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Tech as enabling disaster preparedness: APSEMO experience

July 21, 2013July 21, 2013 Max Limpag Leave a comment

WERE you among the hundreds of people stranded in parts of Metro Cebu Saturday night? A strong and sudden downpour caused waist-deep flooding in several areas of the metro.

Flooding has now become all too common not just because of the sorry state of our drainage system and our explosive growth but also because of the weather. Climate change is upon us and its bringing disasters along with it.

One thing that empowers communities in dealing with disasters like widespread urban flooding is technology.

Before technologies like mobile phones came in, disaster preparation was a “failure,” said Dr. Cedric Daep, the head of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (Apsemo)

Even if you have a good early warning system, you can’t evacuate people without communications, Daep said in an interview last July 5 when he was in Cebu to work on the customization of Tudlo, a disaster-preparedness and response mobile phone app.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS. Dr. Cedric Daep (left), head of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (APSEMO), writes down tips on disaster preparedness and response for inclusion in the Tudlo app by its dev team. Also in photo is Nova Clotario-Concepcion, head of Smart’s Community Partnership-Public Affairs Group. (Photo by Max Limpag)

Albay is known for its effective and successful disaster preparedness and response program. Zero casualties, Dr. Daep proudly pointed out. And technology plays a central role in this, he said.

Infoboard alert system

The province uses the SMS-based Infoboard service by Smart Communications, Inc. Dr. Daep credits the service for their “zero-casualty” disaster response “because of the spread of information.”

When they suspend classes, the information is quickly spread throughout the province via text messages. And any information sent by the Infoboard system is deemed official, based on a Provincial Board ordinance.

Daep said the system allows them to quickly warn people against potential hazards and disasters and advice them on what to do to be safe.

Best Disaster Response App winner

Apsemo’s disaster response is about to get yet another technological boost through Tudlo, an app developed by a Cebu-based team led by Vince Loremia that won as Best Disaster Response App during the #SmartActs Cebu: A Hackathon for Social Good last September 2012.

Albay is the Cebu team’s first LGU partner for the application.

The name Tudlo comes from the Visayan word for “teach,” “point” and “guide” and it does all that in responding to disasters. It serves as a “disaster dictionary,” a mobile guide that teaches people how to respond to different hazards, said Dr. Daep. During a disaster, Loremia said in his pitch for the app, Tudlo can point people to where they could evacuate safely and then guide them during rescue and reconstruction.

Dr. Daep was in Cebu earlier this month to lead the Tudlo team in customizing the content for the app. He translated the guide into Bicolano and added tips that are both based on scientific studies as well as indigenous knowledge.

Among the tips there is how to check wind direction to ascertain whether a typhoon will hit your place. Dr. Daep also shared how one needs to close windows and doors that are facing the wind of a coming typhoon but make sure doors and windows in the opposite side are open to allow air to come in to counteract the vacuum effect and make sure your roof isn’t blown away. This information will be in Tudlo along with a lot of other tips.

Key role in reporting, needs assessment

Dr. Daep is deeply enthusiastic for Tudlo and he sees it deployed in a month or two, taking advantage of Albay’s existing disaster-response network. With the app, people will be able to report hazard situations and get immediate feedback on government action and response.

He sees the app playing a key role in the future in damage and needs assessment. Dr. Daep said the app will enable control centers to get a consolidated assessment report coming from the different communities within 24 hours. The current procedure involves sending consolidated teams of agri, social welfare, engineering and health personnel to the field, which takes time and a lot of resources. With Tudo, reports from the communities will come in “like results during an election.”

He said communities using tools like Tudlo won’t need rescue. Even before a disaster strikes, the system has already triggered a mass alert to bring people to safer areas.

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The post Tech as enabling disaster preparedness: APSEMO experience appeared first on Leon Kilat : The Tech Experiments.

payITfwd launch in Cebu highlights advocacies of ‘ordinary’ Cebuanos

July 8, 2013July 8, 2013 Max Limpag Leave a comment

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“Sometimes as a journalist,” Sun.Star Cebu reporter Bernadette Parco said during the payITfwd launch in Cebu, “you have to step out and do something for your community.”

For Parco, “doing something” is working with a friend, who is also a journalist, to hand out school bags to poor students to encourage them to continue going to school.

Parco was among 5 people invited to talk about their advocacies during the launch of the payITfwd program of Smart Communications Inc. in Cebu last July 5. The program is meant to support “social good” initiatives through technology.

“The goal is to support, promote, expand, enhance, reward and enable social good efforts that foster learning through technology. With payITfwd, social good advocates can scale up and even encourage the public to support their cause,” Smart Public Affairs Group head Ramon Isberto said in a press statement released during the event.

payITfwd launch in Cebu highlights advocacies of ‘ordinary’ Cebuanos

July 8, 2013July 8, 2013 Max Limpag Leave a comment

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“Sometimes as a journalist,” Sun.Star Cebu reporter Bernadette Parco said during the payITfwd launch in Cebu, “you have to step out and do something for your community.”

For Parco, “doing something” is working with a friend, who is also a journalist, to hand out school bags to poor students to encourage them to continue going to school.

1st 30-Day Challenge completed: run at least 5K daily

July 1, 2013July 1, 2013 Max Limpag Leave a comment

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I just completed a 30-day challenge to run at least 5 kilometers a day. I failed at my attempt to blog daily. One out of 2 isn’t bad for my first month.

The idea behind the 30-Day Challenge is that 30 days, according to Google engineer Matt Cutts, are “just about the right time to add a new habit or subtract a habit.” Cutts popularized the idea of taking on a 30-Day Challenge after he gave a TED talk on the topic.

For June, I decided to taken on 2 challenges: 1) run at least 5 kilometers a day and 2) blog daily. I completed the daily running part; I failed at the daily blogging right in the first week.

BASDAKO. One of my most memorable runs was the one from Hale Manna in Basdako, Moalboal to the Poblacion and back. Basdako is a beautiful place for running. You can then end your run with a dip in its gorgeous beach and clear waters teeming with marine life.

I think I’ve been able to rebuild my running habit. I used to run regularly and in long distances until I had to focus on my startup‘s projects. A few weeks into my daily runs, I started looking forward to my time on the road. My weekends are again set aside for running longer distances.

Among the most meaningful runs that I did in the month were on Day 1, when I started the challenge with a 21-kilometer solo LSD (long slow distance run); Day 7, when I ran in the rain in what was supposed to be an Ungo Friday Night Run; Day 12, when my run was cut short by a storm that flooded many areas in Metro Cebu; Day 14 at the Ayala Triangle in Makati City after covering the PLDT stockholders’ meeting; Day 17 at the beautiful Esplanade in Iloilo City after a meeting partners and friends that included liempo chips!; Day 22, which was a 22-kilometer run from Moalboal to Badian and back; Day 26 when I pushed myself to run 5 kilometers in 29 minutes and 25 seconds and Day 28, which was a 15K run from Hale Manna in Basdako in Moalboal to the Poblacion and back.

Day 14 of my 30-day running challenge was in the Ayala Triangle in Makati City.

The month has taught me a few things:

1) Focus. Although I decided early on that my main challenge was to run, taking on another challenge doomed the secondary task from the start. Running daily takes a lot of commitment – physically and mentally – and I no longer had the energy for the secondary challenge of blogging every day.

2) Prepare. I was able to run 5 kilometers a day because I had been gradually getting back to regular running after about a year of slacking off. I had a base to build on. In fact, when I completed the challenge, it was already my 42nd successive day of running.

In contrast, I wasn’t prepared to write a blog post daily. I did not think ahead of potential topics and, more crucial, I did not prepare myself mentally for the task.

3) Commit. I made a commitment to myself that I would complete the running challenge, whatever it would take. This meant that sometimes I’d run by myself at midnight in our subdivision because that was the only free time I had. It also meant that I had to run under the storm (the June 12 downpour left me stranded in the flooded streets of Cebu).

4) Measure. You cannot change what you cannot measure. For this, I find the phone to be the best tool. In my running, I was dependent on RunKeeper, an app that uses GPS to measure your running distance and speed and then keeps a log of all your runs. I also extensively use Lift, an app that allows you to keep daily track of habit you want to build or lose.

Here’s my Twitter log of my 5K a day 30-Day Running Challenge:

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The post 1st 30-Day Challenge completed: run at least 5K daily appeared first on Leon Kilat : The Tech Experiments.

The BlackBerry Q10 is a great phone

June 8, 2013June 8, 2013 Max Limpag Leave a comment

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The experience of writing on the BlackBerry Q10′s keypad is really good. (Photo by Max Limpag)

BlackBerry launched in Cebu yesterday its first BlackBerry 10 device with a physical QWERTY keypad – the BlackBerry Q10.

I was able to play with the device for several minutes during the launch and found it a great phone for those who want a physical keyboard.

Organizers of the event held a game that had attendees answer questions via BlackBerry Messaging (BBM) as a way to try out the Q10 and its physical keyboard.

I was the designated typist of our losing team and found the experience of writing messages on the Q10′s keypad really good. There was an initial adjustment, of course.

Before trying out the Q10, I had been using the BlackBerry Z10, a pure touchscreen device. The Z10 is a good phone but it doesn’t stand out in a mobile world dominated by Android gadgets and iOS devices.

The Q10, however, stands out because it is a really good modern phone with a physical keyboard, a device category that’s slowly vanishing as more people start using touchscreen devices.

I think the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which runs on these newer devices, is good although hobbled by the dearth of 3rd party applications. The system, however, can run Android applications converted into a .bar format.

The BlackBerry Hub, the central location for all emails and messages, is a standout feature of BB 10. It goes really well with the BlackBerry Q10.

But at P31,000, the BlackBerry Q10 may be priced too high. If I were someone who prefers a physical keypad, I’d rather wait for the cheaper BlackBerry Q5 that is set to be released in the coming months.

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