During one of the all-nighters with fellow Mozillians several years ago, an idea came to me: create a Twitter account that will retweet all mentions of “baha” (flood) all throughout the year. The idea was just one of those spurt-of-the-moment things. Then, during one of the MozTours (Mozilla Philippines Campus Tours), Jun and I ran out of examples during one of the talk. Out of nowhere, I thought of this crazy idea (RT-ing all mentions of “baha”) and Jun was quick to name the “app” — MayBahaBa (is there flood?).
People say that the MMDA and LGU’s are doing a great job of utilizing the social media for this purpose. Yes, that is correct. But, there is no single venue (online) where people can easily find up-to-the-minute information about floodings in their locale.
During the Mozilla Leadership Summit in Singapore last month, there was a workshop activity dedicated to creating an IoT Project. Our group of Pinoy Mozillians (that includes Kim and Ryan) quickly thought of MayBahaBa as something that fits as an IoT project.
Today, I am happy to announce the official launch of this open source project with the following:
Problem:
- Hard to determine which part of Metro Manila is flooded on a given time of day during and after a downpour.
- Each LGU (Local Government Unit) has their own social media channels to report flooding, traffic, etc. — hard for someone to check and verify information when time if of essence.
- The way government agencies report (and measure) flooding in different locales are not scientific enough (just mere guesstimates at times).
Project Goals:
- To build a working prototype of a hardware to indentify flooding in an area (sort of a flood sensor). This hardware can be installed in lampposts in strategic places within Metro Manila or underneath a vehicle.
- Build the software that will enable these sensors to “report” flooding via the Web.
- (In the near future) To report traffic situtation in an area based on the speed of the vehicle where the sensor is installed.
What Help Do We Need:
- Ideas
- Coders
- Electronics Enthusiasts
Next Steps
MayBahaBa is just the beggining. Another idea (courtesy of Kim) that emerged during the Leadership Summit’s IoT workshop is TrapikPaBa (is it still traffic). Thus, it would even be more awesome to have something like MayBahaBa+TrapikPaBa in the very near future.
The project is on GitHub.
For suggestions, comments or if you wish to volunteer to this project, please feel free to contact me using this online form: