WEBVTT

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The humanitarian model
has barely changed

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since the early 20th century.

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Its origins are firmly rooted
in the analog age

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and there is a major shift
coming on the horizon.

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The catalyst for this change

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was the major earthquake that struck Haiti

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on the 12th of January in 2010.

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Haiti was a game changer.

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The earthquake destroyed
the capital, Port-au-Prince,

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claiming the lives of some 320,000 people,

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rendering homeless
about 1.2 million people.

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Government institutions
were completely decapitated,

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including the presidential palace.

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I remember standing on the roof

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of the Ministry of Justice
in downtown Port-au-Prince.

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It was about two meters high,

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completely squashed
by the violence of the earthquake.

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For those of us on the ground
in those early days,

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it was clear for even
the most disaster-hardened veterans,

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that Haiti was something different.

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Haiti was something we hadn't seen before.

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But Haiti provided us
with something else unprecedented.

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Haiti had allowed us to glimpse

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into a future of what disaster response
might look like

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in a hyper-connected world,

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where people have access
to mobile smart devices.

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Because out of the urban devastation
in Port-au-Prince

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came a torrent of SMS texts:

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people crying for help,
beseeching us for assistance,

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sharing data, offering support,
looking for their loved ones.

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This was a situation
that traditional aid agencies

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had never before encountered.

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We were in one of the poorest countries
on the planet,

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but 80 percent of the people
had mobile devices in their hands.

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And we were unprepared for this,


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and they were shaping the aid effort.

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Outside Haiti also,
things were looking different.

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Tens of thousands
of so-called digital volunteers

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were scouring the Internet,

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converting tweets that 
had already been converted from texts

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and putting these into open-source maps,

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layering them with all sorts
of important information,

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people like Crisis Mappers
and Open Street Map,

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and putting these
on the Web for everybody:

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the media, the aid organizations
and the communities themselves,

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to participate in and to use.

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Back in Haiti, 
people were increasingly turning

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to the medium of SMS.

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People that were hungry and hurting

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were signaling their distress,


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were signaling their need for help.

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On street sides all over Port-au-Prince,

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entrepreneurs sprung up,


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offering mobile phone charging stations.

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They understood more than we did


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people's innate need to be connected.

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Never having been confronted
with this type of situation before,

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we wanted to try 
and understand how we could

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tap into this incredible resource,

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how we could really leverage
this incredible use

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of mobile technology and SMS technology.

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We started talking with a local
telecom provider called Voilà,

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which is a subsidiary
of Trilogy International.

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We had basically three requirements.

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We wanted to communicate
in a two-way form of communication.

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We didn't want to shout;
we needed to listen as well.

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We wanted to be able to target


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specific geographic neighborhoods, 
communities.

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We didn't need to talk
to the whole country at the same time.

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And we wanted it to be easy to use.

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Out of this rubble of Haiti
and from this devastation

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came something that we call TERA,

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the Trilogy Emergency
Response Application,

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which has been used to support
the aid effort ever since.

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It has been used to help communities
prepare for disasters.

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It has been used to signal early warning

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in advance of weather-related disasters.

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It's used for public health 
awareness campaigns


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such as the prevention of cholera.

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And it is even used for sensitive issues

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such as building awareness
around gender-based violence.

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But does it work?

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We have just published
an evaluation of this program,

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and the evidence that is there
for all to see is quite remarkable.

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Some 74% of people received the data.

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Those who were intended
to receive the data,

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74% of them received it.

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96% of them found it useful.

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83% of them took action,


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evidence that it is indeed empowering.

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And 73% of them shared it.

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The TERA system was developed from Haiti

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with the support 
of engineers in the region.

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It is a user-appropriate technology
that has been used

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for humanitarian good to great effect.

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Technology is transformational.

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Right across the developing world,

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citizens and communities
are using technology

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to enable them to bring about change,

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positive change, in their own communities.

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The grass roots have been strengthened

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through the social power of sharing

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and they are challenging the old models,

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the old analog models
of control and command.

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One illustration of the transformational
power of technology is in Kibera.

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Kibera is one of Africa's largest slums.

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It's on the outskirts of Nairobi,
the capital city of Kenya.

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It's home to an unknown number of people,

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some say between 250,000 and 1.2 million.

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If you were to arrive in Nairobi today
and pick up a tourist map,

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Kibera is represented as a lush,
green national park

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devoid of human settlement.

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Young people living in Kibera
in their community,

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with simple handheld devices,

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GPS handheld devices
and SMS-enabled mobile phones,

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have literally put themselves on the map.

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They have collated crowd-sourced data


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and rendered the invisible visible.

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People like Josh and Steve are continuing


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to layer information upon information,

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real-time information,

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tweeted and texted 
onto these maps for all to use.

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You can find out about the latest
impromptu music session.

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You can find out
about the latest security incident.

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You can find out about places of worship.

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You can find out about the health centers.

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You can feel the dynamism of this living,
breathing community.

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They also have their own 
news network on YouTube,

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with 36,000 viewers at the moment.

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They're showing us what can be done


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with mobile, digital technologies.

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They're showing
that the magic of technology

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can bring the invisible visible.

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And they're giving a voice to themselves.

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They are telling their own story,

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bypassing the official narrative.

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And we're seeing similar stories
from all points on the globe.

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In Mongolia for instance,


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where 30% of the people are nomadic,

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SMS information systems are being used


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to track migration and weather patterns.

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SMS is even used to hold herder summits


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from remote participation.

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And if people are migrating into urban,
unfamiliar, concrete environments,

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they can also be helped in anticipation


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with social supporters 
ready and waiting for them,

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based on SMS knowledge.

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In Nigeria, open-source SMS tools
are being used

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by the Red Cross community workers

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to gather information
from the local community

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in an attempt to better understand

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and mitigate the prevalence of malaria.

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My colleague, Jason Peat,
who runs this program,

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tells me it's 10 times faster
and 10 times cheaper

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than the traditional way of doing things.

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And not only is it empowering
to the communities,

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but really importantly,

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this information stays in the community,

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where it is needed to formulate 
long-term health polices.

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We are in a planet
of seven billion people,

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five billion mobile subscriptions.

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By 2015, there will be three billion
smartphones in the world.

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The U.N. broadband commission
has recently set targets

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to have broadband access
in 50 percent of the Developing World,

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compared to 20 percent today.

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We are hurtling
towards a hyper-connected world

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where citizens from all cultures
and all social strata

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will have access to smart,
fast mobile devices.

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People are understanding,
from Cairo to Oakland,

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that there are new ways to come together,

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there are new ways to mobilize,

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there are new ways to influence.

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A transformation is coming,


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which I believe needs to be understood

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by the humanitarian structures
and humanitarian models.

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The collective voices of people
need to be more integrated

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through new technologies
into the organizational strategies

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and plans of actions,

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and not just recycled
for fundraising or marketing.

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We need, for example,
to embrace the big data,

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the knowledge that is there
from market leaders

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who understand what it means
to use and leverage big data.

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One idea that I'd like you to consider,
for instance,

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is to take a look at our IT departments.

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They're normally backroom or
basement hardware service providers,

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but they need to be elevated
to software strategists.

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We need people in our organizations

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who know what it's
like to work with big data.

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We need technology
as a core organizational principle.

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We need technological strategists
in the boardroom

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who can ask and answer the question:

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"What would Amazon or Google
do with all of this data?",

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and convert it to humanitarian good.

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The possibilities that new digital
technologies are bringing

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can help humanitarian organizations,

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not only ensure
that people's right to information is met,

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or that they have their right
to communicate,

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but I think in the future,

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humanitarian organizations
will also have to anticipate

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the right for people to access
critical communication technologies

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in order to ensure 
that their voices are heard,


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that they're truly participating,

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that they're truly empowered
in the humanitarian world.

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It has always been the elusive ideal
to ensure full participation

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of people affected by disasters
in the humanitarian effort.

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We now have the tools.
We now have the possibilities.

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There are no more reasons not to do it.

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I believe we need to bring 
the humanitarian world

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from analog to digital.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)