Skip to Main Content
Submit your project
Wait for moderator approval
Ready for feedback
Post refined project(platform)
Final submission (download)
Jury review (pending)
Thanks for your vote
This voting milestone has now ended, and the idea has progressed to a private milestone
Return to idea list
Thanks for approving the idea
This milestone has now ended, and the idea has progressed to a private milestone
Return to idea list

SONAR 911

Leading scientists around the world have agreed that Climate change is one one the leading threat facing humanity. In the Caribbean, These include Hurricane, Earthquakes, Flooding, and more frequent occurrences of weather events during a pandemic that has impacted how we identify, locate, and communicate with people. These catastrophic activities are calling for innovative solutions for governments to act on a regional level in dealing with the issue of disaster management.

SONAR 911 is an off/online Disaster and Emergency Communication Platform that is geared towards providing a centrally managed and converged communications point for the interchange of information between a National Disaster Agency (NDA), Government institutions, and the general populace.

The platform is comprised of multiple components; a progressive app for the general public, a web-based Operations Center (OC) for the NDA, and a rapid response mobile app for first responders.   The solution can be used at any time before but it offline usage is essential for during, and after a disaster event. The Offline solutions are referred to as SONAR API. 

 

SONAR API- is a Whitelabel emergency management software that uses nontraditional gateways enables government, telecommunication, disaster management agencies to create mesh networks to locate

and communicate their registered citizens that normally can't access to wifi or data during emergencies. 

State your goals.

To establish an Emergency Administrative Management API that can be commercialized for smaller SME but has an international mandate. 2020 Goals are

  • Ministry ICT Adoption 
  • Raise 100k to have our API and hardware distributed to all Caribbean countries (CDEMA)
  • Emergency Protocol Mandate for smaller SME

At this time, we are in need of your government’s support to complete the organizing and distribution phase of this solution.

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

It is clear that the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak is disrupting manufacturing and global value chains, with consequences for businesses, consumers, and the global economy. During hurricane season many companies including the government are scrambling to respond to urgent questions about how to protect their employees, ensure supply security, mitigate the financial impact, address reputational risks, and navigate market uncertainty, which is driving down demand. 

  • Coronavirus is disrupting global value chains, which are essential for economic growth.
  • This outbreak shows the need for companies to focus on preparedness and response to risk.
  • Businesses should increase the visibility of value chains, shorten supply chains to be nearer to customers, leverage technologies, and evaluate different scenarios.

Corona + Hurricane season

The biggest problem we face in the Caribbean is the threat of inefficiencies in the current method and means of communication before, during and after a natural disaster or emergency situation. This represents a significant problem for the management and coordination efforts for disaster management agencies. This causes significant problems with trying to disseminate information and to receive information from the general populace. Hence there is a need for a new paradigm shift in the way interactions and communications are carried out. These interactions have to be done using a common and ubiquitous medium to which most people have become accustomed to, that of mobile devices.

 

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

1st. Before MVP.

 Leading institutions and government mandate that addresses these 4 key components to developing the MVP. 

Emergency Administrative Management (upgraded interconnected network)  

This Administrative management software provides easy onboarding and management for national disasters during pandemics, such as COVID19.

--Our B2B service provides the ability to create custom enterprise solutions for administrations in order to design their emergency management ecosystem such as government agencies, medical and National Disaster Agencies, including local organizations with 100+ personnel. 

 

Emergency Location Management (Offline Emergency Network)

Offline emergency location management system provides local authorities within the Caribbean to onboard their stakeholders i.e. employee applications, medical registration, and verify identification during online mode. For offline mode, we are completing another API to provide certified agencies to be able to manage specific activity utilizing a suite of their own emergency requirements on SONAR.  

 

Emergency Identification Management (Emergency Identity)

SONAR CEID will automate various onboarding processes, including those driven by geo-fence  url or other forms of digital mediums such as Facebook, radio 300 GHz, satellite ground , SMS  or portals.  Emergency information and medical aid can enable census management for check status, tracking viruses  and other information on the person/population within your organization.  

