Workshops

Brendan O’Neil, ESRI US

Integrated GIS for Field Operations

Join us as we explore an integrated set of mobile and web applications that allow you to coordinate field operations, collect data in connected or disconnected environments, and build powerful dashboards that transform collected data into powerful insights. In this session, we will learn to configure these tools so that our workflows become repeatable and scalable to different contexts or geographies, decreasing time to deployment and facilitating data flows to and from the field. Technologies covered in this session include: 1- Survey123 for ArcGIS, 2- Collector for ArcGIS, 3- Explorer for ArcGIS, 4- Workforce for ArcGIS, 5-Navigator for ArcGIS, 6-Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS.

Please bring your laptop!

Mayeul Kauffmann & Katia Bouslimani, University Grenoble-Alpes -CYBIS

Data Protection - Part 1: Data security

The workshop will briefly present the main legal obligations that information officers and data managers must obey to, and then the tools that can help with this task by improving the security of data: encryption of highly sensitive data and of passwords, data transfer (e-mails and other means), etc.

Required software (to be installed on the laptop of the participants before the session): 1- an office suite, 2- a web browser, 3- Keepass 2, and 4- 7-Zip.

Laurène Barlet, SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL

EPIINFO au service de MEAL

Epi Info™ is a public software made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA.) It is designed for the global community of public health practitioners and researchers and can be used to strengthen analysis of field data collected and enable quicker visualisation. This workshop will look at the sampling tool, the mapping tool and the analysis tools in greater details. It will use common MEAL data to show how to draw statistically significant conclusions and will focus on key messages around what is behind a reported indicator value.

To be downloaded prior to session: EpiInfo, RawData (folder link will be provided on the 26th of October).

Judith Burchett, ACAPS

What role for H2H? Let’s map the future of humanitarian data services

 The H2H network provides services that enable the humanitarian sector to efficiently and effectively assist people affected by disasters. Several H2H agencies focus on data. We deliver services such as data collection, information management, analysis and mapping.

As a network we are looking to the future, to work out how we can best provide a range of inter-operable, timely services to humanitarian decision makers. Join us to develop a vision for the products and services we could collectively offer: we will think big and creatively to come up with ideas and options that would provide those involved in humanitarian response with the information they need, in a format they prefer. This will ultimately help us to identify gaps, develop needs-based solutions and map out where our different members are best placed to contribute.

This workshop will not be a technical presentation but rather a collective work session open to both service providers & users of data, to map out the future of humanitarian data services!

Leonardo Milano & Maria Teresa Miranda Espinosa, IDMC (NRC)

Combining internal displacement data from the field with big data using IDMC tools 

The goal of the workshop is to show to the participants how to interpret, access and display data collected by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Participants will learn about the methodology used to compile data on internal displacement at a global scale. IDMC will also present some tools developed with this purpose such as the global displacement monitoring platform which mines media articles, from Local and International media, using Natural Language Processing to extract displacement information. The platform, the NLP algorithm and its output (API) will also be presented.

Marie Beeckman, CartONG

Useful GeoData sources for humanitarian and how to use them

During this session, we will present different sources of freely-accessible geographic Internet data useful for humanitarians (e.g., population, forest cover, conflict). We will see how to format these in order to create useful and attractive maps. The session will also serve as an exchange of information about data sources and practices commonly employed. This workshop session is open to anyone using ArcGIS and QGIS. Participants must come with a computer equipped with one of these 2 software.

Data protection – Part 2: Privacy

The workshop will briefly present the main legal obligations that staff managing or using private data must obey to, as well as methods and software that can help with this task: anonymisation, pseudonymisation, data degradation (randomisation, grouping), etc. for thematic, quantitative and spatial data.

Introduction to Leaflet

Leaflet is an open-source Javascript library for web interactive maps. Performing and easy to learn, it's a good solution for a webmapping initiation. For more-advanced developers, Leaflet works efficiently across all major desktop and mobile platforms and can be extended with lot of plugins. It this workshop, you will learn how to create and configure your first map, insert and style your own dataset. This workshop is for cartographers with a first web-development experience or for developers interested on webmapping.

Extraction of dwellings in refugee camps: how to do it and what it tells you

One way to know what is going on in a camp is to count the number of dwellings. During this workshop, we will show when and how that can be done automatically in eCognition (demo), and why manual work is often still necessary. In a second part, you will learn various ways to present and display the dwelling density and the change between two time steps using ArcGIS (hands-on training). Please bring your laptop, and download the free trial version of ArcGIS prior to the session.

Using the Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL) to create fast data flows and visualisations

This session will give a hands on walkthrough of how to set up a workflow using the humanitarian exchange language (HXL) and HXL tools, from combining data sets to cleaning and structuring data with a live feed into interactive visualisations. The workshop will be based around data from the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Please bring a laptop!

