#ushahidi

Crowdsourcing refers to the practice of obtaining ideas, services, data, or resources from a large, often online group of people during emergencies or disruptive events such as natural disasters, pandemics, wars, or economic collapses. Highlight. This includes all crises out there, not just the contemporary digital hardships. The topic of crowdsourcing validates the significance of the digital community, and why it has the power to change, to rule the world. BIG LINES. But it’s true. We’ll go about this by breaking down into different cases of digital crowdsourcing and what had already happened in the past, and the changes they have already landed in the past years. 

The Covid-19 pandemic

Lockdown. Vaccines. Sorrows. Deaths. Covid is a season of great sorrows. When the economy and general mobility are being severely handicapped, the people switch to the online platform for ideas and actions for urgent research and discoveries

In early 2020, a global shortage of mechanical ventilators threatened to overwhelm healthcare systems as COVID-19 led to severe respiratory failure. Over 3,000 engineers, medical professionals, and hobbyists from 20+ countries collaborated in real-time on a single open-source ventilator design. Design files were version-controlled on GitHub; circuit board designs were co-edited live on Altium 365.

This is done by a complete geographic decentralization – no physical meeting was ever held. The final design could be downloaded and manufactured anywhere in the world with a 3D printer and basic electronics.

In specific regions in Africa, the pandemic was accompanied by an Infodemic, a spread of disinformation, making it difficult for people to find accurate information. To tackle the issue, UNESCO in partnership with Innovation for Policy Foundation (i4Policy) launched an online campaign to crowdsource local openly licensed content to inform communities across Africa about Covid-19.

“This crisis tells us the importance of the flow of quality, reliable information at a time when misinformation and rumors are flourishing,” said UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay.  

Translators for Ukraine (2022-Present)

In the face of war, social media platforms such as Telegram and Whatsapp are being used as decentralised network with volunteer translators receiving important screenshots of Ukrainian documents - medical records, legal forms, evacuation orders, returned and translated within minutes. A simple Telegram bot distributed tasks to available volunteers based on language pairs (e.g., Ukrainian -> Polish).

At peak, the network claimed over 5000 active volunteers and processed over 1 million translation requests in the first six months of the war. 

2010 Haiti Earthquake: Ushahidi and the 4636 SMS Short Code

On January 12, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, causing over 100,000 deaths and overwhelming traditional communication and aid infrastructure. Within hours of the earthquake, the Ushaidi platform - originally a platform developed to map violence in Kenya - launched the Ushaihidi-Haiti Project. The innovation was a partnership with the mobile network Digicel to establish SMS short code 4636, allowing anyone in Haiti to text reports of urgent needs for free. 

Estimated 10,000 Haitians volunteered to translate messages, processing thousands of reports. 

The US Marine Corps and US Coast Guard actively used the live map. One Marine Corps report specifically credited the map with enabling a rescue mission that evacuated two elderly women and a young girl with critical injuries from outside Grand Goave, stating, "Your site saved these people's lives... There are 100s of these kinds of stories..."

Digital crowdsourcing is a great example in contributing to a healthy digital citizenship. It is also a pivotal tool for organizations and institutions that helps facilitate the decentralization of knowledge production and task execution and by doing so, leverages dispersed expertise, creativity and labour across global networks. It can be applied in various manners including crowdfunding, crowd analysis, crowd data collection and so on, in different fields and circumstances. Hansen (2012) affirms that aimed at solving wicked problems, public managers seek innovative approaches and crowdsourcing can be a likely solution for municipal issues. 

Addressing the need of volunteers in crowdsourcing

Democratic viewpoints suggest citizen engagement with technology use for improving deliberation and decision making (Macintosh, 2004). Other e-participation frameworks include alternatives for more collaborative strategies, which enable citizens to become partners and co-creators and co-producers of services (Nam, 2016). 

One of the most efficient ways to take part in crowdsourcing for an ongoing crisis is to participate in crisis mapping and open-source data collection. Global humanitarian organizations use these platforms to turn satellite imagery and local reports into actionable maps and intelligence for on-the-ground disaster relief. 