 

Developing a proprietary method to locate and sent or receive data from a registered person in the event of an emergency. Through a API, we can provide governing agencies to collect and assimilate/ qualify data points faster with the regional coordinator to prepare before, provide resources during, and recover faster after a natural disaster. 

Our sweet spot is, We have developed a way to capture or sent data from/to your device in Radio, SMS, Cloud frequencies with minimal to "Offline", no data connection specifically for Natural disasters. 

Share your story (your narrative)

SONAR didn't just start as an idea it started as a necessity.

Late 2017, The Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations (CANTO)  along with key partners such PIEDATA, DSS, CTU in particular through its annual regional hackathons aptly called CANTOCODE.  

The team consists of residents of the Caribbean and its diaspora whose sole objective is to promote Caribbean technology, tech entrepreneurship, and citizen-centric tech solutions. SONAR is the latest application that was born simply out of a necessity LXJ CODE, a team of young software developers based in Belize experience a Hurricane under during our cohort.

SONAR thesis is the disaster management and emergency communication platform considered through CANTO with telecommunication partners like CDEMA, CDB.

We aim to identify to the core of the problem, 

1. How can we be more efficient in communication before, during, and after natural disasters?

More importantly, when there is no connectivity, how can we locate those in need faster to provide resources of aid? especially in rural areas like the Caribbean.

Based on our R&D we have discovered that the Internet and cellular connectivity are frequently compromised after disasters. Therefore, communication is central to recovery efforts, allowing civilians to contact their loved ones, aid organizations to manage the supply and distribution of resources.

More time, more lives lost not to mentioned longer recovery

 Therefore the solution is not just talking about resilience and preparedness but a cohesive digital transformation that produces a SAAS solution for qualified entities to customize and design their uniquely specific required for responses, Geocommunication, and medical care with a social treaty to govern cohesively and securely in the event of a national disaster. 

Economically

NATURAL DISASTERS INDUSTRY (Earthquakes/Hurricanes/Pandemics*)

$12 Billion

2020 +1.4% Impact annually

 

 

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT 

SONAR has three main groups of stakeholders. Emergency workers need to communicate with one another and with the public in order to coordinate and direct services to those in need. The public needs to communicate with one another and to be able to communicate with sources of help. Finally, government officials need to ensure the safety of zones at risk.

 

Your final proposal for challenge

yes

Tagged users
edited on Jul 26, 2020 by Sergio Pengel
Public (25)
You will need to login to post a comment
EUNICE KAJALA Jun 29, 2020

Hi Sergio,
Consider unregistered people in the event of an emergency, in the time of a disaster, you're likely to have a lot of unregistered individuals under your ICT system, how are you going to assist the unregistered ones. Secondly, you have concentrated on solving the communication during the disaster, you have not reflected in your innovation, on how your communication system will help the victims by either removing them from point A to B, or how can they access the necessary amenities.

Sergio Pengel Jun 29, 2020

Eunice, Great Question and thank you.

Our solutions specifcally focused on Off line communication.

Since we are a B2b business providing Saas solution for existing organizations or entities who's members or employees are already registered. Therefore during the integration process, the onboard who will be before a natural disaster (The business) . Please Note, Only the initial on-boarding is required to register the business and its user. Once in the field, depending on the level of connectivity we off and online solution to still locate, communicate, or identify the person.

SONAR is not designed to remove people. (We started with that and quickly realize we had bigger problems to solve. we focus on the core, which is low to no connectivity emergency technology. Meaning, When the towers or data are knocked down and people can not be located, we empower the NDA or Government to use our technology to bypass traditional radio, tv or telecommunication systems.

I hope it was helpful, let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks!

Martine Lesponne Jul 1, 2020

Hi Sergio, are there any other potential solutions that could answer partially or totally to these communication issues ?

Sergio Pengel Jul 3, 2020

Thank you for your question, Partially yes, Totally there are some key requirements that must be in place for a comprehensive solution that works.

Yes, to partially as there are different bandwidth capabilities that can provide partial solutions.

Nivashini Rave Rattey Jul 1, 2020

All in all, good effort! Also, Eunice made some good points and I am glad you addressed them.

