The 5th International Conference of Crisis Mappers (ICCM) took place from 18 to 22 November 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya bringing together practitioners, scholars, software developers and policymakers at the cutting edge of crisis mapping and humanitarian technology.
The Conference commenced with a Pre-Conference Technical Training Session to give more hands-on training and allow attendants to learn/share in smaller groups. The ICCM Training Day followed 4 tracks: Mobile/Security, Maps, Data and Knowledge, each with sub-sessions and directed training. This year's Opening Keynote speech was given by Jen Ziemke and Patrick Meier on November 20th.
The Roundtable Sessions started the day after, with Panel I: "What's so Big about Big Data?". The guiding questions were whether Big Data really help aid and relief, conflict prevention, community resilience, public empathy, timely response and long-term engagement with complex crises.
During Panel II: "Crisis Mapping for Conflict Management", the discussion focused on technology-based peacebuilding interventions, its development and its potential.
Having acknowledged the existence of Hard-to-Access Areas, with Panel III: "You Can't Get There from Here: Generating, Analyzing & Using Information from Hard-to-Access Areas" there was a look at the opportunities and challenges for atrocity and conflict prevention presented by specific technologies (including, potentially, Interactive Voice Response, algorithmic analysis of satellite imagery, and SMS-based verification methods).
During the last day of the Conference, the attendants enjoyed Self-Organized Sessions. One of the ignite talk slides can already be consulted online.
The 6th ICCM will take place in New York City next year.
