Abstract: Today we may think that the world is more connected than ever. While there are pathways for many of the 7 billion people in the world to be connected, we are likely connected to those who are like ourselves or have similar interests. At the HFOSS plenary session, Heather Blanchard, a graduate student of global communications at the American University of Paris, will outline the gap between those within institutions such as governments, non-profits and companies and the increasing amount of informal collectives who cluster together in community projects, global movements or just communities of interest. Institutions and informal collectives keep colliding with each other during crisis events rather than creating long-term investment to build sustainable bridges of dialogue and collaboration.  Heather will focus her discussion to illustrate the rise of digital humanitarian informal collectives and how their actions illustrate gaps in service, challenge business models, create new influences in public policy and are beginning to shift the dialogue and collaboration between institutions and informal collectives within international and domestic crisis response systems. 

1. Exchanging Business Cards
Before the Next Disaster
Investing in value between
institutions and informal cooperatives
Heather Blanchard / @poplifegirl
www.iamheatherblanchard.com
American University of Paris
Open World Forum
October 12, 2012
Monday, October 15, 12

2. The Question
Are we truly connected? Or....
Individual Informal Cooperative Institutions
Are we only connecting to those who we
have shared interests, events or values?
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

3. • Aren’t as connected as we think
• When we make a decision to connect,
we form informal cooperatives Today
• The space between informal
cooperatives and institutions is the
collaboration sphere
• There are kernels who catalyze
these spheres
• These sphere attract participation and
can lead to collective action,
experiential learning, projects which can
fork into new institutions
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

4. “Best time to exchange
business cards is before the disaster.”
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

5. Collaboration Sphere
Kernel
Kernel
Informal Kernel
Cooperative
Participants
Monday, October 15, 12

6. Common Interest?
Call to Action
Shared Interest Shared Experience Shared Value
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

7. Before
Source: Facebook.com Photo Sharing Explosions
Monday, October 15, 12

8. Collaborative Sphere
Act of Joining Others
Individual Informal Cooperative Institutions
The sphere between informal cooperatives
and institutions is valuable
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

9. Three Worlds of Participation
Systems
Processes
Act of Joining Others
Governance
Regulation
Individual Informal Cooperative Institution
What lies between being an institution and working
with others and being on your own?
Acting Alone / Acting as an Informal Group / Acting as an Institution
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

10. It Begins With The Self
I just want to help
Individual
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

11. Informal Cooperative
I can speak their
I can search for missing language
persons information
I’m a GIS professional
Informal Cooperative
Common interest, event or values
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

12. Node Alone?
Like Interest/Value
Everyday we manage
disasters.
Institution
Unknown Interest/Value
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

13. We are crisis
Inside the Node On my day off I help my
management community prepare for
practitioners disasters
I’m interested, but this topic
is not my day job
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

14. We don’t know what we need
Challenges You are “unaffiliated”
We can’t accept free help
I have a map filled with requests, Lack of policy
where does this go?
I have 50 developers Like Interest/Value
who want to help.
I have a 80%
solution.
Institutions
Informal Cooperative
Not my job, or 20% of job
Common interest, event or values
We don’t know what we need
We are professionals
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
I don’t know you
Monday, October 15, 12

15. We don’t know what we need
We can’t manage IP
Challenges That tool is blocked from our systems
You don’t understand our needs
We don’t have staff to work with you
We are experts
I don’t know anything about Our lawyers need to review it
disaster management
I can only help an hour, Like Interest/Value
two days a week
I’m doing this
for biz dev
opportunities
Institutions
Informal Cooperative
Need one person to work with
Common interest, event or values
I want to share in a protected space
I can’t commit the agency
Competition with others
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

16. We don’t know what we need
Collaboration Sphere
We need to find all the
We can help! information about the school that
collapsed.
The Value
Between
Understanding
Neutral
Ability to take risks Institution
Informal Cooperative Informal
Idea to prototype
Experiential Learning
Empathy
Trust
Groundtruth
Insights
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

17. Collaboration Sphere
• Informality is the rule
• People can meet and network
• People can break things
• People can participate “not in their official capacity” but
their participation provides gravitas and legitimacy to the
sphere
• Take risks, work with people they don’t know or wouldn’t
have know were interested
• Enabling the ability to fail; high tolerance for risk
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

