First, Indonesia’s President Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono praised InaSAFE (Indonesia Scenario Assessment for Emergencies), as being “very beneficial for all of us”.
Now, this innovative software developed by Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), and Australia through the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR), together with the World Bank, has been selected as a 2012 Open Source Rookie of the Year by Black Duck, the trusted partner for open source software adoption, management and governance.
InaSAFE, along with projects from groups such as Yahoo! and Twitter, was selected for this prestigious award from amongst 1,000’s of open source programs that were started in 2012.
InaSAFE is free and open software that anyone with basic computer skills can use. It can produce realistic disaster scenarios for contingency planning. It has been designed to help Indonesia and other countries in the region to effectively prepare for natural disasters by better understanding the likely impacts of disasters such as floods, earthquakes or tsunamis.
AIFDR’s Risk and Vulnerability Manager, Dr Trevor Dhu said that developing InaSAFE as an Open Source project was a conscious decision that aligns with the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) 2010 policy on open source which states that “Australian Government agencies will actively participate in open source software communities and contribute back where appropriate” (https://agimo.gov.au/files/2012/04/2010-004_AGIMO_Circular_Open_Source_Software_Policy.pdf).
“Developing InaSAFE as an open source project has allowed us to encourage global collaboration.
“It has allowed disaster experts from across the world to contribute to this effort to better understand disasters and, ultimately, reduce the tragic impact of disasters in Indonesia and the region.
“Open source has proven to be a viable model for software development because it maximises quality, transparency and exposure of the project.
“This generally leads to more collaboration and increased sustainability“, Dr Dhu said.
Now in its fifth year, the prestigious annual award identifies the top 10 open source projects of the year based on an analysis of open source projects found in the Black Duck® KnowledgeBase™ and Ohloh.net. This analysis highlighted that InaSAFE represents more than 50 person years of work from over 20 contributors.
For more information about the 2012 Open Source Rookies of the Year, please visit www.blackducksoftware.com/open-source-rookies and https://www.ohloh.net/p/inasafe
Source: aifdr.org/index.php/inasafe-wins-award-as-one-of-the-most-promising-open-source-projects-of-2012