T-16
I ran in first thing this morning to make myself business cards (I had actually tried last night but they had already closed by the time we got there). Business cards are a critical part of the business environment here (and I believe in many other countries). When you walk into a meeting or meet new people it is almost like an old western showdown to see who can draw first.
I had wanted to leave early this morning to get the business cards made, at 7:30am, because there was the 10am GIS (Geospatial Information System???) coordination meeting at the Surveyor General’s office. This was going to be the first real meeting I would be attending, and I really wanted to have some sort of business cad since I will be working with GIS and I would be making a lot of important contacts with whom I will be working further down the line.
However, despite my best intentions, today was the second day of classes for the local schools and there was a lot of traffic at this time of day as parents dropped of their children. It was a very sweet site seeing parents walking their children to school – the always made sure to hold their hands to keep them close (or in some cases drag them along!).
We still made it to the business card place with plenty of time. I printed some very simple business cards – they include my name, education (MS International Development), local cell phone number and e-mail. At this point, that is actually all I have! Until I start working on the project and I am able to talk some more with the people involved in the project, I don’t know what position I will be working on or how to represent myself! As I said, it is a vital social skill having business cards here. It at least makes me look official (the rest I will just have to make up as I go along).
The 10 am coordination meeting/workshop at the Surveyor General’s office had a good selection or cross-cut of people there. There were representatives of different ministries and government agencies, several professors from Universities, EMSO (the ESRI reps), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and MapAction (and myself). There was a particularly large contingent from the University of Peradineya which is in the city of Kandy – the professor who will be heading the GIS project I will be working on was there, and I finally got to meet him in person.
A lot of the people though were very soft spoken and I had a hard time hearing. But I think the meeting was productive. MapAction, which has taken the lead till now but is pulling out tomorrow, ran most of the show as they went over what they had done to date. The general consensus was reached that a central clearing house of GPS data needs to be established with full public access to avoid duplication of efforts, as well as to create a list of all available resources held by different organizations and individuals, which would be coordinated by the Surveyor General’s office.
Sadly, there was some friction between some of the government agencies and universities. And some people really got off on tangents – the meeting ran over two hours. After the meeting was over, I finally got to meet Ram Alagan, the professor from Peradineya University who will be working on the Trinco project with me. We had a good talk and I got a better grasp of what the project will entail – the project will be a damage and needs assessment of one village, Kinniya, south of Trinco, and will be focused on local community participation and input, rather than driven from the top down.
After the meeting was over, I went out with a bunch of professors from Peradineya who all deal with GIS and are anxious to see GIS become a significant tool in responding to the Tsunami disaster. They are talking about suspending classes to send all the students out into the field for damage assessment trips, etc. Of all places we could go, the professors, who are Sri Lankan, chose to go to Pizza Hut!
One of the main concerns at the GIS Coordination Meeting was data collection, how it would be done and who would do it. For example, IWMI (The International Water Management Institution, an International NGO based out of Colombo) who had been coordinating with MapAction and will continue to assist in the short term after MapAction leaves, has been able to collect only 11 GPS units.
I did have an interesting development later in the day though. A volunteer at VolunteerSriLanka.org, who knew I was working with GPS, had given me a contact (her brother) who belongs to a local club called the 4x4 Club. These are a bunch of local businessmen (mostly directors or senior officers in the businesses) who own 4 Wheel Drive vehicles and like to take them offroading. After lunch, I met up with a couple of the guys from the 4x4 Club. In the initial days after the Tsunami they had been involved in getting relief supplies to some areas that were completely cut off because bridges and roads were destroyed or impassable. But after that initial period, after temporary bridges were in place and the roads were cleared, people kept asking the 4x4 Club to make deliveries and they couldn’t help but feel that they were turning into glorified chauffeurs.
The 4x4 Club is very interested in continuing to contribute to the disaster response, but they want to feel like they are making a worthwhile contribution that matches their unique abilities and resources with a specific demand. And this is where I (and GIS/GPS) come in. When the 4x4 Club goes offroading, they regularly use GPS Units to track where they are (they often just go driving off into the Jungle!). And they have a guaranteed means of transportation. So on my own prerogative and with no authority whatsoever, I explained what was going on with GIS mapping, and how I thought the 4x4 Club could contribute by going out and taking GIS coordinates, surveying IDP camps, etc. These guys were really enthusiastic and want to help – they really bought into the idea of helping out with GPS. It was a very positive meeting.
Later that evening, there was a farewell party for the MapAction team who are shipping out tomorrow (two members will remain – one who has been here for about a week, Sylvie, and another, Toby, who just arrived this evening).
At the reception, I met Hugh Turral, who works at IWMI and is helping in the GIS coordination. He had been at the coordination meeting earlier in the day, but I hadn’t been able to talk to him earlier. I told him about the 4x4 Club and passed off their contact information to him, since he was helping to look for GPS Units and Mobile Teams to do mapping work. I hope they can be put to good use.