18. Collaboration Sphere
• Some institutions rely on the sphere for their R&D and to
demonstrate proof of concept
• Informal cooperatives leverage to build personal or network
reputation, provide “learning by doing”
• Institutions leverage the sphere for “on the street” trends,
identification of talent, establishment of new relationships, build
trust and reputation
• Institutions leverage the sphere’s tolerance for risk to
collaborate with people and work on projects they can’t sell or
do inside the organization because its not viable
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

19. • Aren’t as connected as we think
•
2nd Time!
When we make a decision to connect,
we form informal cooperatives
• The space between informal
cooperatives and institutions is the
collaboration sphere
• There are kernels who catalyze
these spheres
• These sphere attract participation and
can lead to collective action,
experiential learning, projects which can
fork into new institutions
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

20. Crisis Collaboration Sphere
• The 2010 Haiti Earthquake
• Concurrency: Official response, community response,
diaspora response and informal cooperatives
• Challenge: Disconnected from the groundtruth
• Challenge: Disconnect from official response systems
• Challenge: Disconnect from local community & culture
• Challenge: Inability to harness talent offered
• Proof of concept: People skills to productive use
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

21. Observations
• Time to work together is before the disaster
• Institutions need to recognize that they won’t know who they are working with at times
• Institutions need to invest in kernels who connect with informal cooperatives, or those
who are likely to catalyze them
• Institutions have vested interest in the collaboration spheres that are friendly to their
work
• Informal cooperatives are like artist studios, they thrive on creativity,
independence and freedom
• Informal cooperatives have a vested interest to maintain independence from
influence
• Informal cooperatives ebb and flow, sometimes they aren’t meant to live forever
• Informal cooperatives are organic, but they also have to be protected
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

22. Illustration of Gaps
• Inability to leverage affiliated or public sensory data for operational
decision-making
• Inability to use technology in the field to provide the 3W’s of “who is doing
what where”
• Inability to use three pillars of crisis data to make operational decisions
(traditional, affiliated and public)
• Inability to collect, parse and contextualize public data to make operational
decisions
• Absence of a formal liaison to external entities: private sector, academia,
informal cooperatives to leverage their resources
• Inability to deliver public requirements of needs on the ground
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

23. Soft Power of
Informal Cooperatives
• High energy, high motivation = media attention
• Ability to convene people who would normally not
participate
• All opt-in participation, no one is there because they have
to be
• Allows people to remove the veil that “I’m not here in an
formal capacity”
• Influential to institutions and policy makers
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

24. Why Does The
Collaboration Sphere Matter?
• The lubricant of the ecosystem. Without an independent, open
collaborative space, the ecosystem can become static and polarized
• Establishes weak ties which open potential for future dialogue and
cooperation
• Allows sunlight into projects and issues which may require access or
insights from those within them
• Attracts people who want to do something, they are highly motivated
• Allows institutions to use the sphere as a test bed for ideas, to
connect with new talent and innovate with people who aren’t like
themselves
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

25. The People Between
• Somewhere between museum curator,
cruise director and evangelist
• Born diplomat; speaks languages of the
community
• Connected to what’s happening “on the
street”
• Empower new catalyst kernels
• Firestarter within their own
cooperative or institution; decision-
maker
• These positions are missing today
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

26. • Aren’t as connected as we think
• When we make a decision to connect,
we form informal cooperatives 3rd Time!
• The space between informal
cooperatives and institutions is the
collaboration sphere
• There are kernels who catalyze
these spheres
• These sphere attract participation and
can lead to collective action,
experiential learning, projects which can
fork into new institutions
Investing in value between institutions and informal cooperatives
Monday, October 15, 12

27. Exchanging Business Cards
Before the Next Disaster
Investing in value between
institutions and informal cooperatives
Heather Blanchard / @poplifegirl
www.iamheatherblanchard.com
American University of Paris
Open World Forum
October 12, 2012
Monday, October 15, 12

28. Credits
• fromthelyonsden.com
• listsoplenty.com
• cdc.gov
• facebook.com
• Voice of America
• Lolzcats
• educat.com
Monday, October 15, 12