crowdsourcing crisis information. mobile.crisis.reporting
TRANSCRIPT
crowdsourcing crisis information
mobile.crisis.reporting.
(c)Yasuyoshi Chiba
Our Goals•Create a way for everyday
Kenyans to report incidents of violence that they saw using the tools they had (mobile phones)
•Create an archive of news and reports around those same events
•Show where the majority of the violence was happening
Protesters gathered in groups and attempted to walk into the town centre; police fired live shots and tear gas canisters to disperse them. Three protesters were seriously injured and one shot dead.
Police battled youths who set fire to roadblocks; the police shot indiscriminately, “targeting anyone on sight”; one man was shot in the stomach as he stood in front of his house.
A 13-year old boy was laid to rest next to his uncle´s house; the burial was attended by hundreds of residents who wailed and lit up bonfires.
January
17
“User-generated content, on average, is a lot less interesting than professional content. But there are a lot more people creating their own content for fun than those doing so for a living, and in aggregate, that content is at least as interesting.”
- Ethan Zuckerman
UshahidiHistorical Benchmarks
Apr 2008 – Deployed Ushahidi to South Africa
May 2008 – Won the NetSquared mashup challenge
June 2008 - Began gathering developers for the open source rebuild
Sep 2008 - We get a new website
Sep 2008 – Featured in Technoloy Review magazine
Aug 2008 - Integration with FrontlineSMS and iPhone application designed
July 2008 – Receive initial funding from Humanity United
July 2008 - Ushahidi v2 development starts
July 2008 – Started the CrisisMappers group
Jan 2008 - Initial deployment in the Kenya crisis
UshahidiHistorical Benchmarks
Nov 2008 – Founding member of the Open Mobile Consortium
Nov 2008 – Deployed alpha version into DR Congo
Nov 2008 – Translation features launched
December 2008 - Al Jazeera tests Ushahidi in Gaza
Dec 2008 - Top 3 USAID mobile challenge finalist
Dec 2008 – Won a WeMedia GameChangers Award
Dec 2008 – Featured in Forbes magazine and the BBC print/radio/TV
Nov 2008 - PeaceHeroes uses Ushahidi to find people who helped do positive things during and after the post-election violence in Kenya
Oct 2008 - Launched our alpha software, Ushahidi Engine v0.1 (“eldoret”)
if it works inafricait will workanywhere
the defaultdevice
the defaultdevice
FrontlineSMS+UshahidiSMS => Cloud
Lessons•Mapping accuracy and value of
geo-location
•Data poisoning - Antagonists using the tool
•Verification is difficult, but can be achieved with hyperlocal involvement + NGO’s
•Create a feedback loop - SMS & RSS alerts to mobiles and emails
•Offline, online and mobile strategy
Whatare we
trying to achieve?
Ensuring that others don’t have to start from scratch, like we did.
Ushahidi Crisis Mapping
Engine
Map
Timeline
SMS Alerts
RSS
Output Methods
News Media
Citizen Generated
NGO data
Government
Public APIsFlickr
YouTubeTwitter
Data Types
Input Methods
SMSEmail
Web formAPIRSSMMStw
Direct input
IT talent
Free
PlatformOpen Source
For data collection
Way Forward...•Growing the community that
supports Ushahidi
•> Tech features & Dev. - Smartphones (Android, Iphone S60, winmobile) J2ME
•Geo-RSS
•Instedd’s SMS Geo-Chat, Rapid SMS & Java Rosa
•Freedom Fone integration - Audio =>SMS
Get InvolvedConnect us
with groups that can/should use Ushahidi
Use Ushahidiwhen a crisis happens that affects you
or for projects that would benefit from the
platformIdeas, further testing of Beta &
Mobile Versions
as we develop a global project
Thank You