Mapping Crises*Marc EllisonFelicia PacentrilliHeather Yundt

*Downloadable from http://www.marcellison.com/blog/?p=270

IntroductionWhat is Ushahidi?

Some misconceptions

Components of a Ushahidi instance

Case studies: elections, wars and disasters

Other applications of Ushahidi

Current developments

Conclusion – a success or a work in progress?

What is Ushahidi?Originated from electoral violence in Kenya in 2008

Kept Kenyans current on crisis and provided assistance to relief workers

Swahili for “witness” or “testimony”

A crisis mapping tool and/or an early warning system

Global citizen journalism: allows people around the world to tell their story during a disaster or emergency situation

Free, easy to use, deployable worldwide

What is Ushahidi?Not the first of its kind

o http://map.opennet.net/

o http://www.ipisresearch.be/maps/CaMi/web/index.html

o http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/worldmap/cida/cidaworldmap.aspx

What is Ushahidi? Jargon Explained 1: “crowdsourcing”

Anyone can contribute reports, photos and video via email, SMS, tweets, or an online form

Reports are posted in “near real-time”

Jargon Explained 2: “open source” application

You can tailor the code to better suit your needs

You can deploy it yourself to suit your community’s needs

Over 4,000 downloads

Jargon Explained 3: “Crowdmap”

Allows anyone to set up an Ushahidi site in 5 minutes – it’s as easy as opening a Gmail account or activating a Wordpress blog

Some misconceptionsUshahidi manages deployments– NO – they primarily

develop, and offer limited support

Crowdsourced information is statistically representative – NO – the implementation and data collection methods are up to you

Crowdsourced information cannot be validated – NO – it can be, albeit more time-consuming, and it also allows you to gather data from previously untapped sources

Ushahidi componentsAn example: tracking the H1N1 virus

The map itself i.e. density bubbles, zoom, satellite view

Categories i.e. police action, aid distribution, infrastructure, logistics, violence, hate speech, positive events, campaign promises, results

Interactive timeline graph

Twitter feed

Report submission via SMS, email, tweet or online form

Alerts for your area

E L E C T I O N S ‘Verification’ guides and electoral procedures

Is Africa Ushahidi-ready?

Case studies: Kenya 2008, Tanzania 2010, Cote d’Ivoire 2010

Electoral overview

‘Verification’ guides and electoral procedures A number of guides are posted on the Ushahidi

community page. Deals with:

o how to verify reports

o considering your audience

o how the project can be made sustainable

o how to address privacy and protection issues

o considering how to respond to report submissions

Linda Kamau, software developer, on election procedures and time

Is Africa Ushahidi-ready? Increase in mobile phone

use – a common denominator

Total African mobile subscriber base is roughly 280.7 million people (30% of total)

Total African mobile subscriber base is expected to reach 561 million (53.5%) by 2012 .

Increasing access to high-speed internet

Increase in usage of social media: Facebook, Twitter and blogs

Example: Kenya 2008 27th December 2007: election

30th December 2007: govt issued publication ban

Observers noticed electoral irregularities

1st January 2008: incumbent president Mwai Kibaki announced as winner

Triggered tribal- and politically-motivated attacks

Impact of bloggers

Joshua Goldstein/ Juliana Rotich (2008)

Evolution of the ‘hate medium’: radio in Rwanda, SMS in Kenya

Kenya: sample SMSs By 2007, Kenya boasted over 11 million mobile phone subscriptions: roughly

30 per cent of its population

SMSs intercepted by protestors:

o “Fellow Kenyans, the Kikuyu’s have stolen our children’s future...we must deal with them in a way they understand...violence.”

o “No more innocent Kikuyu blood will be shed. We will slaughter them right here in the capital city. For justice, compile a list of Luo’s you know...we will give you numbers to text this information.”

SMSs sent to Ushahidi:

o "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.”

o "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."

Kenya 2008 (cont.) 9th January 2008: violence escalating in the

Kibera slums in Nairobi and the towns of Kisumu, Kakamega, Eldoret, and Naivasha in the Rift Valley

“For the reconciliation process to occur at the local level the truth of what happened will first have to come out. Guys looking to do something - any techies out there willing to do a mashup of where the violence and destruction is occurring using Google Maps?” – Ory Okolloh’s blog, 2008

Ushahidi is born: created by Kenyans and US developers in one week

By 28th January, the death toll was approximately 800

Kenya 2008 - screenshot

Kenya 2008 – data analysis465 reports on Ushahidi

Who filed reports to Ushahidi?