Crowdsourcing is an indispensable need in the time of crises, and digital crowdsourcing offers more channels for greater accessibility and enhanced efficiency of the crowdsourcing process, making it easier in resolving crises. 

Week 12: Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

References:

Bertot, J. C., Jaeger, P. T., & Hansen, D. (2012). Government Information Quarterly, 29(1), 30–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2011.04.004

Macintosh, A. (2004). Characterizing e-participation in policy-making. In Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (p. 50117b). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2004.1265300

Morrow, N., Mock, N., Papendieck, A., & Kocmich, J. (2011). Independent evaluation of the Ushahidi Haiti project. Development Information Systems International.

Nam, T. (2016). Government 3.0 in Korea: A country study on government innovation. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 82(4), 743–763.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852315574992

UNESCO. (2020, April 1). #DontGoViral: UNESCO and i4Policy launch a campaign to crowdsource local content to combat the Infodemic in Africa. UNESCO News. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/dontgoviral-unesco-and-i4policy-launch-campaign-crowdsource-local-content-combat-infodemic-africa

Ass. 1b. Week 8. Crowdsourcing in times of crisis.

Crowdsourcing is the term used for the practice of gathering content and services from the greater public, primarily via the internet and social media, rather than by using traditional media (Merriam Webster Online 2014). If you need something or to achieve and a particular outcome, crowdsourcing is one way to help it happen. Where this methodology becomes useful is in a time of need and crisis. There have been a few points of crisis where the use of social media, namely Twitter, has helped to disseminate information and to gather information about places that have the highest need for help.

The 2011 Queensland Floods are one case at hand. Twitter was used to keep people updated with valuable information from local authorities (Burns et al. 2012 p. 7). “The Twitter hashtag #qldfloods quickly became the central coordinating mechanism for flood-related user activity” (Burns et al. 2012 p. 8). Social media played a vital part in contributing to the rescue operation and enabled the public to assist and contribute in a time of need.

Another significant development from crowdsourcing has come in the form of social mapping. After the 2007 Kenyan elections when the new president was elected, there was a substantial amount of unrest.  The opposition staged protests across the country which got out of hand and soon broke into violent clashes between ethnic groups (Ford 2012 p. 34). From the unrest, we saw the development of Ushahidi, the social mapping platform that allowed normal, everyday people to make real-time reports of what was happening on the ground (Ford 2012 p. 33). Interestingly, the platform itself was built by crowdsourcing when a local journalist, Kenyan Pundit ask for suggestions and help in reporting the facts (Ford 2012 p.34). Quickly a team arose and developed the platform, which in turn, ended up crowdsourcing crisis information.

Both situations are a great tribute to both the everyday human and to technology. At heart, most people are willing to love, care and help others. Give people the right tools to do it, and they will.

References

Anon 2019, 1037 109 L Tb Tu IUL Diabetes Meme Were Altin This Together Diabetes Awareness Month 113 110 <p> Let&rsquos Spread Accurate Information About Type 1 Diabetes During the Month of November! How Are You Doing Your Part? <br><p> | Andrew Bogut Meme on ME.ME, [image], viewed 14 January, 2019, <https://me.me/i/10-37-109-l-tb-tu-iul-diabetes-meme-were-altin-22117279>.

Burns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, #qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods, Brisbane, pp. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf, viewed 8 January, 2019, <https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf>.

Burns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, #qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods, Brisbane, pp. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf, [image], viewed 8 January, 2019, <https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf>.

Ford, H 2012, "Crowd Wisdom", Index on Censorship, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 33-39, viewed 8 January, 2019, <https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306422012465800>.

Lardinois, F 2019, Help Me Help Uses Crowdsourcing To Make Disaster Response More Efficient, [image], viewed 14 January, 2019, <https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/04/help-me-help-wants-to-make-emergency-response-during-disasters-more-efficient/>.