Since, this challenge focuses on good practices, here are some very brief suggestions to help you structure your answers:

You description is straight to the point. Great! Just remember to include the country it is being operationalized in.

Also, your audience may want to know more about your organization, hence, briefly provide some insights about your practice’s governance model. Include (brief details) about your organization’s structure, your management & institutional framework, and the competencies (what your practice specializes in and how it is unique from other similar projects?).

In terms of your objectives, just include a brief "why" to each of them, the details of your target stakeholders (with clear demographics with clear explanations backed with credible facts/data), and state your desired outcome for ecosystem.

The problems that your practice attempts to solve are understandable. But you need to indicate how the situation is during the ongoing public health crisis and how exactly your target audience are affected. Remember to back your claims with credible facts/data. Give us a reason to believe you and know that the problems are real.

Your answer describing your solution is a little confusing. Makes me think about the "hows" and its viability. So, briefly explain the activities that your solution provides to eliminate the problem(s). You can categorize them in terms of (i) mechanisms (ii) processes (iii) activities (iv) event. Also, indicate how you get access to the resources that enable you to operationalize your practice- provide (brief) information about your (i) financial and non-financial resources (ii) your sources and partners.

We want to know that you are the best in this area! So, include brief details of your practice’s achievements as it provides the evaluation of your practice based on the following criteria: (i) replicability (how easily it can be copied to a different context); (ii) scalability (the scope of the practice in achieving its goals); (iii) evidence of impact on the ecosystem (the effectiveness of the practice in achieving its goals); and (iv) results (the outcomes based on KPIs set by the practice).

Finally, your story needs some serious work. You need to walking us through the problems and solutions you've indicated. Provide details about (i) what problem you are trying to solve and why; (ii) how the problem has affected you; (iii) what steps you took to address the problems; (iv) what worked and didn't work; (v) how you finally reached the milestone ("Aha!" moment) etc; and (vi) what is your final ask or “call-to-action”. You can refer to our storytelling factsheet for more details and/or watch the videos on storytelling by visiting: https://cocreate.itu.int/hubbub/communitypage/82360

Sergio Pengel Jul 3, 2020

Thank you for feedback Nivashini,

I learned about the importance of sharing detail story during your last call. Since I am able to make adjustment I will share more about our story in detail.

Will make an update that reflects your suggestions. Thx

Michael Udoinyang Jul 2, 2020

I believe that innovation as it relates to ecosystem best practice could be something as simple as transitioning to a better and more efficient workflow.
Banks are going all digital to reduce possible contact with cash!
Sadly, an inefficient Two-Way communication exists at all levels of governance; the government uses mainstream media, emergency agencies and loyal influencers whom profit from this existing structure to communicate before, during, and after (national) disasters/Emergencies. There are influencers who try to create positive ripples however. So many other dynamics follows suit.
Are you saying that communication and intervention should be between these agencies with an Emergency Protocol Mandate and the masses?
To the best of my knowledge, governance involves getting individuals with an interest in shaping the direction of a country as a whole to showcase what they’ve got for the masses through campaigns. In some cases, this individuals(politicians) realizes how attractive it is to lead a mix of people that make up a nation. So, they do everything within their power to win an election that is supposedly decided by the blind masses. So many other dynamics follows suit.
I wonder how every citizen’s view would be put into consideration, seeing the pool of incoming message that will be received from the citizens!
I share in this sentiment - “there is a need for a new paradigm shift in the way interactions and communications are carried out”
Technology is created by man for man, the rest is story.
It is possible.

Sergio Pengel Jul 3, 2020

Hey Michael,

Thank you for your passionate feedback. I agree without a thesis and sounds like you have experience in understanding infrastructure and protocol.

to your question
"Are you saying that communication and intervention should be between these agencies with an Emergency Protocol Mandate and the masses?"

ideally yes, while every territory is different and requires unique infrastructure to accommodate their need. Research has thought us to make that process simple for adoption. especially for our focus is Natural disasters. , not everyday emergencies.

I wonder how every citizen’s view would be put into consideration, seeing the pool of incoming messages that will be received from the citizens!