Verification: not all reports were accurate, but were subsequently adjusted in a few hours

Some reports were simple transcripts of paper’s lead paragraphs

Some linked to YouTube videos

Ushahidi documented cases of violence not covered by mainstream media

Provided a digital archive or "memorial" of sorts for the events that happened in Kenya

Example: Tanzania 2010 Incumbent Jakaya Kikwete came to power in

2005

Came to power on anti-corruption ticket

In 2005, Some 97% of Tanzanians say they can access a mobile phone

2,000 regional monitors have been trained and are sending in consistent information from the polling stations

15,000 NGO members

31st October 2010: election

Linda Kamau onadvertising

Linda Kamau onelection monitors

Tanzania - screenshot

Tanzania – data analysis 1st November 2010: 4,000 reports submitted to

Ushahidi team

By 6th November 2010: only 1,634 reports verified

1 report took at least 20 minutes to corroborate

Verification issues: one blogger complained of how a report they submitted was mere hearsay – states the report he submitted was never changed from verified

5th November 2010: Kikwete wins 61% of the vote

Ushahidi reports appear to corroborate BBC reports that result has been widely accepted

Linda Kamau on backlog

Example: Cote d’Ivoire 2010 Recent unstable political history

Election due since 2005, postponed 6 times

With all the ballots counted from Sunday's first round, incumbent Gbagbo won 38% and opposition leader Alassane Ouattara 32%

A second round of votes will be held on 28th November 2010

80% turn out

Low number of Ushahidi reports – why?

Cote d’Ivoire - screenshot

Cote d’Ivoire – data analysis60 reports as of 6th November 2010

SMS service suspended

Co-founder Erik Hersman stated this would not affect Ushahidi – as “Ushahidi supports multiple ways of sending information in.”

Army has closed all land borders until today, reinforcing sea ports and airports with strict security measures.

Accusations of vote rigging

No violence as of 6th November 2010

Electoral overview Technological constraints

Verification process

Huge amount of manpower required to verify data

Framing of an election – no social or historical context

Goldstein/Rotich – summarised digital tools allow for increase in citizen activism/journalism, but also predatory ethnic-based mob violence and hate speech

Elements for Kenya’s success: free press, active blogosphere and good internet connectivity

Co-founder Erik Hersman stated Ushahidi “has made organizations realize the need for including bottom-up information…it’s no longer top-down information from government and the media… The people's voice, their ability to know what's going on around them and using that in a more holistic understanding of a situation are now possible ”

D I S A S T E R S Haiti earthquake 2010

Pakistan flood 2010

Disaster overview

Example: Haiti earthquake 2010On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti

More than 230,000 people died, some of Haiti’s most populous areas suffered mass destruction and 1.5 million people were left homeless

The traditional response system lacked the ability to prioritize data that came from outside sources

Ushahidi provided a way to capture, organize, and share critical information coming directly from Haitians through social media and text messages

Haiti: earthquake in pictures

Haiti: data analysis Ushahidi was deployed in the first two hours following the

earthquake

Within four days of the earthquake, 100,000 reports from the ground had been received

Approximately 85% of Haitian households had access to mobile phones at the time of the earthquake

Although 70% of the cell phone towers in Port-au-Prince had been destroyed in the disaster, they were back online before Ushahidi became operational

4636 project volunteers translated 25,186 SMS messages and numerous e-mail, Web, and social media communications, resulting in 3,596 reports that were actionable

Haiti earthquake - screenshot

Haiti: local deploymentA Haitian ICT company called Solutions pooled its resources to

create an interactive crisis and needs-mapping platform called “Noula” or “we’re here” in Creole

The concept is simple: Haitians call into a call center for free that is staffed by trained operators, and communicate critical pieces of information on their situation or request information

Info is sorted, categorized, geolocated and placed on noula.ht

Noula has teamed with the Haitian government and agencies to coordinate mapping cholera reports using SMS text alerts linked to their computer platform for GPS visual mapping and tracking of cholera

Example: Pakistan flood 2010The flooding started in the north in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

province (KPK) in July 2010 and quickly spread to other provinces

Heavy monsoon rains have caused the worst floods in living memory in Pakistan

More than 1,700 people are thought to have died, with almost 21 million people affected

Throughout the country, nearly 5 million people are without shelter. An estimated 8 million people require immediate assistance to meet their basic food needs

Pakistan: in pictures

Pakistan: local deployment “As a technology and social entrepreneur, I have read

hundreds of case studies and talks that a SMS is a ray of hope and decided to setup SMS based incident reporting.”

“I want to bring first line of incident reporting live for millions of people in Pakistan. This requires technology, spreading the right word to millions, building team, logistics, resources and coordinating all the incident reporting. The last week was spent on the technology front.  So, after sleepless nights, power shortages, worst news written on faces everywhere, the effort continued. With the help of few friends, I got access to short code 3441 in Pakistan.  Next the Crowdmap was launched at http://pakrelief.crowdmap.com.  Then, the short code integration was done. And the technology milestone is achieved. “

“Team building is on way and spreading the message to millions of flood affected people is next big challenge. Remember, the mission is to save one hope by one SMS message at 3441.”

