Ask HN: Emergency "Management" Software?

[rrnechmech]

Folks, I seem to vaguely recall that such a thing exists and was wondering if I could... count on you all to help me locate it. I am looking for something that I would describe as an open source emergency or crisis "management" platform. Something that would enable volunteers, resources, locations to be managed efficiently in a (hopefully) single online platform that can be self-hosted with as meager resources as possible or alternatively, if such a thing exists, hosted by some third party. Something that would enable organizations also to register themselves in a CRM kind of capability, but one that ideally would have as many features as possible that would come in handy under extreme circumstances, earthquakes, floods, and the like. I am sure that somebody must have come up with some solution enabling a core set of features such as I am describing, or that at least best practices must exist for this sort of software. Any pointers are appreciated.

[f1shy]

As part of this course [0] In one lesson [1] such system seems to be discussed.

Also look at the list at 0:29 in https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UseJfcmG3po&list=PLwJ2VKmefmxp...

[0] https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwJ2VKmefmxpUJEGB1ff6yU...

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z9cKZEz_Z00&list=PLwJ2VKmefmxp...

[mindcrime]

I don't know of anything that's exactly what you're asking for, but there are open source "incident command" / "incident management" packages out there. Not sure if any are actively maintained or up to date or not though.

There's some stuff here, but it doesn't look like it's gotten much love lately.

https://github.com/hadrsystems

[jumpm4n]

This post hit me with a wave of nostalgia. Years ago I helped my university deploy and maintain an instance of “UC Ready”, an open source emergency management webapp made by UC Berkeley - which was written in Coldfusion if I remember correctly.

Looking on their website now, it sounds like it was ported to Salesforce. Sorry I couldnt be any more help!

[codingdave]

One best practice I'm aware of is to make sure no emergency plans rely on something as fragile as a tech platform, as the communication networks that such things depend on are likely to be down.

[vdvsvwvwvwvwv]

While it is good to have a backup (AM radio? Morse code?) Why eschew a sophisticated system thay 99.99% of the time will be available.

[codingdave]

Because that 00.01% of unavailability occurs during emergencies.

[vdvsvwvwvwvwv]

It doesnt unless there is a common cause. Out of control bushfire for example would unlikely cause a SaaS or 5G/satellite outage

[fumplethumb]

How about humanitarian toolbox? https://www.htbox.org/