Crowdfunding has become a bit of a buzzword over recent years, so firstly let's look at what is crowdfunding? It's a fundraising practice that utilises connections much like networked publics to gather funding in support of a specific project (Doan & Toledana 2017, p. 38). To put this practice into a fun pop-culture perspective we can look at a successful crowdfunding campaign instigated by Kevin Roberts in 2013. Veronica Mars, a detective drama following the adventures of a high school/college student by day and teen detective by night was revitalised as a feature-length film through networked crowdfunding seven years after the series was cancelled from network television (Yahr 2014). Roberts employed the help of Kickstart.com, a website dedicated to helping raise funds for creative projects. Roberts initially requested $2 million dollars for the project but by the end of the crowdfunding campaign, he had raised a staggering $5,702,153 (Hills 2015, p. 2). If you consider that this project targeted a very specific niche demographic it highlights the impact and possibilities of using networked publics to generate connections by utilising the affordance of spreadability to link dispersed individuals who can come together to fund a common goal, it also tells me that teen detective dramas are wildly more popular and I may be missing out on quality television.

Veronica Mars (Shellstropaljamil 2016)

If it’s possible to not just generate involvement but to exceed expectations for the value of entertainment, can we take the same basic principle of using online networks collective nature and converge in collective democratic action? This is exactly what the developers of Ushahidi proceed to do in the aftermath of the 2007 Kenyan elections. Post-election protests turned into widespread violence, which leads Kenyan blogger Ory Okolloh to make a public appeal to her followers asking for ideas of how it may be possible to collect information regarding the names of Kenyan citizens who lost their lives in the violence throughout this turbulent period. Approximately twenty develops came to the aid and offered their time and labour to develop a tracking system via SMS and an online platform, and in a week Ushahidi was born (Ford 2012 p. 33-34). Ushahidi was developed through the collective nature of crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing goes beyond the collective funding, crowdsourcing commodity is people power, its a collective of individuals and their skills sets brought together to create and find solutions to a task or problem (Shepherd 2012, p. 11).

Crisis Mapping Japan (Ushahidi 2011)

Ushahidi’s success is its ability to utilize networked publics affordances of direct participation, as Henry Jenkins eloquently states, “crowdsourcing is about shifting the power relations between audience and producers” (2013 p. 248). The collective nature of Ushahidi promotes the co-creative involvement of collective groups establishing a bottom-up networks (Zorina 2016, p. 85). Since the turbulent Kenyan election of 2007, countless Ushahidi maps have been developed in over 159 countries (Hyman 2014, p. 28) to track an abundance of social, political and environmental issues. Ushahidi is a constantly evolving platform with users embracing the affordance of crowdsourcing collaborative nature helping to stimulate a worldwide social consciousness “to help improve the bottom-up flow of information” (Ushahidi 2018).

Ushahidi's Crisis Mapping in 40 seconds (99 Faces TV 2011)

Reference List

Aljona, Z 2016, ‘From a competing to a collaborative crowd: Tactics for co-creation with innovative bottom-up communities: Tactics for co-creation with innovative bottom-up communities’, Organizational Dynamics, vol. 45, no. 2, pp.80-93.

Doan, M & Toledano, M 2018, ‘Beyond organization-centred public relations: Collective action through a civic crowdfunding campaign’, Public Relations Review, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 37-46.

Ford, H 2012, 'Crowd Wisdom', Index on Censorship, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 33-39.

Hills, M 2015, ‘Veronica Mars , fandom, and the ‘Affective Economics’ of crowdfunding poachers’, New Media & Society, vol. 17, no. 2, pp.183-197.

Hyman, P 2014, ‘Peace Technologies' Enable Eyewitness Reporting When Disasters Strike’, Communications of the ACM, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 27-29.

Jenkins, H,  Ford, S & Green, J 2013, Spreadable Media - Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, NYU Press, Ebook Central (ProQuest).

99 Faces TV 2011, Ushahidi's Crisis Mapping in 40 seconds, 24 March, viewed 17 May 2018, <https://youtu.be/SakTPDHs6iI>.

Shellstropaljamil 2016, ‘Veronica Mars Amazing’, [image], Tumblr, viewed 17 May 2018, <https://78.media.tumblr.com/9da1690a02ecc1f6ca8281bddd9588ae/tumblr_nmjn88Iuo11rohg16o3_250.gif>.