Faisal ChohanUshahidi Pakistan Founder

Pakistan flood - screenshot

Pakistan: data analysis & what now?1130 reports: majority related to issues of food, water and

sanitation, health and shelter

The situation in Pakistan is still dire: 10 dollars (US) can buy 1200 SMS alerts to journalists and workers on the ground. 25 dollars can ensure that 3000 flood-affected individuals can send a text to 3441 and report their observations

The first Crowdmap deployments were for reporting incidents of flooding in Pakistan

“Unlike Haiti, by the time flooding in Pakistan took its tool, Ushahidi would be plug-and-play.  In August, Ushahidi launched Crowdmap, a hosted “in the cloud” service.” --Ory Okollah, Ushahidi co-founder

More than 1,500 deployments of Crowdmap were realized in the first week of it going live

Disaster overview Filling the information gap in the very early emergency

period

Providing critical information about the needs of individuals and communities that may be lacking in rapid needs assessments

Providing reports on sentinel events as well as reports that are time sensitive (such as outbreaks of diseases etc)

Providing critical information from areas that are inaccessible either for logistical constraints or security threats

Providing up-to-date situational awareness that can be very useful for teams on the ground

Providing a source of data for cross reference

W A R S“Getting tweets from a warzone is so 2008. The latest social

media advance combined tools like Twitter, text messaging, and online mapping to gather up first-hand reports...” – Wired magazine, January 2009

DRC 2008

Gaza 2008

Example: DRC 2008Long, complex history of war

Just under 2 million internally displaced people as of 2010 (OCHA)

Over 17,000 sexual violence attacks in 2009 (U.N. Population Fund)

5,249,667 mobile subscribers (African Mobile Factbook 2008) = about 7.4% of population

About 5% of the population has access to electricity (SNEL)

DRC: Ushahidi deployment Deployed in November 2008 – March 2009

Ushahidi managed the deployment

Ran on Ushahidi’s servers

Worked with FrontlineSMS

Used local groups like HEAL Africa to report and verify

DRC 2008 - screenshot

DRC: data analysis233 reports in total (compared with 4,000

reports in Tanzania in one day)

Most common report categories: internally displaced people, armed groups, humanitarian actions

Most reports were made in and around Goma

The vast majority of reports were made at the beginning of November. The numbers drop quickly afterwards.

DRC: “This isn’t Kenya” Language

Awareness

Verification

Infrastructure

DRC: why didn’t it work? Local support?

Crisis fatigue?

Unclear benefits?

Example: Gaza 2008 December 27 2008 – January 18 2009

Media blackout

Al Jazeera English was the only English language media outlet on the ground

Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros

Gaza: Ushahidi deploymentAl Jazeera was the first major media outlet to

utilize Ushahidi

Riyaad Minty links up with Erik Hersman

4 ways to report: website; SMS; Twitter and email

Gaza 2008 - screenshot

Gaza: in retrospect Majority of reports focused

on aid, air strikes, rocket attacks and Palestinian casualties

Verification

Damage to infrastructure

Responsibility of the media

Other applications of UshahidiAtlanta crime map

Wildlife tracking in Kenya

H1N1/swine flu monitoring

African medical stockout tracker

Snowmaggedon

Zombie Apocalypse

Current developmentsUshahidi 2.0 – out in a few weeks

Plugins being developed for Facebook and YouTube

Canadian Dale Zak working on smart phone apps

Swift River: separating the message from the noise, wheat from the chaff

Cloudvox: voice reporting

FrontlineSMS: turns computer and a mobile into a 2-way group messaging hub. It works anywhere there’s a mobile signal, doesn’t need the Internet, a major advantage for many grassroots NGOs. You can send messages to wide groups of people, and collect responses to any questions/surveys you might want to run, all via text message.

Conclusion – a success or a work in progress?Another tool in the journalist’s social media arsenal

Crowdsourcing and the ‘veil of ignorance’

Determining the veracity of reports

Reliance on technological infrastructure

‘Wag the dog’ – Ushahidi and “information vandalism”

Framing and journalist as cartographer

No silver bullet

Reliance on local advocacy, advertising and NGOs

Ushahidi: 10% of the solution

A final thought…“It’s a tool. It’s a tool we need to use to tell a story.

Very often we get caught up in the hype, and we jump on the bandwagon, and we go out there and report on the here and now. And we forget what really makes us journalists, what we are here to do. It’s up to us to be there to tell the truth. Whatever it is. Because that’s the fundamental reason that all of us got into this business. The business models will come, but if you are not standing out there putting the information into context, providing depth and understanding to situations and conflicts around the world, then we are failing in our jobs. Because we need to go beyond that, even if it’s only 140 characters at a time.”

– Riyaad Minty, head of social media at Al Jazeera.