness of the ICTs, recommendations would be made on a wider-scale deployment of last-mile technologies and disaster preparedness training.

Rohan Samarajiva outlined the project objectives, methodology and introduced the project partners. Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, Executive Director of Sarvodaya, described the last-mile hazard information project as part of Sarvodaya’s integrated response to disasters. He also announced the opening of the Samana Teta Disaster Management Institute in Moratuwa the day before, that would act as the coordinating hub for the project. Dr. Wil Baker, Senior Vice President from WorldSpace, described the features of the Disaster Warning Response and Recovery system based on addressable satellite radio technology that would be deployed with other ICTs in the coastal villages. Nalaka Gunawardena from TVE Asia Pacific and Gordon Gow from the London School of Economics, project partners, were also present to answer questions from the media.

The media coverage of the event will be tracked in the comments thread below.

In the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, it was evident that if Sri Lanka along with the other affected countries had an effective disaster warning system in place, many lives could have been saved. The lack of a national disaster warning system compounded by a non-existent local warning communication system and public training makes it unlikely to this day that hazard information will reach individual households at the “last mile” even if an ocean-based tsunami detection system is deployed. The current project, driven by civil society organizations, has extraordinary potential for saving lives and restoring a sense of security to the affected people in Sri Lanka and hopefully around the Bay of Bengal.

An experimental research design is being adopted to evaluate the role played by a number of factors that contribute to the design of an effective last mile hazard information dissemination system. The specific objectives of this research project are to evaluate the following factors:
1) Reliability of ICTs as warning technologies;
2) Effectiveness of ICTs as warning technologies;
3) Contribution of training to an effective warning response;
4) Contribution of the level of organizational development of a village to an effective warning response;
6) Gender-specific response to hazard mitigating action;
5) Degree of integration of ICTs in the daily life of villages.
The project proposal is available as a PDF document.