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During the Sonoma County fires we had over 60 volunteeers editing Airtable verifying shelter information, fire locations, developments, lost and found and more.

During the Sonoma County fires we had over 60 volunteeers editing Airtable verifying shelter information, fire locations, developments, lost and found and more. We essentially put a light Rails app in front of it to serve as a front end for the site sonomafireinfo.com. I don’t think we could have scaled and gotten volunteers onboard as quickly as we did without Airtable.

ProAm 9y ago
You couldnt get an app to scale to 60 people without this? Something seems off, 60 people is not a lot.
- folz 9y ago
  s/people/concurrent realtime volunteer editors collaborating to maintain and share accurate, relevant information for folks in a time of crisis/g
- kornish 9y ago
  I think the better question is: during a life-and-death fire rescue effort, is it a better use of time to use Airtable as a backend or to write, deploy, and operate a concurrent editing backend yourself? There's a clear answer here.
  - ProAm 9y ago
    Good point but most states have disaster relief infrastructure already in place for events like this? If this was scrounged up the day of it would make sense.
    - snomad 9y ago
      Why do you believe most states have IT-related disaster relief infrastructure in place? I worked for several years in CA govt, I would be surprised if anything beyond the major metros has much in place for coordinating shelters, etc. In fact, the sonoma fires are documented to have had lots of problems with reverse 911.
      - ProAm 9y ago
        I have and there was always IT-related disaster plans and policies. But admittedly I have not worked in most states in this capacity and definitely not in CA so my experiences are limited.
      - fudged71 9y ago
        I have been eager to explore the available tools for disaster relief because it seems like people scamble to DIY a solution for every disaster. I made my own Firebase relief matchmaking service when we had a 100yr flood a couple years ago. I would love to see easily deployed crowdsourced open-sourced tools that can be used as soon as possible in these scenarios.
    - sbierwagen 9y ago
      If you think local government has IT infrastructure just for disaster operations, or if it does, that you can add a user to it in less than two business weeks, then you haven't worked in local government.
      - ProAm 9y ago
        I have worked in local government, and have dealt with these departments. While most cities probably dont have this infrastructure, most states do and open it to local muni's for these exact scenarios. Like I said if they had to create something last minute this is great, I was just surprised at their appreciation to scale something to 60 users.
        220V_USKettle 9y ago
        The state is not that efficient in coordinating with a municipality.
        ProAm 9y ago
        That state may not be, the one I worked for was, specifically setup to come to the aid of muni's in cases of emergency. But these plans and contingencies were obviously created out of previous tragedy/experiences.
        abhiyerra 9y ago
        I think scaling it to 60 concurrent users editing Airtable at the same time without a hitch and able to onboard someone to be useful within 10 mins of them coming in the door was what we liked.
- siddharthdeswal 9y ago
  Why are people downvoting your question? Seems like a legit thing to ask. I suspect HN behaves a little like how many folks treat their national army... you can't ask a question that may imply a bad decision during an important human/national event. ÷ "Why wasn't your system able to scale to 60 users during natural calamity?" ~ "How dare you question such a noble cause? Have you ever even worked with govt?" (Downvote) ÷ "Yes I have, we had systems in place that worked you know. Most states do." ~ (oh fuck, she knows what she's talking about) "States and municipals don't cooperate, so fuck off now" So maybe, instead of attacking the OP, try answering the question directly, more honestly? Make your points with logic and class people, not assholery.
  - heedlessly2 9y ago
    because the answer is obvious, and someone already replied with it
- abhiyerra 9y ago
  We didn't want to write a lot of logic and UI when Airtable was a perfectly good DB/Admin backend. Our goal was rapid response. We built a site off the ground in an hour with useful information and onboarding someone with a tool like Airtable was much easier than custom interface. People=Volunteers. We had over 130,000 unique visitors to the site relying on us for up to date accurate information.
toomuchtodo 9y ago
Is your rails middleware open source? It might help other disaster/emergency response efforts in the future.
- abhiyerra 9y ago
  Yes, https://github.com/chimera/sonomafireinfo.org https://github.com/chimera/sonomafireinfo.org

