In this seminar, Patrick Meier, director of crisis mapping and strategic partnerships at Ushahidi and SIPA graduate, will demonstrate and discuss crisis mapping using the the free and opensource crowdsourcing tools Ushahidi and SwiftRiver. Using cases from recent events in Haiti, Chile, and India, Mr. Meier will describe how these tools have evolved to help manage global crises and how universities can be an integral part of their development and implementation.

Read about Ushahidi in the Columbia News article, From Thousands of Miles Away, Students Use Crisis Mapping Tool to Aid Chile's Relief Efforts.

About the speaker:
Patrick Philippe Meier is an international networker and connector. He co-founded the Program on Crisis Mapping and Early Warning at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and the International Network of Crisis Mappers (CM*Net). He has extensive professional experience in the fields of conflict early warning and humanitarian technology, having consulted for major international organizations in Africa, Asia and Europe. Patrick is also a PhD candidate at The Fletcher School, where his dissertation focuses on digital activism in repressive regimes. Patrick graduated with an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA). He was born in Abidjan and raised in Kenya. Patrick blogs at iRevolution and EarlyWarning.

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