This December (2012), a bloke from New York called John Kluge is launching a global Sanitation Hackathon.

His company, Eirene teamed up with the World Bank's Water Practice and ICT unit, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gate's Foundation to run a global hackathon.

For more details see the article in Huffington Post:

www.huffingtonpost.com/john-kluge/hackin...world_b_1909025.html

Thanks, for starting thread, Rowan. Huff Post piece was first I'd heard of Sanitation Hackathon.

I looked at the following links in hopes of finding date. Some say World Toilet Day on 19 Nov others 3 Dec during the World Toilet Summit.

Global Sanitation Hackathon www.opendta.org/Pages/Events/2012-Global...ation-Hackathon.aspx
Give Techies a shot. water.worldbank.org/news/give-techies-sh...evelopment-challenge
Corporate hackathon? www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120912/SMALLBIZ/120919967
Sanitation Hackathon in Bangladesh www.facebook.com/SanitationHackathonBangladesh

Loading events on events doesn't seem like a great idea. But Nov 19th would be a great time to announce purpose and parameters so that teams can form and be ready to roll through 2013. I am eager to see a team form in Portland, Oregon. I'll be looking for appropriate sanitation outsiders who can bring some new ideas to the work that has been going on. Will inquire about details from organizers.

Ah, WorldBank. It's strange to see that Hackathons often get that publicity while the action is hidden in the long tail. But still, any action is good action. Maybe also a chance for us to make use of sanimap.com (which I have), e.g. mapping dilapidated public toilets in the first/western world (via Ushahidi/Crowdmap, maybe).

Carol,

Engineers Without Borders have a local Water Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) knowledge hub, based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

We are keen to get together on World Toilet Day to celebrate and plan some sort of "Hack" over the Australian summer. The team may include local water/sewage Utilities, Engineering Consultancies and/or the local Universities.

regards,

Ro

Juergen Eichholz: Can you say more about the SaniMap concept? Everyday strategically placed public toilets are being closed or torn down and not replaced. The ones in the US from the early 20th century were often linked to public transit and not that urban people are giving up cars it's essential to focus attention on them.

You might also be interested in a recent post by Chicago toilet mapper Noah Sager at www.phlush.org/2012/08/26/behind-closed-...lic-restroom-access/ ( Perhaps you'd like to submit a guest post to editing team at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ? )

Hi Carol,
sanimap.NET was originally rented by me in 2007 because we (the GTZ/GIZ-ecosan team / SuSanA secretariat) had brainstormed about mapping toilets. With the formation of the SuSanA, the Japan Water Forum volunteered to work on a water/sanitation map, so I sold them sanimap.net. The result, however, isn't quite what I expected as the map has some conceptual issues, mainly the programming is too focused on the Japanese market (~ "look, we are mapping something") and also too much about water - whereas most sustainable sanitation approaches imo don't focus on water but on excreta / sludge management and much more. Also, these issues haven't been fixed since the launch, so to me it's just another one of those quick shots without any sustainability.

So when I saw that sanimap.COM is also available, I booked that one and have since routed it to another page due to the lack of time and clear focus on what I really want to map. Functioning toilets? Broken toilets? Open defecation spots? Or all of them?

And then of course I also don't want to reinvent the wheel and have thought about using an existing mapping solution like Ushahidi (or Crowdmap.com, which is the hosted version of Ushahidi). The main reason why I haven't continued working on this project though is that I'd like to see first what we can do with such mapping data and why it could matter. Maybe serve as indicators for devaid agencies, but I also believe that sanitation as such is a global problem and that it shouldn't be limited to developing countries only (even if that's where the money/funding is for such an approach).

So a Sanitation Hackathon would be interesting if it could also target the US or Europe where sludge management are still open questions. I am open to anything though and would love to find a way of combining my two favorite subjects sanitation and mobile apps.

Good part about Ushahidi is that there's an existing app for it on Android and iOS, so it's not like FLOW or so. But I am also open to more software solutions if there's a ready made solution that just needs to be adjusted.