ProAm 9y ago

You couldnt get an app to scale to 60 people without this? Something seems off, 60 people is not a lot.

folz 9y ago
s/people/concurrent realtime volunteer editors collaborating to maintain and share accurate, relevant information for folks in a time of crisis/g
kornish 9y ago
I think the better question is: during a life-and-death fire rescue effort, is it a better use of time to use Airtable as a backend or to write, deploy, and operate a concurrent editing backend yourself? There's a clear answer here.
- ProAm 9y ago
  Good point but most states have disaster relief infrastructure already in place for events like this? If this was scrounged up the day of it would make sense.
  - snomad 9y ago
    Why do you believe most states have IT-related disaster relief infrastructure in place? I worked for several years in CA govt, I would be surprised if anything beyond the major metros has much in place for coordinating shelters, etc. In fact, the sonoma fires are documented to have had lots of problems with reverse 911.
    - ProAm 9y ago
      I have and there was always IT-related disaster plans and policies. But admittedly I have not worked in most states in this capacity and definitely not in CA so my experiences are limited.
    - fudged71 9y ago
      I have been eager to explore the available tools for disaster relief because it seems like people scamble to DIY a solution for every disaster. I made my own Firebase relief matchmaking service when we had a 100yr flood a couple years ago. I would love to see easily deployed crowdsourced open-sourced tools that can be used as soon as possible in these scenarios.
  - sbierwagen 9y ago
    If you think local government has IT infrastructure just for disaster operations, or if it does, that you can add a user to it in less than two business weeks, then you haven't worked in local government.
    - ProAm 9y ago
      I have worked in local government, and have dealt with these departments. While most cities probably dont have this infrastructure, most states do and open it to local muni's for these exact scenarios. Like I said if they had to create something last minute this is great, I was just surprised at their appreciation to scale something to 60 users.
      - 220V_USKettle 9y ago
        The state is not that efficient in coordinating with a municipality.
        ProAm 9y ago
        That state may not be, the one I worked for was, specifically setup to come to the aid of muni's in cases of emergency. But these plans and contingencies were obviously created out of previous tragedy/experiences.
      - abhiyerra 9y ago
        I think scaling it to 60 concurrent users editing Airtable at the same time without a hitch and able to onboard someone to be useful within 10 mins of them coming in the door was what we liked.
siddharthdeswal 9y ago
Why are people downvoting your question? Seems like a legit thing to ask. I suspect HN behaves a little like how many folks treat their national army... you can't ask a question that may imply a bad decision during an important human/national event. ÷ "Why wasn't your system able to scale to 60 users during natural calamity?" ~ "How dare you question such a noble cause? Have you ever even worked with govt?" (Downvote) ÷ "Yes I have, we had systems in place that worked you know. Most states do." ~ (oh fuck, she knows what she's talking about) "States and municipals don't cooperate, so fuck off now" So maybe, instead of attacking the OP, try answering the question directly, more honestly? Make your points with logic and class people, not assholery.
- heedlessly2 9y ago
  because the answer is obvious, and someone already replied with it
abhiyerra 9y ago
We didn't want to write a lot of logic and UI when Airtable was a perfectly good DB/Admin backend. Our goal was rapid response. We built a site off the ground in an hour with useful information and onboarding someone with a tool like Airtable was much easier than custom interface. People=Volunteers. We had over 130,000 unique visitors to the site relying on us for up to date accurate information.

toomuchtodo 9y ago

Is your rails middleware open source? It might help other disaster/emergency response efforts in the future.

abhiyerra 9y ago
Yes, https://github.com/chimera/sonomafireinfo.org https://github.com/chimera/sonomafireinfo.org