The Pulse Felt Around the World

In July of 2009 Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, announced plans to launch the Global Impact and Vulnerability Alert System (GIVAS), in order to “mobilize our full strength for better real-time data on the impact of the economic crisis on the poorest nations.” In June, almost a year later, GIVAS changed its name to Global Pulse, citing that the acronym was hard to pronounce, the name too long to remember, and it signified a top-down rather than a bottom-up approach. Global Pulse’s vision is to “Close the information gap between the onset of a global crisis and the availability of actionable information for decision makers” and its mission to “Harness innovation to protect the vulnerable.” To accompany the launch of the new name