JCU Hosts First International Conference on Crisis Mapping

Cleveland, OH– The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and John Carroll University (JCU) would like to formally announce the first ever “International Conference on Crisis Mapping 2009” (ICCM 2009). To be held at JCU’s Cleveland campus from October 16-18, the conference will bring together over 60 leading organizations comprising the most engaged crisis-mapping practitioners, scholars and platform developers from around the world to showcase and advance the cutting edge of the Crisis Mapping field. Three high-powered donors are sponsoring the seminal event: the Open Society Institute, Humanity United and the US Institute of Peace. For additional information visit: http://www.CrisisMapping.net Or Contact: Conference Organizers: Patrick Meier and Jen Ziemke Media Coordinator: Matt Herbert Telephone: 505-231-6287 The Crisis Mapping field has emerged in the last five years as a dynamic web of advanced technology, user generated mapping, and new methodologies in crisis reporting. Core aspects of Crisis Mapping include: Mobile Crisis Mapping: The use of mobile technologies and methodologies to collect and validate event-data for crisis mapping. Automated Crisis Mapping: The use of natural language processing and computation linguistics to detect and collect event-data for crisis mapping. Crisis Mapping Analytics: The use of visual analytics and advanced spatial econometrics to identify and understand dynamic patterns in crisis mapping data. Crisis Mapping Response: The use of crisis mapping for decision-support, programmatic response and monitoring and evaluation. Governments, the United Nations, NGOs and private sector companies have begun to utilize crisis mapping in their day-to-day operations, leading to a shift in how information on emergent crises is reported, displayed, and analyzed. Bringing together the most engaged crisis-mapping practitioners, scholars and platform developers from around the world the conference will showcase and advance the cutting edge of Crisis Mapping. This will be the first time that world experts will directly engage with each other as a crisis mapping community to formalize the field and define the future of Crisis Mapping. The conference will also provide important opportunities for participants to partner on current and future projects. The conference will involve a mix of dynamic, interactive presentations on crises mapping, participant organized sessions, and a Tech Fair for an opportunity to experience the technology that has helped to drive the field forward. International Conference on Crisis Mapping – Participating Organizations Include: United Nations Secretary General’s Office European Center for Conflict Prevention Google Earth Darfur Project Development Seed Open Street Map Reuters AlertNet Fund for Peace GeoCommons World Bank UNOSAT InSTEDD InterNews Ushahidi GeoTime MapAction MercyCorps ReliefWeb UNDP Sudan FrontlineSMS OCHA Colombia UN World Food Program Peace Research Institute, Oslo AAAS Geospatial Technologies Program US Holocaust Memorial Museum Amnesty International Human Rights Watch Columbia University Harvard University John Carroll University Yale University UC Berkeley For additional information visit: http://www.CrisisMapping.net Or Contact: Conference Organizers: Patrick Meier and Jen Ziemke Media Coordinator: Matt Herbert Telephone: 505-231-6287