01902nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245008300055210006900138260004200207520147500249100002001724856003601744       2010                        eng d  a1913-610200aDeveloping a Service Industry to Support the Sahana Disaster Management System0 aDeveloping a Service Industry to Support the Sahana Disaster Man  aOttawabTalent First Networkc12/20103 aThe Sahana Software Foundation governs humanitarian free and open source software (HFOSS) projects that address the information-coordination challenges of disaster management. Sahana software has been proven effective and is recommended by numerous industry sources from both the emergency management and business sectors. It fulfills critical needs to enable organizations responding to disasters to share information across organizational lines and to track and effectively manage disaster efforts. These needs are substantial and are growing because of climate change and urban population growth, which is leaving increasing numbers of people vulnerable and susceptible to the effects of disasters.

Sahana fills a unique niche in the toolkit of emergency and disaster response agencies because it facilitates critical information sharing and coordination of efforts across all types of organizations and individuals involved, and is readily flexible to the needs that arise from any particular disaster. The software has its roots in the open source business community and has always been strongly supported by that industry. In this article, we describe an industry opportunity in HFOSS and provide evidence that Sahana software can be successfully commercialized. These factors make it a ripe time for open source businesses to engage cooperatively with the Sahana Software Foundation to support the growth of a service industry around Sahana software and HFOSS.1 aPrutsalis, Mark  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/400