Episode 69: Humanitarian Open Source with Michael Nolan

Guest Michael Nolan Panelists Pia Mancini | Richard Littauer Show
Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! The podcast where we talk about
sustaining open source. On today’s episode, our special guest is
Michael Nolan, Director at the Federation of Humanitarian
Technologists and the Assistant Director at Open@RIT. We learn all
about what the Federation of Human Technologists is and what they
do, and find out what Mike is doing at Open@RIT. He also tells us
about his current project on GitHub called Coalesce, that he’s
working on in London. Also, did you know Mike has a podcast?
Download this episode now to find out much more! [00:00:50] Mike
tells us about the Federation of Humanitarian Technologists.
[00:03:35] There’s a lot of non-governmental organization (NGOs) in
the aid sector that need help, and Mike fills us in on what else is
out there to do this sort of open source work to help them out.
[00:08:12] Pia wonders how Mike is getting funding and if he’s
planning on building a membership organization fee. [00:10:51] Pia
poses a great question to Mike about why there isn’t a company that
is doing this in a way that is profitable. Mike talks about the
Digital Impact Alliance as a great example. [00:12:34] Mike is part
of the Ethical Source Working Group at Sustain and he tells us
about how this plays into what he’s doing. [00:14:43] Mike explains
his GitHub project called Coalesce, a Volunteering Platform, and he
also tells us why he is spending his time building it and the
reasons they chose this project. He talks about South East Rivers
Trust as one of the organizations they work with. [00:23:38] Find
out where you can get involved in the Federation of Humanitarian
Technologists. [00:24:45] Mike tells us about his new position at
Open@RIT, what it is, and what he’s doing there. [00:31:25] Richard
mentions Mike has a podcast called the Ethics in Open Source
Podcast that you should check out. Spotlight [00:28:00] Pia’s
spotlight is a productivity app called WorkFlowy. [00:28:44]
Richard’s spotlight is a paper that came out called, “Crisis MT:
Developing A Cookbook for MT in Crisis Situations.” [00:29:43]
Mike’s spotlights are the Ethical Source Working Group and the Open
Mind Project. Links Mike Nolan Twitter
(https://twitter.com/__nolski__?lang=en) Mike Nolan Website
(https://nolski.rocks/) mike@federationof.tech
(mailto:mike@federationof.tech) Federation of Humanitarian
Technologists (https://www.federationof.tech/) Federation of
Humanitarian Technologists YouTube
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6PWHXAhLvU) Open@RIT
(https://www.rit.edu/research/open) Open Technology Fund
(https://www.opentech.fund/) Digital Impact Alliance
(https://digitalimpactalliance.org/) The Ethical Source Movement
(https://ethicalsource.dev/) South East Rivers Trust
(https://www.southeastriverstrust.org/) Coalesce
(https://github.com/FederationOfTech/Coalesce) Impactful Open
Source (https://impactfulopensource.fireside.fm/) OpenMined
(https://www.openmined.org/) WorkFlowy (https://workflowy.com/)
“Crisis MT: Developing A Cookbook for MT in Crisis Situations.”
(https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W11-2164/) Open Mind Project
(https://www.openmindproject.com/) Ethics in Open Source Podcast
(https://anchor.fm/ethicsinopensource) Credits Produced by Richard
Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by
DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/)
Special Guest: Michael Nolan.