Computing for Social Good and HFOSS

## CSCI 395.86 Open Source Software Development

## Humanitarian Free Open Source Software (HFOSS)

.license[
Copyright 2020 Stewart Weiss.
This work is based on slides written by Joanna Klukowska, released under a
[CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) license, 
which may be found at
https://joannakl.github.io/ossd_s19/slides/HFOSS.html.
These slides are released under a
 [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
]

---

# Professional Developers
## Why do we code?
### (according to StackOverflow)

The following "facts" are based on 
[Insights from Stack Overflow’s 2018 survey of 100,000 developers](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/stack-overflow-2018-developer-survey-faac8d3eb357) by Quincy Larson.
 
(article is based on StackOverflow's annual developer survey).

---

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# Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS)

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# Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software

- [Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software](http://www.timreview.ca/article/399) by Chamindra de Silva, Dec. 2010
defines humanitarian free and open source software as follows:

- __Humanitarian free and open source software (HFOSS)__ represents the application of free
and open source software (FOSS) to the coordination problems faced in the
humanitarian and disaster-response domains.

But it is also software related to:

- Human rights
  - Advocacy
  - Development Cooperation
  - Assistive/Accessible Technologies

- A more general definition is given in [1]:
    - HFOSS is software that serves society in some direct way.

.footnote[
1 "Revitalizing Computing Education Through Free and Open Source Software for Humanity",
Ralph Morelli et al., _Communications of the ACM_, Vol 52 (9), August 2009 pp. 67-75.
]
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# Beginnings

- The tsunami that hit Asia in 2004 was a wake-up call to computer professionals
who wanted to build software to help victims of natural disasters.

- One of the first mentions of HFOSS was in 2007.
The Humanitarian FOSS Project was a collaborative, community-building project
that was started by a group of computing faculty and open source proponents
at Trinity College, Wesleyan University, and Connecticut College. [more](http://www.hfoss.org/)

Although not as active now, the organization still supports HFOSS projects.

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# Why is open source used in humanitarian projects?

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## Open Source Alignment to Humanitarian Values

(from [Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software](http://www.timreview.ca/article/399) by Chamindra de Silva)

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## Open Source Alignment to Humanitarian Values, Continued

(from [Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software](http://www.timreview.ca/article/399) by Chamindra de Silva)

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# Examples of HFOSS Projects

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# [Centre For Humanitarian Data](https://centre.humdata.org/)

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<img src="img/CentreForHumanitarianData.png" width="550" >
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_The Centre for Humanitarian Data is focused on increasing the use and impact
of data in the humanitarian sector. It is managed by the United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Centre’s services are
available to humanitarian partners and OCHA staff in the field and at
Headquarters free of charge_ [more](https://centre.humdata.org/what-we-do/)
]
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# [Humanitarian Data Exchange](https://data.humdata.org/)

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_The Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is an open platform for sharing data across crises and organisations.
 Launched in July 2014, the goal of HDX is to make humanitarian data easy to
 find and use for analysis. Our growing collection of datasets has been accessed
 by users in over 200 countries and territories. Watch this video to learn more_ [more](https://data.humdata.org/faq)
]

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## [Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team](https://www.hotosm.org/) (HOT)

_HOT is an international team dedicated to humanitarian action and community
development through open mapping. They work together to provide map data which
revolutionizes disaster management, reduces risks, and contributes to achievement
of the Sustainable Development Goals_ [more](https://www.hotosm.org/what-we-do)

Their repositories are on [GitHub](https://github.com/hotosm).
---

## [Ushahidi](https://www.ushahidi.com/) (= "testimony" in Swahili)

- Crowdmapping/Crisis-mapping application
- Started in 2008 in Kenya to provide the public with real-time
information about national elections
- Now has thousands of deployments worldwide

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## [OpenMRS](https://openmrs.org/)

- The mission of OpenMRS is to improve health care delivery in
resource-constrained environments by coordinating a global
community that creates a robust, scalable, user-driven, open
source medical record system platform.

