Global Pulse is assembling a technology platform to support a free and open source toolkit for sharing hypotheses and integrating, analyzing and visualizing data.
Overview
The world is generating vast amounts of new information and real-time data at an unprecedented rate. Mining of this data is being done extensively in the business world for competitive advantage, however the analytic technologies for real-time analysis have largely gone untested in the realm of international development and crisis resilience.
Global Pulse believes that analytical tools and approaches could be re-purposed to detect the “digital smoke signals” in new data that could alert the international community to stresses on populations while there is still time to act effectively. Global Pulse’s technology work is focused on making sure analysts and field staff get the tools they need to effectively analyze real-time data.
Our technology staff (and volunteers) are working to assemble a free and open source toolkit to facilitate the processes necessary for the work of the initiative: mapping the basic requirements for real-time analysis; data collection; visualization; and collaborative decision making.
A number of effective technology tools already exist in the public domain, and the Global Pulse toolkit will aggregate the best of those existing tools. When the required tools do not already exist, we will work with the open source community to drive the design and development required to fill the gaps. Global Pulse’s first technology tool is a social network ecosystem called HunchWorks which allows users to gather evidence, analyze data and be peer reviewed—all at once.