What do you think?
Rate this book
Digital Humanitarians
This gripping real-time drama is set against the the devastation of the Haiti earthquake. The author, a pioneer of digital humanitarianism, didn t stay idle long. Within hours, from his laptop, he d assembled a global network of volunteers to collect, analyze, sift through, map, and relay accurate information from survivors on the ground voicing cries of help using social media. Their data-mining accomplishments were record-breaking and set new standards for quick action in large scale disaster relief situations. This book explains the technology behind this new wave of ICT networking and data-mining.
Praise for the book:
... examines how new uses of technology and vast quantities of digital data are transforming the way societies prepare for, respond to, cope with, and ultimately understand humanitarian disasters.
Dr. Enzo Bollettino, Executive Director, The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University
... explains the strengths and potential weaknesses of using big data and crowdsourced analytics in crisis situations. It is at once a deeply personal and intellectually satisfying book.
Professor Steven Livingston, Professor of Media & Public and International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University"
Praise for the book:
... examines how new uses of technology and vast quantities of digital data are transforming the way societies prepare for, respond to, cope with, and ultimately understand humanitarian disasters.
Dr. Enzo Bollettino, Executive Director, The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University
... explains the strengths and potential weaknesses of using big data and crowdsourced analytics in crisis situations. It is at once a deeply personal and intellectually satisfying book.
Professor Steven Livingston, Professor of Media & Public and International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University"
Audiobook
First published January 9, 2015
10 people are currently reading
275 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 4, 2016
An excellent general-audience book on how digital technologies are enabling ordinary volunteers to save lives in disasters around the world. The author is one of the founders of the movement, having created a crisis-management platform in his dorm room in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Meier gives an overview of the problems of coordination and information processing facing crisis response efforts, then details the evolution of computing and communications tools across a series of case studies of environmental and political crises.
The author is steadier and less gee-whiz than, for example, Jane McGonigal in Reality Is Broken. He has a practitioner's sense of the limitations of the possible, and a designer's understanding of the systems necessary to contribute in a useful and timely way in a crisis. For all that, he manages to be at least as inspiring: the potential for ordinary people to help in a meaningful way is greater than ever, thanks in no small part to the author's own efforts.
Digital Humanitarians is an inspirational, informative, readable short book. Its only shortcoming, which is somewhat shocking, is that it doesn't provide a list of generally available resources and means to contribute: readers will have to pick them out of the text and do some googling. A short "How You Can Help" section would have been a great improvement.
Meier gives an overview of the problems of coordination and information processing facing crisis response efforts, then details the evolution of computing and communications tools across a series of case studies of environmental and political crises.
The author is steadier and less gee-whiz than, for example, Jane McGonigal in Reality Is Broken. He has a practitioner's sense of the limitations of the possible, and a designer's understanding of the systems necessary to contribute in a useful and timely way in a crisis. For all that, he manages to be at least as inspiring: the potential for ordinary people to help in a meaningful way is greater than ever, thanks in no small part to the author's own efforts.
Digital Humanitarians is an inspirational, informative, readable short book. Its only shortcoming, which is somewhat shocking, is that it doesn't provide a list of generally available resources and means to contribute: readers will have to pick them out of the text and do some googling. A short "How You Can Help" section would have been a great improvement.
October 31, 2021
Interesting but a little bit blinded by its own light. It felt like the story of nuclear technology, awesome and a testament to human intelligence and its selfishness and capacity for abuse. Lots of name-dropping and back-slapping detracts from the fact that humans COULD be capable of so much more.
February 25, 2020
Picked up this book as an essay reference for a humanitarian assistance course that I am taking. I never felt that writing an essay could be so fun and inspirational until Digital Humanitarians. A great choice for quick reading that shows what revolutionary ingenuity and compassion for fellow human beings creates. Highly recommend!
January 1, 2016
This is THE book for Digital Humanitarian. It contains very interesting stories about different situations, obstacles, technologies and how teams found the solutions. In addition, it raises a lot of important challenges and issues facing all humanitarians around the world.
August 9, 2017
Great book from one of the top digital humanitarians Patrick Meier. Who wants to know more about crisis mapping, artificial intelligence and machine learning and its usage for the humanitarian crises, this is the best book to start with.
March 26, 2017
An inspiring book that makes you believe in mankind again. It might be a book about digital humanitarians and the techniques used to make sense of big data in disasters - but it is also a book about people who step up for others often far from home and how all of us can.
January 3, 2019
I met the author and was intrigued by his story. I enjoyed this book very much!
February 16, 2018
4.5 stars.
December 17, 2024
A book explaining how social media was used to overcome the tsunami and how digital humanitarianism became a thing ever since then p
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews