Prometheus: Virtual Emergency Response Center – the Chios island deployment

Prometheus is a custom-made FOSS web platform for supporting Teams/Volunteers with their Needs management in the Aegean islands of first reception of refugees. It is similar to the award-winning Sahana platform, providing a virtual Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

The platform is a bundle that can be deployed with minimal software and connectivity requirements (LAMP / Python / Flask / SQLite for local deployment, can work offline). The choice of SQLite is crucial as it requires no special settings and the single database file can be easily shared with the main operation center and other local deployments.

On the functional level, it separates users to two roles, Coordinators and Volunteer. Coordinators can register Volunteers and grand their access to the system, as well as add Spots, which are geo-locations where Teams operate, and daily Needs with the number & timeframe of Volunteers needed.

The Prometheus platform is already deployed in Chios island since late January 2016 and it is already used operationally by the NGOs and volunteering teams. There is also a plan to extend its deployment with other nodes in Samos, Kos, Lesvos and possibly Idomeni and Piraeus port. For the last two cases, the platform needs changes in its core focus, from first-response and events management to logistics and management of storage facilities & supplies.

Prometheus is supported by the Hellenic Informatics Union (HIU) and the Informatics & Communications Technologies for Development, Aid, Support and Collaboration (ICT4dascgr) group since October 2015. Real-world assessment and future extensions will be presented in subsequent conferences, including predictive analytics of refugee influx traffic that will be embedded as plug-in modules in subsequent releases of the platform.

Demo case : http://demo.prometheus.online
Chios island: http://chios.prometheus.online