The Humanitarian Genome launch in The Humanity House in The Hague

On 27^th June 2013 launched the Humanitarian Genome in the Netherlands for an intimate group of participants coming from Dutch NGOs, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dutch universities and consultancy agencies. The event was hosted and wonderfully catered by the Humanity House in The Hague and we felt very much supported with the presence of a HIF representative!

We organised the event to show the new user functions of the Humanitarian Genome, which have been programmed on the basis of the input generated during a larger test event, which took place in London earlier this year. Some examples of these features are: an improved advanced search to ease users’ use of the HG, a user rating possibility which displays popularity of information, and a user comment area which facilitated discussion and information exchange between users.

The event was also an excellent opportunity for us to test and present the HG presentation in a new format. Following a thought-provoking end of project evaluation (done by external consultant Abhijit Bhattacharjee), we realized how important it is to select correct, simple, and coherent wording when introducing the HG to an audience not familiar with. To this end we developed a visual user manual; a short informative flyer about the Humanitarian Genome; and a frontal presentation of the system that included a demonstration. This was followed by the audience physically exploring the system independently with one-on-one support and subsequently, in plenary, questions and discussion and concluding with a brief presentation. It was a great experience to have outsiders challenge us to clarify as simply as possible what the Humanitarian Genome is about. Once again, this event was a great success. We received positive and constructive feedback from the participants and learned a great deal. All input from the event will be used to make the final improvements for the HG prototype!