“LOS DESCUBRIMIENTOS”

As already mentioned in the theoretical section is a social system the “set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem solving to accomplish a common goal” (Rogers, 2010, p. 49). It covers both individuals and organisations, although the latter one is the only one which the focus will lay on in this study. This section will thus analyse to what extent the various characteristics of the element played a role in the diffusion of outsourcing tasks to V&TCs.

1) Social structure and Interpersonal Networks

When an organisation is aligning itself with a new organisation and establishing new relationships, these changes tend to significantly disrupt the existing structures that are prevalent in that social system (Van Gorp, 2014). Van Gorp (2014) further argues that organisations are often not too keen to be adding new ties or dissolving old ones, since the structure of those social systems are prone to produce unintentional changes due to the new alignments. Furthermore, although there are believed that positive aspects which will lead to the further integration of V&TCs into the organisational routines of the OCHA are prevalent, there are also barriers from OCHA’s viewpoint that can lead to halting further integration due to structure differences (especially barriers within the organisations internal context). Due to the nature of the extremely critical first 72 hours of a disaster, some organisations may feel reluctant to deviate from the ordinary standard procedures. By having such reluctance, structural difference may become even more evident within a social system in terms of structuring and coordinating collaboration in a network between actors (Van Gorp, 2014). Regarding interpersonal networks; it has already been mentioned in a previous chapter that it is merged together with the section on interpersonal channels. This since both are overlapping greatly with each other and it is thus not necessary to analyse the findings in more than one section of this thesis.

While conducting the interviews for this thesis it became evident that interpersonal networks have been of great importance in facilitating the diffusion of outsourcing products. It became even more so after having interviewed Andrej Verity, which is the primary liaison officer between OCHA and V&TC. He is the co-founder of the digital humanitarian network, also works as an information management officer for OCHA as well as he leads OCHA’s digital service team (DHN, n.d.). He has main contribution has been related to establishing relationships between the two actors, but he also published guidance materials on both how

57 humanitarians can work with V&TCs14 _{and how V&TCs can work with formal humanitarian} organisations15_{. This document is considered among relevant actors and scholars in the field as} one of the official handbooks for V&TCs and are both widely cited works. Therefore, he is considered one of the most important individuals that have facilitated the cooperation between these two actors due to his contribution in terms of liaison, but also as a publisher of vital documents (Sabou & Klein, 2016).

Another important facilitator of interpersonal connections between the two is Roxanne Moore, who functions as a liaison between OCHA and the DHN, meaning she functions as the facilitator of services and product matchmaking between the two organisations (R. Moore, personal communication, OCHA/DHN, December 9, 2016). Her primary tasks involve facilitating “an exclusive relationship with MapAction and StandByTaskForce, where OCHA solicit the services of digital volunteers and their [V&TCs] technical human resources” (R. Moore, personal communication, OCHA/DHN, December 9, 2016). Although she has not been a member of the DHN since the launch of it, she indeed plays an important role in facilitating important relationships today due to her position in both organisations.

Conclusively, it is rather complicated to pinpoint which structure in this social system which has played a role in the spread of the innovation. Once again is it due to the fact that this study is a single case study and it is therefore difficult to trace the structures and communications channels within this social system since it is only concerning OCHA and V&TCs.

On the other hand, this section was able to present some of the valuable interpersonal networks that exist which have facilitated the diffusion of working closely together with V&TCs in OCHA. Individuals have contributed through factors such as facilitating communication and a relationship between various V&TCs and OCHA as liaison officers.

2) Opinion Leaders

OCHA and UNICEF being the first two bodies of the U.N. who implemented and made the outsourcing of mapping services from V&TCs a standard practice in sudden disaster onsets (Van Gorp, 2014). But it is rather complicated to pinpoint one or a few opinion leaders in a

14 _{See Guidance for Collaborating with Formal Humanitarian Organisations here:}

http://digitalhumanitarians.com/content/guidance-collaborating-formal-humanitarian-organizations

15 _{See guidance for collaborating with Volunteer and Technical Communities here:}

58 case such as the one in this study, since it is a single case study and therefore this study will not focus on this factor.

3) Types of Innovation-Decisions

This factor is not either considered to be of importance to explain the rate of adoption in this case. This since it is best used to explain the rate of adoption in a social system with a multitude of actors (which is not the case in this thesis).

4) Consequences of Implementation

As mentioned in the theoretical section is it important to take into account the various consequences of the implementation that may have facilitated or impeded the rate of adoption. The section below will focus on analysing the various consequences that emerged from the adoption of crowdsourced material into OCHAs information management sector. There are three main consequences that may emerge from diffusing an innovation that may explain its rate of adoption:

4.1) Unanticipated vs. Anticipated Consequences

One of the prime unanticipated consequences emerging out of the new cooperation was in regard to OCHAs working routines. In Libya 2011 for example, the collaboration allowed OCHA to faster produce information management products in the earliest phase of the emergency than it had ever been able to do before. This subsequently affected the organisational set up of OCHA since they had to adopt new strategies towards cooperating actors. With some of the maps and information provided by SBTF during that deployment ending up being incorporated into OCHAs official information management products, they had to amend their working routines and policies regarding working with outside actors. Furthermore, due to the fact that volunteers were ‘always on’ since many volunteers worked in different time zones, OCHA too had to be responsive towards SBTF around the clock (Meier, 2011).