Julien Calas & Claire Zanuso, AFD, Julien Ancelin, developer of GéoPoppy, INRA, Etienne Perrier, Nitidae & Maeve de France, CartONG

GéoPoppy: a portable Webserver-based GIS for the off-line collection of geographic data

The acquisition of geographical data is a major issue for those involved in development work and who wish to be able to follow the impact of their actions in the field. In order to guarantee the integrity of the data produced as well as to have these available for analysis, it is essential to have high-performance IT tools which are robust, flexible and adaptable. GéoPoppy, developed at INRA (the National Institute of Agronomic Research), is an open source, community-run and financially accessible tool which meets these needs while offering users both in-office and offline field-based capabilities. GéoPoppy is a portable mini-server, based on several hard- and software components allowing functional interoperability. A flashable image permits the user to deploy the software without having to have any particular knowledge of server administration. It can also be easily “hacked” and thereby connected to other tools as needs arise during data collection. More information can be found at: https://github.com/jancelin/geo-poppy. With the aid of CartONG and the support of the AFD (French Agency for Development), the NGO Nitidae has adopted Géopoppy in Côte d’Ivoire to be able to follow agricultural and forest plots in the framework of the REDD+ project. All actors involved will be present during the workshop to share their experiences and discuss opportunities to use the tool in your projects or to identify your specific project needs and help you move even further ahead.

The workshop will take place in English with some brief parts in French.

Working with the time dimension and versions of spatial data with QGIS

Following the roundtable on a related topic, the workshop will give hands-on experience to participants on how to efficiently manage and visualize two important aspects of spatio-temporal data: 1) the time of observed phenomena, 2) the various versions of a spatial dataset (say, for a given dated event) as it is refined or corrected.

Prerequisite: Basic use of a GIS software (preferably QGIS) for simple tasks.

Required software (to be installed on the laptop of the participants before the session): QGIS2 (not QGIS3) with 2 plugins: TimeManager and QGIS-Versioning (possibly other plugins to be confirmed to participants at a later stage) 

Basic mapping with QGIS

Designed for those new to GIS, or with some limited experience already, this workshop will introduce the main features of QGIS, focussing on its practical uses. At the end of this session, participants will be able to display several geographical data layers, to work on data visualization (symbology) and to perform basic manipulations on QGIS. The objective of this workshop is for the participants to be able to produce their own map using several layers of data in QGIS.

Prerequisite: please bring your own laptop and mouse, and if possible install QGIS version 2.18.23 from www.qgis.org. This is a free, open source GIS that runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Paola Fava & Nikolai Polikurov, Gnuccop

DEWCO, a new data collection, visualization and reporting tool

Are you facing the challenge of having good data? Do your indicators not really match your expectations? Would you like to explore a new data collection tool and then try to analyse your data and do predictive analysis? Well, this is the workshop you were looking for! We’ll introduce you to the use of DEWCO, a new tool created by Gnucoop, for data collection, visualization and reporting, developed with humanitarian context in mind. Collected data can then be analyzed and, in accordance with the event theme "Perfection versus Good enough in Information Management", we will also demonstrate how recent machine learning techniques could help improving this concept. Some of the main tasks of data analysis are data cleansing and data transforming, but how to behave when some data is missing, it is gathered inconsistently, or comes from a low quality source? The missing data could be inferred from the available data with a great deal of statistical and machine learning tools. Sometimes it is not Perfect, but often is Good Enough. By the end of the workshop participants will have a clear understanding and have gained familiarity with the use of the DEWCO tool and have been introduced to the concept of inferring missing data. No previous knowledge is required, just bring your laptop.

Thinking twice, thinking slow: secondary data analysis for better humanitarian response

This session will outline the importance of secondary data review and introduce the IFRC’s analytical approach. You will be introduced to different ways of thinking about thinking and how these can improve humanitarian decision-making.  You will need to bring your open mind and willingness to learn, but no need for any software.

Maeve de France, CartONG & Noel O'Boyle, Medair

Data collection: A bit less cleaning, a bit more quality

Do you want to cut down on the numerous hours spent on cleaning the data you have produced through digital data collection? This workshop is for you! We will explore a realistic data collection scenario and together build a list of all the methodological and technical checks that you and your teams should go through, before deploying a form to the field. High data quality for project management requires high form quality. As manual form quality checks take time, we will also demo and share the XLS Checker dashboard that Medair has developed. We will have a few spare mobile devices, but if you have an Android device please come with ODK installed on it.

Gaurav Thapa, Kathmandu Living Labs

Maps for and with the beneficiaries

For the past five years Kathmandu Living Labs has been building a community that contributes to OpenStreetMap. It does this, as Nepal, like many other developing countries does not have freely available, detailed online map. While traditional mapping agencies target mapping needs of big organizations and expert users, everyday needs of map data for local governments, small organizations and citizens at large remain unmet. For most communities this work creates awareness about our immediate surroundings, concepts around open data and promotes spatial literacy. For local governments, open data leads to planning and visualization of progress. Participants will have to come with pencils, android phones, laptops and mouse. They will have to download OSMTracker for Android for their Android phones. This workshop is for beginners and project coordinators working in the field. It is designed to show how non-GIS experts understand and utilize basic geographic concepts, and how we can get to understand our communities through mapping. The idea is also to show how such work is useful to local governments, small organizations and citizens at large.

