A few days ago Mikel Maron asked me if I’d be interested in becoming a HOT member. Without hesitation I decided to give it a try and contact my friends from the HOT community in LATAM: Humberto Yances, Julio Costa Zambelli, and Vitor George, to ask them for a nomination. And now I’m writing this to share my story on why I’d like to join an organization that is changing the way society is responding to disasters.

I’m a software developer and open data activist, who currently serves as Director of Open Data for the National Digital Strategy at the Office of the President of Mexico. In this role I co-lead the design and implementation of the federal open data policy, and coordinate the development of technology for dozens of projects around open data and open government.

For two years I’ve been leading our ReconstrucciónMX program, a project aimed to leverage technology for resilience, from targeted alert broadcasting through multiple digital channels to the use of new technologies to support and improve disaster response.

I got involved in HOT volunteer efforts after the Nepal Earthquake and SOTM US this year. Afterwards I started promoting OSM in civic tech and developer communities in Mexico. This led me to give a talk at the SOTM LATAM 2015, where I presented my experiments on hacking OSM historic databases to understand the behavior and development of the national OSM communities in Latin America, trying to find out what triggers OSM engagement.

Soon after, with the guidance of Pierre Béland and the support of the OpenStreetMap MX community I had the opportunity to coordinate a HOT activation simulation during the National Earthquake Drill in Mexico, which successfully showed the potential of HOT to the National Emergency Committee.

In the early hours of October 25th (-0500), I started a conversation in the HOT mailing list suggesting an activation for Hurricane Patricia. During the crisis I helped out as a liaison between government agencies and the HOT efforts, where we managed to get an ODbL authorization letter, the publication of COD/FOD datasets, and the participation of multiple communities in the country.

After watching closely the disaster response operations inside Government agencies for the past two years, I’m convinced that HOT has the potential to improve emergency protocols and access to real-time open data for decision making. With the experience of Hurricane Patricia, I’m willing to push for the adoption of OSM data in my country, for preparedness and for emergency management.