InSTEDD Tracker

FINAL

InSTEDD nails it with Tracker.
 

Tracker is a news and feed aggregator with a purpose. The site pulls in feeds which have a bearing on humanitarian relief.  InSTEDD's mission is focused in the realm of public health (pandemics) but they're smart about how they're approaching the problem.  The folks at InSTEDD have decided to fight pandemics by looking to destibilize the system that produces pandemic disease in human population. 

InSTEDD's particular focus at the current moment is capacity building in Cambodia and SouthEast Asia to boost reporting and tracking capability.  They believe that the best information and the quickest reporting stream is to be had from well educated people dispersed throughout the commmunity. The summary of their approach to disaster relief and public health is on this page at their site.  Their work, in their own words, is focused onbuilding "a better global immune system. We know we alone can't truly stop diseases, war, poverty, or climate change, but we think we can help humanity to learn about threats faster, and so respond quicker, and so soften the impact." (italics mine)

Tracker is designed to help humanity with that last bit, otherwise known as the important part. Unlike other news aggregators, Tracker doesn't categorize and segregate the different stories that are being pulled into the feed reader.  Stories about public health are right next to the newest software developments which are right next to the latest report from Human Rights Watch. 

"Tracker is an aggregator with a few twists. Links are not limited to breaking news, but include research papers, in-depth analyses, blog and vlog posts, podcasts, videos, websites and even book reviews. A story on a major earthquare might be grouped with an older but still relevant research paper on predicting aftershocks and fresh-from-the-field blog post about a new software application for mapping damage using a cell phone."

The goal of the site to set the stage for accidental interindustry cross polination of good ideas. Only when we can think faster and wider, when we can synthesize (meatier link here), disparate information, can we approach any useful planned activity in the disater world.

Tracker puts many of the pieces for a new snowmobile in one place - but are they the right pieces?

For now, I don't care. It's a step in the right direction and it's making the right philosophy a practical reality.