Morgane Bradley, Oxfam International

Building Digital Communities of Practice that actually work

Nowadays, we are all working in increasingly global, decentralized and non-hierarchical teams. In consequence, we need to give staff the collaboration spaces that fit how they want to work, because they're good at knowing how they want to get their work done. At Oxfam, they're using Workplace by Facebook to achieve this goal. During this workshop, one will learn more about how it allows people to find, share and build on new connections and ideas easily, find the right person for a given project and self-service start building one's own communities of practice.

Anastasiia Tsymbalova & Miguel Moreno Gonzalez, CartONG

How to easily combine Mobile Data Collection and Business Intelligence to transform the data into beautiful and easy-to-make visualizations?

During this workshop, we will use a step by step approach to show how to display data from KoboToolbox in a powerful analytical tool called Microsoft PowerBI, easily turning your data into key information for decision-making. The workshop covers the following topics: 1- Introduction to PowerBI, 2- Pulling Kobotoolbox data into Microsoft PowerBI, 3- Creating interactive dashboards and 4- Publishing dashboards to Power BI and sharing the results with colleagues.

Background: Kobo platform knowledge and basic understanding of data analysis and working with data in Excel is a plus.

Requirements: 1- Laptop with Power BI, 2- Desktop installed: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/get-started/, and 3- Power BI Online account (if you don’t have it, you could get a free one with your pro email)

Joaquim Martin, Johan Roussay & Olivier Ribière, CartONG

Get started with Github

Github is a very popular software development platform. It can be seen as a publishing tool, version control system and a collaboration tool among other things. Github is particularly useful to host simple web pages like dashboards, webmaps or web based documentations. During this workshop we will see the basics of Github. For those who do not have a Github account we will create one and see some of the things you can do with it. We will also see how to publish a simple web page based on the work of another Github member. This workshop does not require any special coding skills (but it will be easier to fully understand it if you have some). Please come with your computer (no particular program to install before the workshop).

Johan Richer, Jailbreak & Fabrique des mobilités,  François Carcel, AFD & Jules Depeux, OGPToolbox

Digital Transport for Africa: OSM, open data and open source for transport in developing countries

With its partners (World Resources Institute, Fabrique des mobilités, Jailbreak, Jungle Bus, Digital Matatus, Transport for Cairo, …), AFD (French Development Agency) has launched a resource centre to support mobilities in developing countries: http://digitaltransport4africa.org/. In Africa, most cities are currently dependent upon informal transportation mode (often vans), dominated by private and fragmented operators. To map those networks in their diversity would produce data needed to better plan and respond to the challenges they are facing. This would also provide opportunities to create new services for users (route planning, etc.) as well as contribute to the sustainable development goals. Which resources do we need in order to collect, publish, and use those data? A wide range of tools and documentation are already presented as part of the resource centre (free software, open data, OpenStreetMap, GTFS, etc.). We invite you to discover them, learn how to use them and contribute to their improvement in this workshop that will be first and foremost practical and interactive.

Prerequisite: computer and/or smartphone (preferably Linux & Android), basic knowledge of OpenStreetMap is better, but not compulsory.

Mélanie Eckle, University of Heidelberg

How to access, analyze and combine OpenStreetMap, HOT Tasking Manager and MapSwipe data

The workshop is open to all organizations, practitioners and community members that are interested in learning about current developments in regard to advanced OSM data access and analyses methods. Participants will learn how to easily conduct OSM data analyses, also including the OSM History, and will get insights around the use of related data sets, e.g. Map Swipe and HOT Tasking Manager data. We will furthermore share examples on how OSM data can be integrated with other data sources to produce additional knowledge. Main focus in the use cases will be laid on humanitarian data use. We will provide a short intro and overview, followed by use cases and hands-on examples in a World Cafe setting, covering the following: 1- OSM analyses using the ohsome framework, 2- Accessibility analyses and routing with openrouteservice, 3-HOT Tasking Manager data access with the Critical Numbers tool, and 4- Insights into Map Swipe Analytics

We will offer the workshops for attendees with different level of experience in OSM and technical skills. For beginners, we will show easy to use web tools. For more experienced users (e.g. with python and jupyter skills), we are happy to give guidance on designing your own queries and analyses. All attendees should bring their own laptop.

Laura Walker MacDonald, GAHI

How to monitor and evaluate the impact of the tech tools we use, and why it matters

This 2.5 hour workshop will examine why it’s important to understand the impacts - intended and unintended - of the technology tools and approaches we use in our work. It will discuss limitations to the current evidence base, and what this means for our field. In the second half, we’ll look at practical approaches to evaluating technology tools, including criteria, designing an evaluation terms of reference, and breaking down evaluation criteria with sample indicators and a baseline data collection plan. Participants should come with their past experiences or current challenges in mind, as it’s helpful to use real-world projects in our discussions! The workshop will be interactive and include generation of outputs and models you can use later.

The workshop draws on SIMLab’s Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Inclusive Technologies.