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Table of Contents
Sahana Information Library
The Sahana Disaster Management System Information Library has several wikis. They are defined by target audience. If you are having difficulty finding the information you are looking for, please email sahana-user@lists.sourceforge.net or visit us at http://www.sahana.lk/chat. Several experienced Sahana volunteers will be able to assist.
If you are keen to experience Sahana's features, we recommend trying out our demo.
For Organisations Considering Sahana
Sahana is a web-based disaster management application that provides management solutions, focusing on large-scale humanitarian disasters. It enables enhanced coordination by promoting integrated information gathering. It assists collaboration by providing a number of communication mechanisms in the aftermath of a disasters. Sahana is built from free and open source software and released under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence, which means all users are free to download and use it (and are even free to create commercial derivatives of it)...
How Sahana is useful in disaster situations
Sahana functions both online as well as a stand alone tool for disaster management, depending on the operational considerations. Users can access it via their local machine, from within the network, as part of a corporate intranet or anywhere in world via the Internet. This means it can be installed on a laptop, for workers in the field and at a central command center for overall coordination. When machines are linked, all information can be synchronised, via USB, CD-R the LAN or the Internet...
Supported Operating Systems and Web Browsers
Sahana supports all modern operating systems and browsers, including MS Windows, Mac OSX, Ubuntu and other Unix-like systems. Your browser must have JavaScript enabled, and your operating system must be able to run the Apache HTTP Server, the PHP programming language and MySQL database software. If you don't know what these are, the Installation Guides below will assist you.
Case Studies
Sahana's strength is also in its track record being deployed for disasters around the world. Known deployments of Sahana have been for the governments of Pakistan, Philippines, Peru, US and Bangladesh. The following are some of the case studies of Sahana deployment, where we can see how a community of partners worked to deliver the Sahana solution at a time of need
Advocacy and Training Material
- Introductory: Brochures
- Case Studies: UNDP Case Study
- Promos: Sahana CD sticker, T-shirts
- Training: Workshop material
Installation Guides
Click here for detailed guides on how to download and install Sahana.
For Users
The Sahana community has a friendly community to help with bugs and to receive suggestions, improvement ideas and feature requests.
Support Options
- Support by Email
Please email sahana-user@lists.sourceforge.net. - Launchpad Answers
Visit https://answers.launchpad.net/sahana. Your questions build up an easily searchable Frequently Asked Questions list.
For Administrators
These guides illustrate the functions of the Adminstration module. Administrators should be familiar with Sahana's user privilege and situation management hierarchies and best practices for deployment.
- Disaster Incidents - Allows you to set up disasters, events and incidents.
- Location Config - Disaster location configuration.
- GIS Config - Configure Sahana's situation mapping functionality.
- Localization - Language and language translation.
- Module Config - Add, remove and configure the modules permitted for the deployment.
- Security Config - Configure security policies for the Sahana installation.
- Config Values - Advanced configuration options.
For Trainers
The Sahana Training Program is a week-long induction programme. Here are the course materials.
For Software Developers
Sahana is always looking for developers have have experience in PHP, JavaScript and Python. Here is some useful information if you are considering deploying or developing the application.
- Deployments wiki - Capturing best practices for deploying Sahana.
- Development wiki - Conventions, Guides and HOWTOs for the Sahana developer.
- Requirements wiki - Capturing pending requirements for Sahana modules.
Google Summer of Code 2009
- Sahana GSoC Ideas List is a list of projects identified as good GSoC projects.
- GSOC 2009 calendar - contains a list of public meetings for project discussions on IRC.
- Projects
For Translators
The Localization and Translation wiki captures techniques for localizing and translating Sahana. It explains how to translate the application for new countries, regions and groups.
For Designers
The Design wiki is where the community unleashes its design skills.
For Documentation Writers
Access
If you need access permission for any of these wikis, please send an email to any of the following wiki administrators. Please include a reason for needing access:
- Fran Boon - francisboon [at] googlemail.com
- Tim McNamara - mcnamara.tim [at] gmail.com
- Dominic Konig - dominic [at] nursix.org (main access person for translators)
- David Bitner - bitner [at] dbspatial.com (main access person for GSoC)
- Ravindra de Silva - ravindra [at] opensource.lk
- Pradeeper Darmedra - pradeeper [at] opensource.lk
- Mifan Careem - mifan [at] opensource.lk
- Chamindra de Silva - chamindra [at] opensource.lk
Translation of Wiki Pages
Sahana wiki pages in other languages than English might be found by appending the ISO 639-1 language code to the namespace of the page, e.g.:
- start (original page) ⇒ start:de (German translation)
- dev:home (original page) ⇒ dev:home:ar (Arabic translation)
If you want to create a translated wiki page, please follow the Wiki Translation Guide
Other Project Information
Project Governance
- Policy and PMC wiki - Policy on the Governance of Sahana
Academic Research
- Research and Publications wiki - Sahana Research and publications
Sahana Participation at Events
- Emergency Management Conferences - Sahana Representation at Emergency Management Conferences
- FOSS Events & Conferences - Sahana Representation at FOSS Events & Conferences
- Academic Events & Conferences - Sahana Representation at Academic Events & Conferences
Image Credits
“Sunflower” copyright FluxBit, released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Licence.