(there also is a @sanimap account

EDIT:
Here's a reply I've meanwhile received from the fine folks at the WorldBank:

Great!

The following came through my twitter feed this week:

"Want to help 2.5 billion people get access to #toilets? Become a #toilethacker and join the #sanhack! www.toilethackers.org?lrRef=aUStAtoileth...g/?lrRef=aUStA"

Hi RowanBarber,

This is good news to us here in East Africa, Our organisation CAGIEA, this year produced and published the first East Africa Public Toilets Guide,at the moment we a planning to make this to be web based resource and make it available on mobile phones (after mapping all the public toilets in East Africa,so we hope you will give us a chance to share with you in trying to make this project a success.

The guide is free and helps to the user in the following way; to locate a public toilet toilet near him/her, get to know of new sanitation hardware, get general sanitation and hygiene news like alerts on hard washing, it is also serves a forum where users and service providers can have their concerns published. For the purpose of sustaining the project this guide have advertising space for commercial adverts which will be generating income for the project.

Mastulah
Director Publicity
CAGIEA
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Yes, I also signed up. Curious as to a) how mobiles will help in this cause and b) how sustainable this really is.

Trevor (of GIZ) and Jonathan (of IWA) had a Skype call last week on what we could do with Sanimap.com. I'll post an update to this in the coming weeks, once there is anything more concrete to publish. The aim is to create a sanitation related map that also includes conventional waste water treatment to include as many contributors as possible and also to get a better picture of what the situation is out there.

As for the Hackathon: is there any IT project you can imagine that would be good to have to improve the sanitary situation?

Dear All,

Thanks for sharing the excitement around the Sanitation Hackathon! Note, the hackathon isn't meant to solve the sanitation crisis. It's only trying to see whether there are ANY aspects of the sanitation challenge, or any link in the service delivery chain, that could be somehow improved because of mobile phones' ubiquity. For example, some of the apps from the Water Hackathon (on which this builds) are being adopted by governments/utilities. One winning app is helping the Botswana utility better manage customer service (and improve collections) through a simple app that allows people with a basic mobile phone to access their bill information without having to walk far/wait in long lines, find the service center closed at odd hours (after walking a long way), or constantly battle a busy signal when trying to call. This is just one example but there are many others. In Peru, the government opened its data on water quality for the first time because of the Hackathon. This type of data can be used by any civil society or other organization.

The Sanitation Hackathon will take place Dec. 1-2, 2012. For more, please visit www.sanitationhackathon.org or follow #sanhack or #toilethacker for more.

Thanks,
Christopher Walsh
Senior Communications Officer
wsp.org, worldbank.org/water

I almost forgot this example from the Water Hackathon: "Map the Crap" www.rhok.org/node/8958

@Christopher: the map the crap idea by David where sludge removal gets more coordinated is smart indeed. Thx for sharing this!

Is there any chance of adding another location to www.sanitationhackathon.org/event ? e.g. Frankfurt, Germany? And where - online - can those contribute that can't make it due a location? (also asking for those who have never been part of a hackathon, thx)

Hi Everyone,
It's great to see this discussion is going forward. I have been helping to organize hackathons for the last several years and will be organizing the sanitation hackathon in Toronto. In my experience at RHoK events as well as at the World Bank's Water Hackathon problem definitions are the most important aspect. They set the tone for the weekend and offer the opportunity to work on something that can truly have an impact. In Toronto we will be having a design jam to discuss potential problem definitions in two weeks.

In order for the Sanitation Hackathon to be a success SuSanA should come together and propose a few problem definitions that could be hacked on. David's 'mapthecrap' idea is exactly the type of small scale app that could be developed in a weekend. My idea is to provide a better repository for sanitation sector communication and data sharing.

How can we make sanitation data more effective ? or improve marketing of the sanitation sector to spur investment?

Cheers,

Sanitation Steve

Dear Steve

I might have an idea for a sanitation hackathon topic: Mobile payment for small-scale (sanitation) businesses and mirco-entrepreneurs.

