The Open Source Lab recently hosted a Meetup at EUREF Campus on the topic of Inclusive Mobility Worldwide – open source solutions for humanitarian actions. The invited speakers from gave insights into projects of CADUS e.V. and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Projects encompassed bottom up community development, through to open mapping, to designing and constructing mobile clinics.

Felix Delattre – Open Data for Public Transport in the Global South

Felix from Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team illustrated the potential of experimental change processes with participatory Open Source technology to improve the lives in the emerging cities of Africa and Latin America. Felix is an information technologist, software architect and development project manager with a passion for geographic information science. His focus is on innovation through participation, open data and free technologies. At Humanitarian OpenStreetMap he is working particularly on tools for crowd-sourced mapping and most recently on machine learning applications to assist the mappers with predictions.

Corinna Schäfer – Open source for mobile clinics: cooperation and innovation at CADUS

Corinna from for the humanitarian aid organization CADUS explained the processes and experiences undertaken to design and develop emergency response medical aid including a mobile hospital. CADUS is helping people suffering from the attacks of Turkey and its allied militias by providing local partners with five ambulances and food packages for refugee families. Corinna coordinates research and innovation projects at  CADUS and has a strong interest in open source solutions. She works on their realization at the CADUS Crisis Response Makerspace in Berlin.

After the presentations the lab hosted a small get-together networking session. Due to the imminent closures and banning of public-gatherings in response to the coronavirus pandemic, attendance to the event was unfortunately (but very understandably) much less than usual. Nonetheless it was extremely interesting evening and we applaud the work of our guests. Check out their websites if you would like to find out more about their projects, are interested in volunteering or supporting their important and extremely impactful work.