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# Projects for Social Good

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.right-column2-large[
<img src="img/codeAlliance.png" width="500" >
]

## [Code Alliance](http://codealliance.org/)
]]

"Every day, there are thousands of people using technology tools to make a
positive difference in millions of people’s lives. Code Alliance
is committed to providing a platform that amplifies this impact. We ...
- Drive awareness of the power of open source software for social good and
the nonprofit organizations creating it as their core mission.
- Connect technical professionals to opportunities to volunteer time
and talent with these organizations.
- Facilitate sustainable, cross-sector collaboration across the nonprofit,
corporate, and open source technology communities."

[more](http://codealliance.org/our-story/)
]

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The cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics provides visualization, analysis and
download of large-scale cancer genomics data sets.

The cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics was originally developed at Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). The public cBioPortal site is hosted
by the Center for Molecular Oncology at MSK. The cBioPortal software is
now available under an open source license via GitHub. The software is now
developed and maintained by a multi-institutional team, consisting of MSK,
the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto,
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, The Hyve in the Netherlands, and
Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.

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## [cBioPortal](https://www.cbioportal.org/)

<img src="img/cBioPortal.png" width="550" >
]

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## [Open Energy Dashboard](https://openenergydashboard.github.io/)

This project, also known as OED, is developing a web-based application to
display energy information that is read and stored from energy meters.
While the project involves a lot of technology, it is ultimately about
sustainability and supporting those goals. The software is free and, as
an open source project, you have access to the code developed and used.
They welcome people becoming involved in the project or using this system
on their own sites. If you want to see an example of a live system it is
available at oed.beloit.edu/demo. Additional information is available at
[https://openenergydashboard.github.io/](https://openenergydashboard.github.io/).

]
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<img src="img/oed.png" width="420" >
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[Dickinson’s College Farm](https://farmdata.dickinson.edu/) is a 80-acre, USDA-certified organic
farm and a living laboratory where students can gain distinctive,
hands-on learning experiences.

Web-Based Mobile Database Applications to Support Organic Farming

- __FarmData__: for entering and reporting crop production
records, including seeding, transplanting, harvest, cover
crop, compost, fertilization, irrigation, pest scouting, spray
activities, packing and distribution records and customer
invoicing.
- __AnimalData__: for keeping livestock production records, from
birth to slaughter or sale. Other data captured by the
system includes pasture moves, periodic and veterinary
care and logging of egg production.

]
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<img src="img/farm_data.png" width="350" >
]

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## [LibreFoodPantry](https://librefoodpantry.org/#/)

The mission of LibreFoodPantry is to expand a community of students and faculty
across multiple institutions who believe software can be used to help society.
The objective is to support local food pantries with quality, adaptable,
free and open source software (FOSS) to help them serve their guests.
Through learning opportunities within FOSS food pantry projects,
LibreFoodPantry provides students with the perspective that computing can be used
for social good. It is a relatively new project needing contributions.

- The project is hosted on GitLab: [https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry](https://gitlab.com/LibreFoodPantry).

- It is a multi-institutional effort whose partner institutions are
    - Nassau Community College
    - Western New England University
    - Drexel University
    - Worcester State University

- Sub-projects include
    - BEAR-Necessities-Market, a web app for ordering food
    - FoodKeeper-API, an API for USDA FSIS FoodKeeper data
    - librefoodpantry.org, the web front end for the organization
   and many others.

- Anyone can suggest a new project and there are no restrictions on the programming language
  used for its development.
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## [FreeCodeCamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/)

Our mission: to help people learn to code for free.
We accomplish this by creating thousands of videos, articles,
and interactive coding lessons - all freely available to the public.
We also have thousands of freeCodeCamp study groups around the world.

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# Other readings and resources

- [Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software](http://www.timreview.ca/article/399) by Chamindra de Silva

- [Open Source for Humanitarian Action](https://ssir.org/articles/entry/open_source_for_humanitarian_action) by Brandon Keim

- [Open source job opportunities grow at crisis groups](https://opensource.com/article/17/3/crisis-solutions-humanitarian-open-source) by Kate Chapman

- [11 ways to get involved with Humanitarian FOSS](https://opensource.com/life/15/2/getting-involved-hfoss) by Heather Leson

- [Five Open Source Projects We Love](https://casefoundation.org/blog/five-open-source-projects-we-love/) by John Jones

- [GitHub Collection of projects for Social Impact](https://github.com/collections/social-impact)