Fyi...might interest some of you. Cheers Harry ------ Forwarded Message From: <edevelopment@worldbank.org> Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 19:23:55 -0400 To: <e-Development_TG_External@worldbank.org>, <e-Development_TG_External_1@worldbank.org> Subject: Webcast Tomorrow: Disaster Risk Management in the Information Age, Oct 8-9 Dear colleagues We invite you to participate in the live webcast of a workshop on ?Disaster Risk Management in the Information Age? organized by the World Bank's Global Information Communication and Technology Department, infoDev, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), and the Latin American Disaster Risk Management team. Jointly we have put together an exciting program of panel discussions on different aspects of using ICT to assess, mitigate, prepare, and recover from disasters. You can also post comments and questions on our new eDevelopment Blog: http://edevelopmentblog.org Disaster Risk Management in the Information Age Oct. 8-9, 2008, 9:00 - 1:30 pm ET LIVE WEBCAST: http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live All workshop materials will be available at: http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment Program Description Between 1980 and 2006, natural disasters killed more than 2 million people worldwide and reported damages totaled 1.2 trillion USD. For example, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake caused about $5 billion damages. There were 5,210 disasters worldwide between 1991 and 2005. The World Bank has a large lending portfolio of natural disaster risk management projects: 195 active and pipeline projects amounting to USD 8248 Million. How does the information revolution change the way we deal with disasters? The key objective of this workshop is to raise awareness on the opportunities to improve the impact of disaster risk management projects via innovative and effective use of ICT and to help understand better key lessons learned, success factors and good practices. A series of case studies and presentations will discuss the enabling and transformational role of ICT applications throughout the full cycle of Disaster Risk Management activities: risk assessment, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. The Workshop will identify challenges and key issues, best practices and critical success factors, latest trends, solutions and technologies, as well as the policy recommendations and opportunities for mainstreaming and more effective use of ICT in the World Bank disaster risk management portfolio. How to make ICT a transformational enabler of better disaster risk management? What are the critical success factors for effective application of ICT in this area? What is the role of open source, mobile and other Web 2.0 tools? What is the role of Public Private Partnerships? The workshop will feature a number of distinguished experts: Alta Haggarty (UN OCHA) Gianluca Bruni (UN World Food Program, via VC from Rome) Chanuka Wattegama (LIRNEasia, formerly with UNDP) Paul Margie (Telecom Sans Frontiers) Charles Scawthorn (Kyoto University) Carmelle Terborgh (ESRI) Inderjit Claire (RMSI) Eric Rasmussen (InSTEDD) Gisli Olafsson (Microsoft) Andrew Levy (IBM) S. Rangarajan (World Space) John C. Scott (Center for Public Service Communications) Ken Zita (Network Dymanics Associates) Bill Gail (Microsoft) Saroj Jha (GFDRR/World Bank) Francis Ghesquiere (World Bank) Philippe Dongier (World Bank) Valerie D'Costa (infoDev) Deepak Bhatia (World Bank) Uwe Deichmann (World Bank) Samia Melhem (World Bank)) Hemang Karelia (GFDRR) Ramesh Siva (World Bank))) Sanjaya Bhatia (GFDRR) Edward Anderson (World Bank)) Trond Vedeld (World Bank) Reza Firuzabadi (World Bank)) ------ End of Forwarded Message