TechAid

From CrisisCommons Wiki

TechAid

A tool that records, categorizes, stores, and reports technical project needs for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and facilitates pairing NGO projects with technical resources.

Status

CrisisCampDC has started on this. If you are at another CrisisCamp and want to work on this project please add a post to the TechAid google group.

CrisisCampPDX might be interested in this. To be discussed. CrisisCamp Boston could contribute, as well, if we have an organizer—or even just a good project description—by tomorrow morning (Eastern time).

TechAid: #cctvd A need exists to record, store, and categorize projects requests coming in to crisiscommons. TechAid has defined a work flow to handle requests that initially will use wufoo forms to gather the request information. A categorization process was defined and posted to the TechAid wiki. We have included next steps for the hand-off team. Next steps could include how to bridge in the technical volunteer network, i.e. a volunteer CRM. Rumor has it that a group is presently working on building the CRM with SugarCRM?

UPDATE: The techaid wufoo account received an upgrade to its account to the 20-user account level, compliments of wufu.com!

From the wufoo staff: "One other thing that might be of use to you: we just released a new webhooks feature in our notifications/integrations. The webhook would allow you to send an http post of the entry to a url of your choosing. That way the entry would be stored in your Wufoo form database like normal, as well as update any application you've got going on. Not sure if you were looking to pull the data out of Wufoo or not, but here is the info on that if you're interested: http://wufoo.com/docs/integrations/webhooks

And of course there is also the standard Wufoo api: http://wufoo.com/docs/api

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email us here at support@wufoo.com (or send a request through one of the contact forms on our site, either way is fine.)"

CrisisCamp LA 1/23/2010 - 6:09PM LocalTime Chad and Israel are working on using CRM to collect the Volunteer & NGO contacts, and the workflow. We will integrate parts of this techaid project, and use the this infrastructure. An update later tonight.

LA's Proposal 1. Capture & Collect Information from NGOs & Volunteers and store in SugarCM 2. Prepare a workflow to act upon NGOs requests 3. Connect with SMEs to 'filter' the NGO requests 4. Connect with the Volunteers after skills are identified.

January 30th 2009 Camp Update

Update from DC Team as of NOON EST:

• Working to elaborate the intake questions for NGO requests.
  • We have started a DRAFT list of intake fields which the crisiscommons.org web dev team can use integrate the intake form into the mainsite.
• Further refining the intake process.
• As we finalize the intake process and form, a post-project requirement is that these proposals will need to have a database that stores the project proposals.

Intake fields DRAFT:

Note: These fields are not set in required order:

First Name

Last Name

Organization Name

Your Job Title/Role with Organization

Email Addess

Phone Number 1

Phone Number 2

Website

Contact Address

Project Name

New project vs. existing project

Your role with project

Requested date of completion

Project description

4:30pm EST Status Update:
We have completed the intake wufoo form.
On the sections below, we have defined the processes and roles for the NGO requestor and the Crisis Commons "Gatekeeper"

Coordinators

East Coast: Son Tran @sont

West Coast: Chad Catacchio @chadcat

Skype: chadcat

Volunteer Team

Michael Augustine Aaron Brazele @technosailor

Doug Emery @dougemery

Justin Hayes @justinmuses

Erik Ladinksy @dynkums

David Swearingen @bethesdaboys

Kate Zimmerman @katedc

Eric Vrabel @vrabele

Israel Lopez @ilopezc

Collaboration Workspace:

Project History: 01/23/2010 Initial approach: To build an application point of entry that would allow NGOs to submit technical problem issue, allow technical volunteers to register their skills, broadcast the NGO need, provide for a collaboration component. Idea was to build a web application based on Ruby on Rails.

Breakout session: Came to a quick agreement to simply the application and its features Identified there are two audiences looking at this: NGOs and technical volunteers Focused on the NGO's point of entry: access, define problem, sumbit, vett/translate needs, match with volunteer

Defining a successful project: an application/tool that will register the NGO problem, record the problem, categorize, stores the issue, and report technical project needs for the NGO and facilitates pairing NGO projects with technical resources.

There would be a human hand (admin) involved in the vetting process.

Use Cases: 1. Register the need/request 2. Admin categorizes the problem (triage) 3. Assign technical resource

Technical Approach: Start of with a form. wufoo forms? google forms?

Completed: 1. created a protoype form 2. categorized the problem needs: is this a technical project? is there already a similar project? Is this project in progress or closed? convert intake information to technical terms. Re-evaluate if there is already an existing project? Initiate a new project. Post project as a new wiki entry. 3. discussed the business requirements 4. discussed form features: the components of the initial prototype and if an admin can gleam the technical scope of the project need given the entries made to the form.

Defined the categories: Categories: (w/ description and quantity) 1. Human: programming, gathering information, project management 2. Hardware: server, phone 3. Service: installing networks, servers, hosting, delivery

Notes: Wufoo will be the starting point for the tool. As this grows we will migrate to a board, or web application of some sorts. The data and details from wufoo forms can be exported, i.e. to excel.

Gatekeeper Requests and Categorization Process

Requests will be submitted as Wufoo forms and for each request an email will be sent to the TechAid Google Group: [1]. TechAid members monitor this group to examine new requests and decide what action to take. Possible actions are to deny the request, route the requester to an overlapping project that already exists, work with the requester to convert their business requirement request to a technical resource request (if necessary,) or approve and initiate a new project.

When a decides they will handle a new request, they "claim" it by replying to that request email's thread so other members will not work on the same request. At this point they are acting as a "Gatekeeper" and will follow the steps below to categorize the request and take any necessary action.