Let me first explain my project: I’m working at Eawag/ Sandec on the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge (RTTC)” project. We developed a sanitation system based on a source-separating toilet which is dependent on a logistic service system for feces and urine container removal. Urine and feces are transported to a resource recovery plant where resources are recovered. The sanitation system focuses on informal settlements and the idea is that the toilets (incl. service) can be rent. A sanitation business rents out the toilets, manages the service and runs the resource recovery plant (more: www.diversionsanitation.com)

Although it is not part of the Gates funding we plan to further develop the business model. One aspect we intend to work on is mobile payment for the small weekly rental fees. The advantage is the service person carries no cash which is safer and prevents corruption.

Mobile payment systems already exist e.g. M-Pesa of Safaricom, mobile network operator in Kenya. Originally mobile payment was developed to transfer money between private persons without bank accounts, but there are also other purposes, e.g. mobile bill payment where people can e.g. their electricity bills using their mobile phone.

Some of our students did a study on mobile payment in Kenya and Uganda and found out that so far mobile payment is rarely used for micropayments, as the transaction costs are relatively high for small payments. However, it can be expected that the transaction costs will go down with increasing number of users (and it’s rapidly growing: 58% of Kenya’s population are currently using mobile payments systems).

We think that mobile payment would be useful for any small-scale service business and mirco-entrepreneurs that receives small, regular payments. However, it requires an easy way of keeping track of each customer’s payments. An easy accounting mobile phone app for the service provider would be helpful. From my colleague working with pit emptiers in Burkina Faso I know that accounting skills are very low.

My question to the SuSanA community: Do you also think this could be helpful? Or do you know about existing solutions?
I assume that other sanitation projects with a service concept could be interested in mobile payment, too (thinking of x-runner, UniLoo or Loowatt?).

So far we have not worked on this topic yet. In April/ May 2012 we intend to get in contact with mobile network operators in Uganda (as our toilets will be tested in Kampala) and talk about conditions of mobile bill payment like e.g. how to reduce the transaction costs; what kind of data they provide to track mobile bill payment,...

Steve, you wrote that the “mapthecrap” app is relatively easy to make. Would it be similar with such a mobile payment accounting app?
Regarding the 'mapthecrap' app: Do you know about its development status? I read about it few weeks ago and tried to find it, but wasn’t successful.

Looking forward to your comments.

Kind regards
Ulrike

Ulrike wrote:


Just a short update on the costs: Vodacom in Tanzania just launched a promo campaign where money can be sent for free. m.allafrica.com/stories/201211070389.html/ Lakini sijui how long this promo campaign will last.

Another option is airtime transfer via USSD code which does not depend on M-Pesa & Co (e.g. user A forwards a balance of 0,50 EUR to user B ). This, however, only works in a few countries due to mobile service providers and their settings on the network.

Ulrike wrote:

There are a lot of free accounting apps already on the market (Google Play / apps store) which would also work with the relatively low screen resolution on entry Android phones (e.g. Huawei Ideos in Kenya), but the challenge would be the costs of these phones (also running costs for data and charging) and also an upload of the data to a central db.

What I'd prefer is a pure sms-based solution to a central number (or Shortcode) that includes a) the number of the recipient and b) the amount and then c) forwards the amount to the recipient and d) writes this payment into a central database. Maybe also with FrontlineSMS Credit: credit.frontlinesms.com/

Hi Ulrike,

It is great to meet you and am excited about your Toilet Design. There is a big opportunity / need to start thinking about mechanisms for payment. The chief challenge of this is that mobile phone networks differ immensely across regions and the adoption of M-pesa like systems is slow. I'll think about it some more but an ideal solution would be one that can exist across mobile networks and was SMS based. I really like FrontlineSMS Credit, it looks like it could provide at least the base for something like this.

In terms of mapthecrap - it is a simple app - but has not been built. David and I had a few discussions about bringing it forward as a problem definition for a few previous RHoK's but that never went anywhere. He has a new idea - and you can learn more at his website : www.ontheseesaw.org

Another very exciting opportunity is to somehow integrate mobile payment system with a tracking function to then be able to see from a research standpoint if sanitation use can be attributed to health improvements.

Let's keep brainstorming,

Cheers,

Steve

A few threads have been started already about the Toilet Hackathon going on in December 1-2nd. In Toronto we are holding a design Jam next week and it would be great to get the community's feedback and guidance to develop some really great problem definitions.

Some initial problem definitions:

1 - Make micro-payments for sanitation more effective across multiple platforms, perhaps by integrating credit.frontlinesms.com/

2 - Create some sort of mobile health tracking application that would be able to provide concrete evidence that improved sanitation leads to quality of life / health care gains

3 - Improve communication tools like the SuSana forum?

Cheers,

Steve

Thanks for your replies and Steve, thanks for the hint at FrontlineSMS Credit.

Someone from FrontlineSMS contacted me. It seems to be what we need.
FrontlineSMS:Credit (credit.frontlinesms.com)is an open-source software which allows for the tracking and scheduling of payments on the M-PESA system. Only a PC and a GSM modem is required, no internet access. Currently they are searching for project partners in Kenya, but intend to extend the service to other countries.

Kind regards,
Ulrike

Karibu!

Hello everyone,

I just found this poster on the Toilet Hackers Facebook page:




Will anyone be on the Hackathon in London?

Best,
Mona

Hi Steve

I like Mary Robinson ( e. President Irland member of the The Elders , etc ) rights approach to climate change and science.I think it is also quite connected to SuSanAs role and the discussion forums role
"Climate Justice links human rights and development to achieve a human-centred approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolution equitably and fairly. Climate justice is informed by science, responds to science and acknowledges the need for equitable stewardship of the world’s resources. "

This connects nicely to sustainable sanitation and SuSanA role. SuSanA provide knowledge and evidence on the benefits of sustainable sanitation to anyone interested .Sustainable Sanitation is informed by science and we acknowledge the need of equitable stewardsship of resources such as water, nutrients and energy...This is not an official standpoint from SuSanA however I like the way Mary Robinson bring forward the role of providing evidence based information to all and in particular the most vulnerable affected by Climate Change.

I also think it would be really nice if we in the Sanitation sector not only looked at microcredits but started to have a closer look at the role of social cash transfers which are bringing millions of people out of poverty. I really that the cash transfer could get the sanitation marketing going. Most successful cases of sanitation marketing you have in Latin America where Social Cash transfers has been introduced in most countries . For further reading Laura Rawlings from the World Banks overview of conditional social cash transfers ;siteresources.worldbank.org/INTSF/Resour...ings_SF-CCT_Overview

That frontline sms system sounds very interesting indeed.

Here in Uganda there is a sms based system for notifing hand-pump mechanics developed with the help of Water Aid I think. If one was to develop a micro-payment system for (water &) sanitation enterprises, one should probably keep other potential uses, such as notification, localization and automatic documentation (in the case of the above it is done though a unique hand-pump hardware code) in mind.

Interesting would be probably also some form of sms based crowd-funding for larger projects, e.g. a group of inhabitants that want their drainage channel fixed and cleaned or such. Maybe it could be done by sms-pledges to a certain project code?

Other ideas:
Similar to the hand-pump notification system one could develop a sewer and drainage problem notification system for local sewerage utilities, so that damages are quickly identified and hopefully fixed.

Dear all,
Just a quick reaction to the posting of Steven on 15 November (above) where he wrote:



What I would like to see is an App for the SuSanA forum, so that browsing the SuSanA forum for new posts could be fun and convenient with a Smart Phone (including sound alert for new posts on the forum). Is this something that could be proposed for a Hackathon?

But would it mean that the "hacker" would need to have access to the code of the forum, and then what if he or she stuffs up the whole backend of the forum somehow?
Alternative would be to simply pay an IT developer to do this, how much would it cost roughly?

Greetings from sun-less Frankfurt,
Elisabeth

We are having a design jam this Saturday November 24th. Probably the biggest challenge with these problem definitions is coming up with one! I suspect maybe we need a hackathon just to get everyone brainstorming...

In my eyes the top contenders so far -

App for the SuSana forum - I think this is the most comprehensive community of sanitation experts from around the world and it would help drive solutions if we could communicate easier?

A universal micro payment app built on the credit.frontlinesms.com/ service (or others)

Finally, a new problem definition I just came across - Toilet Dashboard (toilethackers.org/toilet-dashboard/#comment-63) that will take already available data streams and integrate them like this : citydashboard.org/london/

Cheers,

Steve

Hi All

A few quick ideas:

• An app to map public toilets in the world.
• An app to map missing toilets in the world.
• An app to map broken toilets in the world.
• An app to map outstanding toilets in the world.
• An app that does all of the above.

Would it not be great if when any of us in the SuSanA community were on our travels, in our communities or doing our work, we could quickly and easily make a quick note on the location of any of the above. True crowd-sourcing. The level of detail should initially be kept simple, for ease of entry, but once such an initiative gains momentum the next step of interpreting and using the gathered information could be taken.

Just a little spontaneous brainstorming.

Rgds
Trevor

@Elisabeth: smartphone compatibility could be achieved by a) a mobile template for this Kunena forum, e.g. www.mobilejoomla.com/extension/kunena-mobile-joomla-extension or b) an app like Tapatalk which is already compatible with Kunena and available for various mobile platforms (iOS, Android, BB).

@Steve: The ToiletDashboard sounds sexy indeed. I am afraid this will all depend on the quantity and quality of data though, at least for developing countries.

The idea we had in mind with sanimap is to have a similar world wide map that would display sanitation-related infrastructure and provide some exportable data tables.

What if the ToiletDashboard had a geo-spatial component?

hi, I am Catalina and I work with ToiletHackers (www.toilethackers.org). Is there anyone interested in joining the SanHack through this forum over the weekend?
How can we link people at the Hackathon sites with this forum?

If anyone is interested in joining either on site or virtually contact me This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I am going to be based at the NYC site.

All those that participated in the SanHac (sanitation hackathon) please do share what you got up during the Hackathon here on the SuSanA forum!

I am sure the SuSanA community is really keen to see what you guys developed in such a short period of time.

Looking forward to some interesting feedback!

Hi All,

what I found concerning the SanHac is an AUDIO from Nick Dickinson about a Financial app that would set sanitation cost benchmarks. His solution to the worldwide sanitation crisis can be checked out under the following link:

www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/technotalk/...ion-cost-benchmarks/

Looking forward to what you think of it. Hopefully there are some more great ideas!

Regards,

Lydia

As a follow up for organizations wishing to further develop their tools:

www.camp.thegadflyproject.org/grant.htm

A small funding opportunity for web based geo applications.

Dear Juergen, that's an excellent thought provoking comment (time to open a can of worms perhaps?).. and I also an excellent idea...sorry not to have got back to you since we discussed Sanimap with Trevor. Perhaps Trevor could give us an update from his side where this is something that SuSanA can invest some time/resources into. From IWA side, I am keen to see this move forward as I think it is a good way for people to see what is going on in different parts of the world. I think the data requirements to upload information about projects should be light so that it is easy to use and then it is possible to upload addition reports and supporting information etc. best regards, Jonathan

@JKMakowka: thx! Do you know who the person/org behind the Gadfly Project? Because it doesn't provide much info on the website and I would still prefer to have a real contact before I submit anything. I've also seen it here www.idealist.org/view/program/K6MCjCpJF7mD/

@jonpar: Thx! Let's just do this sanitation map in 2013. I won't wait for any donor to sponsor it, even though I'd love to see support from their side (even afterwards, maybe). The problem really only is about creating a site that not only maps something, but also offers an export of data for further use. And then of course the data needs to be crowdsourced. I really like your idea that it should not only include sustainable sanitation projects, but also conventional infrastructure. It's surprising that we still don't have such a mapping solution available online.

Sorry, no idea. Just happend to come accross it while looking for funding opportunities for the Ugandan NGO network I work with. And while this doesn't fit to our profile, I though someone here might be interested.

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[posted by Agazi Medhanie]