%0 Journal Article %J Open Source Business Resource %D 2010 %T Developing a Service Industry to Support the Sahana Disaster Management System %A Mark Prutsalis %X The 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. %B Open Source Business Resource %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %8 12/2010 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/400 %N December 2010 %9 Articles %1 The Sahana Software Foundation Mark Prutsalis is the President and CEO of the Sahana Software Foundation, a non-profit organization that governs the free and open source Sahana Disaster Management System. He is also the Founder and President of Globaliist Inc., an emergency management and disaster response consulting company. Mark has over 18 years of operational disaster response and emergency management experience following major international and domestic sudden onset natural and man-made disasters. He is a member of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), and the Humanitarian Logistics Association (HLA).