Crowdsourcing Crisis Information and Citizen media

david kobiaory okolloherik hersmanjuliana rotich

Crowd Sourcing Crisis Information

Juliana RotichJuliana@ushahidi.com

The role of Citizen Media in the Web of the Future

Kenya Elections 2007Getting from here

To here

To here

President Mwai Kibakiincumbent

Raila Odingaopposition

Media Blackout

traditional media blogs/social media

Ory Okollohkenyanpundit.com

Bahrain Land Rights (PDF) - http://elijahzarwan.net/blog/?p=268

Tunisia Prisons Map - http://kitab.nl/tunisianprisonersmap

Our Goals

•Create a way for everyday Kenyans to report incidents of violence that they saw

•Create an archive of news and reports around those same events

•Show where the majority of the violence was happening

Citizen Journalist’s Objectives- The question why do you blog? is instructive- Blogging as a way of dealing with events around you

Reaching Globally - Why do people pay attention?*What is the number of dead at which “Compassion Fatigue” starts to occur? a) 40,000b) 50c) 2d) 500,000*(Wired Mag Jul 2008 pg 174) Paul Slovic: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3751

Citizen media- Explores Nuances & provides context- Humanizes the crisis e.g Brian’s Story

http://www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.31/aid.135284/column.htmhttp://josephkaroki.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/found-alive-and-well/http://www.mamamikes.com/blog/index.php?paged=3

Lessons Learned•The importance of engaging

Diaspora

•How to Help - A question that we needed to answer early on.

•Global Networks such as GV are invaluable during crisis situations

•Value of Aggregation and social networks

Lessons Learned•The importance of mapping

accuracy

•Data poisoning - what happens when your antagonist starts using it?

•Verification is difficult

•Clarify why it was created and make that inescapably obvious

•Create a feedback loop to end users

Next Steps•Developing Ushahidi version 2 + Pilot

NGO partnership program

•Mobile platform -collection, feedback loop

•Ushahidi Community - The power of the crowds and Citizen journalists

•Answer the question How can I help? mapping volunteer stations/opportunities

•Create a feedback loop to end users

Thank You

Omolo, Kuria, Kimura, Nyokabi, Miaud, Edgerton, Monyo, Kimeria, Dsouza, Kangethe, Muthoni, Coseac, Barbieri, Patel, Jabbar, Mann, Warungongo, Wairimu,

Juergen, Njoroge, Laurance, Wanja, Wambui, Romanos, Lutz, Popplewell, Walsh, Kamau, Gessner, Gichanga, Gray, Butler, Ndambuki, Herman, Nordlund, Amusala,

Boit, Adamson, Karuoya, Rothmyer, Shelton, Krenceyova, Yodit, Desjarlais, Brea, Wekesa, Duffy, Gatuiria, Parekh, Zuckerman, Tuva, Good, Okolloh,

Harakis, Mutai, Juliana, Sara, Bangura, Njoki, Shalom,Bentley, Weber, Krueger, Canning, Suetterlin, Forshaw, Sasaki, Kimeria, Kaniaru, Wandimi, Knight, Ligale, Mahihu, Mueller, Giraudo, Wakanene, Itotia, Ndambuki, Vincenti, Roper, Rife, Hanover, Shepard, Chieni-Cookson, Kendi, Muthoni, Magero, Mangunyu