ORIENTATION PACKET
Seminar 2: April 5 and April 6, 2021 (11am-2pm EDT)

Seminar Goals

In 2020, we witnessed an acceleration in the availability and use of novel (big) data streams from mobile operations, AdTech and social media companies, to inform emergency response and planning. The use of these data to model public health scenarios and inform preparedness and response to natural disasters presents important methodological, ethical and translational (capacity) questions.

Effective and equitable use of these data in emergency response calls for collaboration across three pillars: data readiness, methods readiness and translational readiness. Accordingly, this seminar series convenes an interdisciplinary group of experts from Industry, Academia, Law & Policy, and Society & Practice to identify recent advances and priorities ahead. The group will seek to build consensus around key technical, ethical and policy issues that must be addressed to facilitate the safe, responsible, fair and equitable use of novel data streams to inform emergency preparedness and response.

The seminar series will result in a proceedings summary or White Paper to be publicly released summarizing key points of consensus, and recommendations. This output will in turn set the agenda for a consultative process (in collaboration with CrisisReady and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery - GFDRR) to develop guidance for governments and response agencies seeking to use these novel data streams for emergency preparedness and response.

Process

Experts from Industry and Academia convene on March 11 and 12

Experts from Policy and Practice convene on April 5 and 6                                           **we are here

Shared Document Review in May

Public Release in June

CR+GFDRR community of practice and research program begins mid-2021

To-dos prior to the seminar

Review

        1.   Review and update your bio here: Radcliffe Seminar 2 Participant Bios

              To be time-efficient, we will not introduce participants or organizers during the seminar. 

        2.   Review the program below. Please note sections marked with a (*)

        3.   If your time allows, please review minutes from Seminar 1, as we will continue to build on the discussions initiated in Seminar 1 and on our one-to-
              one calls with each of you. Pdf is attached, and also accessible here.

Submit

        4.   Please indicate to merdey@directrelief.org by April 1, if you are available to give a five-minute (three-slides max) lightning talk presenting your work
              on Day 2 (Note: there will be time for six lightning talks, offered on a first-come, first-served basis ).

        5.   Please email any documents you would like to share (short reports of your work or products, key technical or policy papers, seminar documents or
              lay reading on related topics) to merdey@directrelief.org. These resources will be available to all participants in this Google folder.

Logistics

Please review any email sent to you directly by the Radcliffe Institute between now and April 5. Please register at the links sent to you, if you have not already.

Your calendar invite will include this zoom link: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/91523049913

Zoom etiquette: We request participants to keep their cameras on.

Sessions will be recorded only to assist rapporteurs and compile notes, and recordings will then be deleted.