A principal goal for many humanitarian projects is to build capacity so that local stakeholders have the expertise to continue using technological solutions that have been introduced to them. Sustainability therefore requires that TOT’s (Trainer of Trainers) be trained to understand and apply the new technology and that there are pathways for continued interaction after the project has formally been completed. In this talk we share our experience towards achieving this goal and we highlight the essential role that the open source ecosystem has played throughout the 3 stages of the project: (1) course instruction, (2) direct current (DC) resistivity field surveys, and (3) post-project sustainability. Open source refers to software, educational material and data that are made freely available under a license that allows others to reuse, adapt, and contribute to the development of the resources. These are further enhanced by adopting a philosophy of openness & collaborative practices (e.g. working on shared documents, or using social media for communication). For our Geoscientists Without Borders (GWB) project we relied on: (a) web-based repository for slides and videos; (b) Jupyter notebooks and open source software for teaching concepts of DC resistivity and inverting data, (c) a public repository for data and processing to allow all results to be reproduced; (d) case history documents to allow multiple people to collaborate on the same project; (e) social media to promote the organization of the Myanmar Hydrogeophysics Society and communication therein, (g) video conferencing to connect with TOT’s to maintain interaction. Without these resources our outcomes would have been severely marginalized. We hope that sharing our experience and resources will benefit humanitarian efforts being carried out in other regions.
Presentation Date: Monday, October 12, 2020
Session Start Time: 1:50 PM
Presentation Time: 4:45 PM
Location: 360C
Presentation Type: Oral
