(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
International aid agencies are being encouraged to use new technology in times of crisis.
One website is using crowdsourcing to give real-time updates on information like civilian deaths and blood bank needs.
But some aid workers say their countries will need additional support before the technology has any impact.
Hannah Sinclair reports.
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Acts of terror can result in an urgent need for humanitarian assistance.
When Shebab militants attacked the Westgate shopping centre in Kenya in September, hospitals desperately needed blood in the capital of Nairobi.
Co-founder of crowdsourcing website Ushahidi Juliana Rotich says her website helped.
"The specific application that was created was called a blood donation app, where the Ushahidi technology was used to map out the locations where citizens could go and donate blood because there was a lot of need for blood to different hospitals. So that is one of the ways that the technology can be used. It can be used to map out infrastructure or pop-up locations where people can go and assist."
Ushahidi makes open-source software for mapping and information collection.
The free software encourages the participation of citizens from the ground level up, to provide fast, verified information.
Ms Rotich says that the data obtained is useful in times of crisis.
"You want to know from the citizens, what do they need. And can they tell you with the technology that they have in their pockets or their purses. With mobile technology, or how can we leverage technology to basically have better awareness of what's going on."
The technology is also being used to document civilian deaths in the Syrian conflict.
Since 2011 people have been using email or Twitter to send reports of violence and deaths to the website, Syria Tracker.
The reports are then verified by the Ushahidi team which cross-validates information against other sources or posts.
"Syria Tracker has a very clear way of verifying their information where they'll corroborate the information that they get from other sources and therefore can say that X,Y or Z is verified. So the verification process is extremely important and can be quite customised depending on the context and the specific crisis or situation which the data is being collected about."
The idea has been broadly welcomed by delegates of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.
Laila Ahmad Tougan, from Jordan, says crowdsourced information can work for traditional aid organisations.
"It can be very useful. And we believe that in Jordan we have been using the modern day technology, the social media, it's been quite empowering. And we are beginning to build capacity for our beneficiaries."
But some countries hold reservations about how effective the technology would be.
The National Secretary of the Sri Lankan Red Cross, Nimal Kumar, says the infrastructure isn't yet in place in his country.
"A country like Sri Lanka, because it's beginning for technological development, so Sri Lanka would require assistance, expertly supported resources to kind of generalise it, to open it to the public need."
Julianna Rotich is working with organisations to establish formal partnerships so they can utilise what she calls her *tech-savvy volunteers.
"One of the things that we would like the different national chapters to know is that there is a community of technically capable volunteers who would like to be of assistance. We are happy to connect them and to be the broker, or to at least facilitate the informal conversation. And then hopefully there's a formal partnership that could really be useful when the next crisis happens or something happens in a community."
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