Role of Mobile Phones in Disaster Management

I have been reading a report on “Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in Mobile Use by NGOs” and it explains how PeaceNet, an NGO and Oxfam-GB, a relief agency employed text messaging strategies to prevent and minimize ethnic strifes and violence in a hyper-sensitive post-poll Kenya.
I will just list down a few SMSs which people mailed to PeaceNet for timely action and intervention.

“We have been alerted that it is not safe tonight, in Bamburi, Utange, home area. We a
asking 4 security here please.”
“Over 400 people with no food or water holed in Huruma PCEA church in Eldoret for
three days. Help needed immediately.”
“I humbly ask for security in the church we are in, Elgon view, Eldoret as we have heard
of the killings in the Kiambaa church.”
“People evicted from their homes in Saboti, are starving no basic needs, food, blankets,
etc. People are camping at Kiungani, Kiminini and Sikhendu Kitale.”

The NGO reacted to such help alerts and many tragedies were averted. Proactively peace messages and information were SMSd to people to maintain harmony.

Coming back home to Mumbai I am reminded of 28th November afternoon when suddenly there was a spate of rumours that another round of firing had occured at the CST station and near the RBI.Immediately there was paranoia among masses and people were seen rushing back home and talking frantically on the phone for confirmed information. This lasted till there was an announcement on the television confirming that the rumours were untrue.

It would have been much more simpler if you received an SMS on your phone from Mumbai police mentioning the truth. Tele-density in Mumbai is around 75%. Which mean the message would immediately reach most people and the rest would be informed by word of mouth. Such information could be sent to citizens on a periodic basis during the crisis to alert them appropriately.
For example on the 28th the message could simply be
"There are rumours of fresh firing at the CST station which are untrue. Kindly remain calm and inform people around you"- The sender name would be Mumbai police/Mayor office etc. That would immediately calm things down. SMSs could be also sent cell site wise where in people in the vicinity of the affected area could be warned on priority.

And how would this be implemented? At the heart of this system will be a platform which will take information feeds from the authorized governement body and with connectivty to all Mobile service providers. Whenever faced with an emergency situation authorized government personnel can load vetted information on the platform for timely delivery to people.

The reason this would work is ubiquity of the mobile device and the benefit would be accurate and consistent information during crisis.

The platform could be extended for two-way communication for receiving information from people on the emergency site. The information from people would be collated and stored on the server and displayed to authorities on an interface to analyze the ground situation.

This could also serve as means for people to report suspicious activty in their vicinity. People are generally apprehensive to call up the police and talk, however sending an SMS does not involve direct contact and people would be more inclined to report.

The Service Providers would be more than willing to help in this regard. The commercial considerations would need to be worked out because mass messaging would put additional pressure on network resources. Celtel in Kenya charges half the commercial rate for messages to and from PeaceNet. A similar model could be worked out with Indian Service Providers.

Telecom and Terror

After the recent spate of terror attacks in Mumbai I bagan wondering how telecom service providers can contribute to minimizing such attacks. Strict documentation requirements and legal interception tools are already mandatory requirements. In legal interception the role of the Service provider is reactive wherein it records conversations for telephone numbers provided by the IB. However, Service providers can work on a number of proactive measures to help Intelligence agencies.

Intelligent tools can be employed which trace each and every call for keywords like "bomb", "ammunition", "blasts" etc. These could be specifically applied on calls to and from hostile nations. The tool would throw results on a weekly basis and by mapping results to subscriber profiles a suspicion list could be developed and tracked. It is interesting to note that call volumes to a hostile nation have dropped by 30% in days after the Mumbai carnage. This is difficult to dismiss as a co-incidence.

Advancements in LBS and GIS technology can be used to track device locations with pin-point accuracy. This would be invaluable in close combat situations where location information would be the key.

Additionally the DoT will need means to track satellite calls originating and terminating into Indian mainland. An article in this regard is available on http://in.news.yahoo.com/241/20081129/1264/tbs-dot-looks-for-ways-to-track-satphone.html

The cost of employing such techniques might be large but ther are vast unutilized USO funds which can be utilized for the purpose. Even a single 26th November like attack averted would be worth the effort!