This indeed influenced OCHA and their ways of working. By incorporating new actors and developing new relationships, some unanticipated consequences followed in the early stage of the introduction of crowdsourced material. Although changes occurred, it seems as this factor did not play a significant role in either facilitating or impeding the adoption rate. It appears as the unintended consequences was more a way of dealing with the new relationship rather than something that slowed it down or speeded it up.

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4.2) Direct vs. Indirect Consequences

OCHA has furthermore also expressed their concerns that social media mapping can come with a few indirect consequences if it is based solely on web 2.0 data. Say if, for example, an individual in a conflict setting is providing information on Twitter which is later mapped and highlighted for a bigger audience, then the provider of such information may become more vulnerable if someone find that information to compromise their position. For OCHA the “protection of individual identities is paramount” (OCHA, 2011, p.4), but it is indeed a thin line between protecting an individual and enabling community assistance. Although the trade- off between safety of an individual and the importance of the information must be considered, there must be developed tools and checks that can easily circumvent these risks. Similarly, mapping in conflicts should only focus on the humanitarian aspect of it whereas mapping on the movements of troops is not something that OCHA aims at acquiring (ibid.).

It is also important to remember that, as with most technological innovations, that the products delivered by V&TCs may contain mistakes. Even the smallest and seemingly trivial data point can have dire consequences in the end. When V&TCs are mapping roadmaps (damaged and undamaged roads) in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, it is paramount that it is handled with the care that it demands. If one for example would map out a bridge as not being damaged (when it actually is completely destroyed) and aid convoys are sent out along that road to reach a remote village with aid, then that can have critical consequences for the people in need of aid since the convoy would either have to turn around or take a long de-tour. This would subsequently mean that aid does either not reach, or reach too late to people which are in need of it. It is therefore extremely important that all points which are mapped are thoroughly checked and verified by many individuals (Meier, 2015). As an example, in the search of the MH370 mentioned in a previous chapter Tomnod developed a system that demanded each of the satellite images to be checked by ten different individuals before being confirmed as being of importance or not. Similar procedures are already tested or being developed by V&TCs which can thus limit some of the indirect consequences that could otherwise potentially limit further work relations.

Another indirect consequence of further integration and outsourcing is less funding for other aid actor’s due to the competition that emerge. As V&TCs continue to grow, they also must become more professional. As of today, the work is mainly done on a voluntary basis with only a few individuals being on a payroll in each of the organisations. However, with an increasing

60 amount of responsibilities it means that the number of paid staff will also increase. This would in turn lead to more competition with other aid organisations in the humanitarian sector for donor funding (Van Gorp, 2014). Another, perhaps anticipated consequence, is that with the degree to which these actors become more and more professional, so does the demand of them turning in to complete organisations increase. It is likely to believe that such has been the Conclusively one can see here that indirect consequences seem to have no significant role in explaining the rate of this adoption. However, regarding the fight of funding it may actually become a factor which will influence the decisions to either outsource or develop in-house capacities in the future.

4.3) Desirable vs. Undesirable Consequences

Furthermore, some undesirable consequences have also been raised regarding the volunteer burn-out, which is about the fact that due to merely 20% of volunteers are active at any given time of the day many work too many hours in a row. This has even gone so far that the SBTF has launched its own psychological support team since - besides the burn-out factor - volunteers also may sometime be exposed to very graphical content (Meier, 2011).

Finn et al (2015) also discussed in their work the potential undesirable consequences that can emerge from gathering data from social media. As of now, the user which the data is collected from has not given its consent to V&TCs to use that date and since the data is stored and processed upon collection, it is likely that individuals may start raising awareness towards whether their privacy is protected. It may indeed be an infringement to a user’s privacy, especially if the collection and processing of the data would be done by a government or any other authority. This could potentially lead to beliefs of suspicious usage of big data gathered information by governments, and subsequently discourage individuals from providing critical information to aid organisations online. After all, V&TCs would be significantly less useful if individuals would not provide data for them online via social media. This would thus clearly undermine some of the most crucial positive benefits of the whole innovation and the core idea behind crowdsourced data in humanitarian interventions.

Conclusively can one see that neither of the three sub-factors in the consequence element played a significant role in explaining the rate of adoption of OCHA. However, with future humanitarian aid organisations considering following OCHAs lead these may become increasingly significant in explaining decisions to outsource or not.

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