In natural disasters such as Monday's magnitude 7.5 earthquake, access to information can be hard, but one company has tried to simplify that using freely available data.
New Zealand-based Stratsim uses publicly available data including GeoNet, the NZTA and Civil Defence to reimagine and simplify how people and organisations make decisions.
And they say it only takes a couple of hours to bring all of that information into one place - and doable by those who know how.
Their latest major effort was in the wake of Monday's quake and the ensuing aftershocks - it took real-time data to update their interactive map.
But former CERA worker and Stratsim managing director Martin Erasmuson believes some departments are putting roadblocks in the way.
"The thing missing is that for whatever reason, so many government agencies are unwilling or unable to make their data available.
"They say 'we'll get onto that' and then something like Kaikoura happens and they are completely snowed under dealing with that and if they had their data exposed, they can just get on with what they need to do and [others] can pick it up and run with it without having to be in communication with them," he says.
The Government has made a push to make data more accessible, including on its data.govt.nz website.
In September, Land Information Minister Louise Upston announced four private sector 'techies' had joined the ministry and the Wellington City Council as part of an Open Data Fellowship.
She said it would be "the beginning of a new way of working between government and private enterprise that'll see more innovation using government data to solve local issues".
Newshub.
