With occasion of the International Day for Disaster Reduction the World Bank is offering a series of live webcasts of seminars on the Bank’s expanding role in helping developing countries reduce their disaster risks and adapt to climate change. The webcasts will also be archived and made available shortly thereafter.

Workshop materials available at: http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment Here

Wednesday, October 8
9 am – 12:15 pm Disaster Risk Management in the Information Age (Workshop Part I)
12:15 – 1:30 pm Central American Probabilistic Risk Assessment (CAPRA)—Brown Bag Luncheon seminar
2 pm – 6 pm The World Bank’s Expanding Role in Disaster Risk Reduction

Thursday, October 9
9 am – 12:45 pm Disaster Risk Management in the Information Age (Workshop Part II)
1 pm – 2:30 pm Applying Microsoft’s Geospatial Technologies to World Bank Initiatives—Brown Bag Luncheon

Times are US Eastern Standard Time

With all the chatter around innovative solutions for mobile technology, field work, and data collection, I've just cough up with a great explanation of some of the latest work in this direction using open source technology. The potential for disaster operations, and knowledge management initiatives that require strong field support are enormous. The post from Development Seed itself offers a good insight into the thinking behind it, and the accompanying video adds a nice practical narrative to illustrate the capacity of the system.

I'm really admiring how the American Red Cross is pushing to have, albeit maybe a bit timidly for now, a dedicated social media component embedded in their communications and outreach efforts. It highlights well their field operations, engages affiliated citizens, and provides sensible calls for action and updates. The platform is important but not critical: Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook... A number of them (and I mean a combination of them not just one) can do it. But consistency and dedication make all the difference in fostering those using the platforms as reliable resources.

Almost immediately after FEMA released one year late its draft housing strategy, fingers blamed the agency of crafting an inconclusive strategy that delivers an incomplete approach for such a critical issue. From what I have been able to read so far, I agree with most critics that this is a half baked, uncommitted report. But that is precisely the whole point: not until the Federal network takes responsibility, clarifies FEMA's mission, and related excuses, will these reports add much significant substance to the issue. It is not only in the organization recent history that the downfalls of this system are exposed, but in particular as it relates to disaster housing. FEMA both enjoys and suffers the grey zone of its congressional mandate. In order to clarify responsibilities, and future actions, the Stafford Act that legitimizes FEMA is critically what needs to change to start a different process.