I had wanted to leave early this morning to get the business cards made, at 7:30am, because there was the 10am GIS (Geospatial Information System???) coordination meeting at the Surveyor General’s office. This was going to be the first real meeting I would be attending, and I really wanted to have some sort of business cad since I will be working with GIS and I would be making a lot of important contacts with whom I will be working further down the line.
However, despite my best intentions, today was the second day of classes for the local schools and there was a lot of traffic at this time of day as parents dropped of their children. It was a very sweet site seeing parents walking their children to school – the always made sure to hold their hands to keep them close (or in some cases drag them along!).
We still made it to the business card place with plenty of time. I printed some very simple business cards – they include my name, education (MS International Development), local cell phone number and e-mail. At this point, that is actually all I have! Until I start working on the project and I am able to talk some more with the people involved in the project, I don’t know what position I will be working on or how to represent myself! As I said, it is a vital social skill having business cards here. It at least makes me look official (the rest I will just have to make up as I go along).
The 10 am coordination meeting/workshop at the Surveyor General’s office had a good selection or cross-cut of people there. There were representatives of different ministries and government agencies, several professors from Universities, EMSO (the ESRI reps), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and MapAction (and myself). There was a particularly large contingent from the University of Peradineya which is in the city of Kandy – the professor who will be heading the GIS project I will be working on was there, and I finally got to meet him in person.
A lot of the people though were very soft spoken and I had a hard time hearing. But I think the meeting was productive. MapAction, which has taken the lead till now but is pulling out tomorrow, ran most of the show as they went over what they had done to date. The general consensus was reached that a central clearing house of GPS data needs to be established with full public access to avoid duplication of efforts, as well as to create a list of all available resources held by different organizations and individuals, which would be coordinated by the Surveyor General’s office.
Sadly, there was some friction between some of the government agencies and universities. And some people really got off on tangents – the meeting ran over two hours. After the meeting was over, I finally got to meet Ram Alagan, the professor from Peradineya University who will be working on the Trinco project with me. We had a good talk and I got a better grasp of what the project will entail – the project will be a damage and needs assessment of one village, Kinniya, south of Trinco, and will be focused on local community participation and input, rather than driven from the top down.
After the meeting was over, I went out with a bunch of professors from Peradineya who all deal with GIS and are anxious to see GIS become a significant tool in responding to the Tsunami disaster. They are talking about suspending classes to send all the students out into the field for damage assessment trips, etc. Of all places we could go, the professors, who are Sri Lankan, chose to go to Pizza Hut!
One of the main concerns at the GIS Coordination Meeting was data collection, how it would be done and who would do it. For example, IWMI (The International Water Management Institution, an International NGO based out of Colombo) who had been coordinating with MapAction and will continue to assist in the short term after MapAction leaves, has been able to collect only 11 GPS units.
I did have an interesting development later in the day though. A volunteer at VolunteerSriLanka.org, who knew I was working with GPS, had given me a contact (her brother) who belongs to a local club called the 4x4 Club. These are a bunch of local businessmen (mostly directors or senior officers in the businesses) who own 4 Wheel Drive vehicles and like to take them offroading. After lunch, I met up with a couple of the guys from the 4x4 Club. In the initial days after the Tsunami they had been involved in getting relief supplies to some areas that were completely cut off because bridges and roads were destroyed or impassable. But after that initial period, after temporary bridges were in place and the roads were cleared, people kept asking the 4x4 Club to make deliveries and they couldn’t help but feel that they were turning into glorified chauffeurs.
The 4x4 Club is very interested in continuing to contribute to the disaster response, but they want to feel like they are making a worthwhile contribution that matches their unique abilities and resources with a specific demand. And this is where I (and GIS/GPS) come in. When the 4x4 Club goes offroading, they regularly use GPS Units to track where they are (they often just go driving off into the Jungle!). And they have a guaranteed means of transportation. So on my own prerogative and with no authority whatsoever, I explained what was going on with GIS mapping, and how I thought the 4x4 Club could contribute by going out and taking GIS coordinates, surveying IDP camps, etc. These guys were really enthusiastic and want to help – they really bought into the idea of helping out with GPS. It was a very positive meeting.
Later that evening, there was a farewell party for the MapAction team who are shipping out tomorrow (two members will remain – one who has been here for about a week, Sylvie, and another, Toby, who just arrived this evening).
At the reception, I met Hugh Turral, who works at IWMI and is helping in the GIS coordination. He had been at the coordination meeting earlier in the day, but I hadn’t been able to talk to him earlier. I told him about the 4x4 Club and passed off their contact information to him, since he was helping to look for GPS Units and Mobile Teams to do mapping work. I hope they can be put to good use.
posted by Jason A. Smith at 10:43 PM
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