Until recently, when a disaster happened you would typically think about physical actions and volunteerism that would be necessary, in other words on-the-ground human capital resources. That traditional thought process is rapidly changing due to organizations like Crisis Commons and the many, many software developers who are lending their expertise to assist in creating very critical technology tools to assist individuals and organizations dealing with disasters. Recently, that display of rapid techie involvement for a common solution was demonstrated in the development of a new mobile application called Oil Reporter.

SEE VIDEO OF my CNN report:

What can the app do?
The app enables you to use your phone to report what you are seeing on the ground. For example you can upload video, photos and text, documenting areas and wildlife affected by the oil spill. The app asks you questions like, How much oil do you see?, Is there widlife present?, What’s the impact to wetlands? In the app you can also follow all the tweets taking place about the spill so you can stay informed and there are links to volunteer organizations. The app is a free download!

To the Batmobile-let’s go!
The Oil Reporter mobile app was developed in a lightning-fast 3 days and made available on not one but 2 different mobile platforms, the iPhone and Android phones. To get this created and out the door so fast there were 3 main partners in the effort–1) the app was created by developers from Intridea 2) they used a mobile software platform called Titanium from Appcelerator & 3) Crisis Commons an international volunteer network of technical and biz professionals with major, major tech skillz :-) drawn together by a call to service.

How can you get involved?

1) Attend the Tuesday June 1 Webcast “How Intridea Built Oil Reporter and How You Can Extend Oil Tracker”
Tues June 1st, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PDT

2) Attend the Washington DC, Crisis Camp Saturday June 5th!

3) GO here for more ideas on how you can help NOW

4) GET the WORD OUT! If you know developers or individuals working for relief organizations they could also be using the free and open-source data to create their own custom apps to help with documentation and recovery. So please tell as many people as possible about this free resource!