Is it a technical request?

   no: Notify requester that their request is out of scope for TechAid
   yes: Is there already a similar project?
       yes: Is existing project finished or in progress. Notify requester of existing project and suggest they contact that project group.
       no: Convert the request to technical terms to elaborate on the technical resources needed (might require communication with requester)
           Once again check to see if there is already a similar project, if it's finished or in progress, etc.
           Initiate New Project as a technical request:
                  Gatekeeper posts reply message to request thread to indicate that it has been handled
                  Gatekeeper creates new project summary section on CrisisCommons (CC) wiki and creates new project wiki
                      1. CC wiki section for this project: project title, technical description of project, summary of technical resource needs
                      2. Project wiki: everything from 1 plus the Wufoo form exported, converted to project wiki format, and pasted in
                  (If CrisisCommons website develops a project management app that will need to be updated as well for the new project)
                  CrisisCommons volunteers offer to work on project

Process and Roles

Essential Information for the NGO Requester
Who we are?
As a part of a web-based grassroots movement, we are a loosely connected volunteer group of technology professionals, development workers, idealists and everyone in between to contribute our skills to help with the relief effort in Haiti! We’re developing a system of rapid response to your immediate technology issues!

What we do?
We connect development workers with “techies” world-wide!

How we work?

What is Crisis Commons?
Founded in March 2009 through an impromptu web-based meeting, a small band of idealists and innovators gathered to discuss the idea of creating a common community consisting of citizen volunteers, crisis response organizations, international humanitarian relief agencies, non-profits and the private sector. Within minutes, the CrisisCommons community was born and CrisisCamp events were created to unite communities, seek common ground, and cultivate innovation in the use of technology for mobility and efficiency during crisis.

Response Email Template: (for gatekeepers)

   Thank you for your submission! A coordinator will contact you if we need additional information. Otherwise, we will convert your
   request into a technical project, and will send you the link to your project. It’s that easy! 
   If a volunteer identifies your technical project as something they can help with, s/he will contact you directly with the information 
   you provided. As the project moves along, the coordinator will be responsible for updating the project summary and project page to 
   provide status updates and communicate information with the other team members.

   Please keep in mind that CrisisCommons.org is a loosely organized group, consisting entirely of volunteers committed to a common cause.  
   As such it might be some time before potential volunteers contact you about working on your request. Please be patient with us!

From the CrisisCommons Perspective
Roles

   Gatekeeper: Reviews and approves NGO requests; creates official Project page
   Team Members: Volunteers for specific project, Team Lead chosen to drive completion effort and manage communication with NGO

Gatekeeper Tasks:

   Gatekeeper notified via tech-aid@crisiscommons.org and claims request
   Gatekeeper will review request
   Gatekeeper will contact customer if needed to gather further information and requirements
   Gatekeeper submits Project to the Wiki and Drupal project for dissemination
   Gatekeeper opens a record in our Ticket Tracking System

Team Lead Tasks:

   Volunteers sign up for project and coordinate via Wiki and assign Team Lead
   Team Lead will coordinate with the NGO contact
   Team Lead will submit status updates to Ticket Tracking System and Wiki
   Team members will package deliverable and complete project notes on Wiki
   Team lead submits completed status information to Ticket Tracking System

Next Steps

1. Add fields to Wufoo form to help elicit more precise project technical resource requirements:
   1. Categorization: human (project management, requirements gathering, programming); hardware (server, phone); service (networks, hosting, delivery)
   2. Specific technologies (Java, Apache, Rails, Unix, Windows, etc.)
   3. Quantities COMPLETED!
2. Reconcile the request form and directions for categorizing and creating wiki entry/page with the information found at Project Description Template for CrisisCommons.org 50% Complete

1. Make sure that there is consistent and correct information on the wiki for how to request a new project. Should we force all new requests to go through the wufoo request form (or whatever ends up replacing it) or should we tell NGOs that they can create their wiki entry and project page on their own? COMPLETED!
2. Add Wufoo hidden fields to aid workflow:
   1. Admin assignment of request (who's handling and evaluating this request)
   2. Request routing (Is this request getting routed to another project or getting created as a new project?)
   3. Requester acceptance (Does the requester accept the proposed routing? Or still need a new project?)
   4. Marking of request handling complete
3. Add email notification and email boilerplate for workflow events:
   1. Admin assignment
   2. Admin response to the request
   3. Project created on Wiki 50% Complete
4. Work out process for creating new Wiki entries for new project (see categorization process in the previous section):
   1. CrisisCommons Wiki Main page new projects list
   2. New page for project (include complete Wufoo form data, less admin-only fields)
5. Creation of volunteer form
   1. Work so far deals only with NGO side. A way to identify technical people and resource providers is needed. Team so far has not determined whether this will work with SugarCRM being developed or there should be another Wufoo form for this purpose.
6. Create reports for identified purposes
   1. NGO report listing projects needing resources
   2. Volunteer/resources report listing people and resources available for projects
7. Improve formatting and usability of the Wufoo form
8. Update this section for the next handoff

Project Summary

Project Twitter #cctvd

This new project ("Techaid") is focused on building a tool that records, categorizes, stores, and reports technical project needs for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and facilitates pairing NGO projects with technical resources.

As of 11:30AM 01/23/2010

Question: How does this differ from 'We Have, We Need'? Accomplished: Defining the project issue and mission Use Cases Form prototyping Categorizing the problem request/Devising a process

Main issues: indentifying problem from ngo, submitting, vetting, tech volunteer match Discussing scenarios with an NGO staff person (user) and the team (system)

• Project Leads (all cities):
• Customer:
• Location of Lead:
• Cities Interested:
• Assigned Project Manager(s) Across all Cities:

Son Tran (DC) @sont

• Interested participants: Michael Augustine, Aaron Brazele @technosailor

, Doug Emery @dougemery , Justin Hayes, Erik Ladinksy @dynkuns , David Swearingen, Erik Vrabel @vrabele