Enterprise Resource Management software helps the customer aggregate all those message and output optimized interface to prioritize, and take action.

EUNICE KAJALA Jul 2, 2020

Sergio,
To make it worth, your innovation should cover both, the communication part and co-ordination on rescuing or protecting people or facilitating access to different services e.g health, food, shelter etc. What matters, is the well being of people in the time of a disaster.

Sergio Pengel Jul 3, 2020

Eunece, We started with that. if you search on android "SONAR" you will see it. But when you really need it, if there is no connectivity all those features are useless

Instead. We focus on the core as a Saas based solution for the agencies location , communicate, and stay connected.

Nelson Milla Jul 3, 2020

Hello Sergio!

I am very happy to see that more and more people from America and the Caribbean are joining the challenges.

I have only a little bit of feedback that can help you significantly improve your pitch. Remember that when we talk about cooperation between government and private sector for enabling citizen safety we need to balance out privacy. For instance, I live in a country where the government is considered non trust worthy, so a lot of people won't give away privacy by any means.

I would really like to know how do you handle my data, what is considered an emergency, and if the government can track down my phone when there isn't an emergency going on.

Apart from that, can you be a little more technical about your product? I mean, anyone can say "I have a tool that allows this and that" and when the product is such a breaktrough a little demo is always appreciated.

Bests of luck from Honduras,
Nelson Milla.

Sergio Pengel Jul 3, 2020

Sure, Whats your email address?

Daiyoung Jung Jul 7, 2020

I think your idea is really great. But I don't think your explanation is enough.
ITU Challenge Community here may want to know more about your idea in detail. (what does your communications software specialize in and how is it unique from other similar softwares?). If you explain your software a little easier, you could get more positive responses(votes). If you want to officially introduce your software to the relevant government agencies(Ministry of ICT), you need to objectively prove that your software is stable and excellent.

Chidi Nwaogu Jul 9, 2020

Great initiative. However, you didn't speak at all about your traction so far. You didn’t mention what stage this business is at. Do you have users already? How much have you generated? Do you have any proof of concept? I have no idea the stage where this business is at the moment.

James Kiruri Jul 18, 2020

Hello Sergio, it is not very clear the problem you are trying to solve

Sergio Pengel Jul 21, 2020

Greetings James,

Thank you for your questions.

Its simple,

locating, identifying, and communicating people/things before, during, and after a national disaster.


Ivana Kostic Jul 18, 2020

It would be great to see a specific example in order to understand better. For example, in the case of a weather emergency all registered citizens will get a signal and info on how to react. Good to mention why this is important in some parts of the world and is it obligatory for everyone to have it. Would the government enforce people to have it? Otherwise, if just a few people have what is the point? 

MD MOHID ISLAM Jul 19, 2020

Greetings and Best wishes for your submission!
Regarding GOALS statement please briefly explain on
Caribean Intern thing..
Consider it as a request for my better fathomed grab on your Sonar 911
:)

Users tagged:

Sergio Pengel Jul 21, 2020

Mohid, Greetings, and thank you for your best wishes.

Caribbean Intern thing -
Not sure the context of your question to be honest,

but our goals in the Caribbean is to focus more on provide a Saas based service for agencies to empower them with non traditional tools of emergency communication.

911 is global standard of emergency.

Cheers

James Kiruri Jul 21, 2020

Hi Sergio, kindly review my idea Teleeza in Digital Change-Makers challenge so that I can refine it and progress it to the next stage

Sergio Pengel Jul 26, 2020

Done. Let me know if you understand my question.

success.

Victoria Masso Jul 21, 2020

Status label added: Mentor feedback received

Joshua GBEMISOLA Jul 23, 2020

Hi Sergio, well done. Does your software put into consideration people living with disabilities especially the blind and the Deaf?

Sergio Pengel Jul 26, 2020

No it does not.

especially not the blind. Its on our roadmap but trying to solve the core problem first.

Thanks for your question.

