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

Email

Output Methods

News Media

Citizen Generated

NGO data

Government

Public APIsFlickr

YouTubeTwitter

Data Types

Input Methods

SMSEmail

Web formAPIRSSMMS

Direct input

Free

PlatformOpen Source

For Collaboration

Way Forward...•Growing the community that

supports Ushahidi

•> Tech features & Dev. - Smartphones (Android, Iphone S60) J2ME

•Geo-RSS

•Instedd’s SMS Geo-Chat, Rapid SMS & Java Rosa

•Freedom Fone integration - Audio =>SMS

IT talent

ory okolloherik hersmanjuliana rotich david kobia

Thank You