Ronnex Wataya Jul 23, 2020

Hi sergio, great innovation ! a few questions for you. 1. at what development stage are you? idea or prototype? .2. what is your strategy to convince the government to use your service? 3.what is your business model? are you going to charge health centers or the app users? 4 . how good are investment platforms in your country to help you with financing when you plan to scale it up. Best of luck

Sergio Pengel Jul 26, 2020

. 1. at what development stage are you? idea or prototype?
Beyond prototype, a few models ago.


.2. what is your strategy to convince the government to use your service?
Leverage organization such as ITU to have the conversation , create forums to enable private / public partnership.

3.what is your business model? are you going to charge health centers or the app users? B2B and SAAS for government agencies, emergency responds agencies and general public to have decentralized connectivity during national disasters.

User has control of there data and who they submit to during an emergency.

Business model, Licencing software, Monthly subscriptions and ads.



4 . how good are investment platforms in your country to help you with financing when you plan to scale it up.

"Best of luck" you said it best, we need it. but we believe are persistent and believe luck is a part of it.

Achia Khaleda Jul 23, 2020

I want to know how do you handle the data, what is considered an emergency happened?

Sergio Pengel Jul 26, 2020

This is a techie question Achia,

We dont store or save persons data. Everything sits on the persons phone.

However, because B2b in a form of a SAAS is our business model we want to allow the agencies to expand more on how they want to manage their registered users further as we learned that is the best form of adoption. White Label

Henry Dobson Jul 24, 2020

Hi Sergio,
SONAR has been through 4 years of R&D, testing and deployment. What success or failures have you experienced so far? With that amount of time behind you, it's important to explain how effective the app has been and what iterations you have made in order to improve it over time. Without this information it's not clear whether the solution is actually working. The deck that you've attached does not provide this information either. Can you provide us with some success stories (validation) of the app, please?

Users tagged:

Sergio Pengel Jul 26, 2020

Greetings Henry

thank you for your question, the past 3 year we have evolved from many failures such as b2c model which took us developing a mobile app, testing a few hurricane pilots and realizing that users love it, but when they need to use it the most they do not have connectivity, thus the app alone is useless.

Another milestone when we visit CDEMA we learn that data sharing between government is essential but a challenge especially during disaster or pandemic. Yet its connectivity is the key fundamental to be more efficient during such national emergencies.

So after a few customer discovery and iteration our thesis is that national disaster agencies, government and their citizen will use SONAR API )=(Saas) to location, communicate and identify registered personal before during and after a national disaster. While adopting a international emergency treaty for digital adoption of disaster management and pandemics.

What do you think? Would you agree?or not?

Nivashini Rave Rattey Jul 24, 2020

Status label added: Community feedback received

Nivashini Rave Rattey Jul 24, 2020

The idea has been progressed to the next milestone.

Sergio Pengel Jul 26, 2020

Thank you Nivashini, I also made the updates.

Fahmida Hossain Jul 25, 2020

Gi Sergio, Thanks you very much for sharing with us this wonderful concept of work. Since the general public will be able to use your solution, they can also misconduct this solution. How do you handle this kind of challenging situation?

Sergio Pengel Jul 26, 2020

Thank you Fahmida, The platform is encrypted therefore we don't store person data. Also the registered agency administers the persons on there platform.


Lastly, User initiates emergency beacon

Andinda Ruth Jul 27, 2020

how is the communication going to assist the people

Sergio Pengel Jul 28, 2020

Thank you Andlina

We have two types of communication
offline and online


Online- will help us set up a interconnected digital responds unit.

Offline- will provide us a unique gateway to private selected

Communication is they key part of national disaster because it informs, identify, and provide sense of relief for people in need.

Nivashini Rave Rattey Jul 31, 2020

Status label added: Expert feedback received

Nivashini Rave Rattey Jul 31, 2020

You may now start filling up the final submission form and reach out to any mentors if you're stuck. Best wishes!

Users tagged:

Nivashini Rave Rattey Sep 2, 2020

Status label added: Submission completed

Nivashini Rave Rattey Sep 8, 2020

Status label added: Idea under jury review

Nivashini Rave Rattey Sep 8, 2020

The idea has been progressed to the next milestone.