Shepherd, H 2012, ‘Crowdsourcing’, Contexts, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 10-11.

Ushahidi 2011, ‘ Crisis Mapping Japan’, [image], Ushahidi, viewed 17 May 2018, <https://2ee8a9b674d3b6a52133-b7785f8c6e03b0b67de30b88e1b0fcb9.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/2011/04/sinsai-500x348.png>.

Ushahidi 2018, About Ushahidi, Ushahidi, viewed 15 May 2018,<https://www.ushahidi.com/about>.

9Whenever I think of crowdsourcing I immediately think of the feature on Facebook that allows you to say “I’m okay” in a time of a crisis. This feature is smart but makes me think does this lend us to becoming lazier when it comes to a natural disaster and other unforeseen events.

But first what is crowdsourcing??

Crowdsourcing can be defined as a type of online participation in which individuals, groups, institutions and organisations come together to complete a task, in which the volunteers undertaking the task bring with them their money, knowledge and experience which entails a mutual benefit (Brabham, p. 2).

So basically, like charity.

When we look at past events, take for instance the November 2015 Paris attacks, social media did what it always does when there is a disaster like this one, it reacted. The hashtag #Prayers4Paris started trending on Twitter and Facebook released the option to add the French flag overlay on top of your profile picture, with more than 120 million people used this feature in the first 3 days (Bondarenko, 2017). These sorts of features aren’t exactly the most effective during a time of a crisis, we need to get back to our roots and get our hands dirty and lend a hand.

Some other examples of crowdsourcing, which in the case of a disaster are more effective, are sites including GoFundMe, a crowdfunding platform that allows people to create a page that permits their friends, family members and complete strangers to donate to their event, and Ushahidi a site that allows individuals to submit reports using their mobile phone or the Internet, which create a geospatial archive of events. These two platforms are ingenious ways to individuals being able to either give back to those who have been affected by the disaster and can’t be there to lend a helping hand or pinpoint exactly where individuals are in terms of a disaster and where the disaster is taking place.

Here is a TEDx Talk (2015) that explains more about crowdsourcing and “changing the world one idea at a time”.

References:

Brabham, DC 2013, Crowdsourcing, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bondarenko, V 2017, ‘Facebook has quietly stopped offering flag profile picture filters after terrorist attacks’, Business Insider Australia, 8th June, viewed 14th May 2018, <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/facebook-stops-offering-flag-profile-picture-filters-after-terrorist-attacks-2017-5?r=US&IR=T>.

..as NETHOPE, Ushahidi, YARN present findings to stakeholders As the effects of climate change continue to unfold and become an undeniable reality, the need to adopt urgent and effective adaptation measures has become more critical. In Ondo State, a recent survey sponsored by the Youth in Agroecology and Restoration Network (YARN) with the support of  NETHOPE and Ushahidi has identified…

While I have previously talked of the negatives that social networking can bring, I have not touched on the positive outcomes that come from it. One of them being Crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing has been defined by Riccardi, M 2016 in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction as 'using the power of the Internet and social media to 'virtually harness the power of individuals and bring them together in support of a disaster.'

Crowdsourcing has been so successful and has brought the world together after tragedies such as the hurricane in Haiti in 2010. While it was horrible what happened it was being of crowdsourcing that lives were able to be saved through resources such as food and medicine were distributed throughout those who were affected. It was through campaigns online where it was widely spread to take action so they could provide the resources to help volunteers on the ground in Haiti.

Crowdsourcing has become more normalised with the introduction to more technology and software platforms. Many people around the world have helped in the aid of many individuals and families who have been directly effecting by major disasters around the world.

There have even been methods used for crowdsourcing, this has been adopted by Ushahidi where they use crisis mapping. The developed an online map that will dot where there have been a crisis, it will share the exact GPS coordinates and will mention what supplies they need and how many are injured. They visualise this information in real time for emergency response, social activism and public accountability. This allows for more transparency of what's actually happening in the world around us and allow us to help people more quickly and effectively.

Through the use of crowdsourcing we are able to help so many people around the world, showing the positive effects of social media an dhow we can use to for good use.

“Technology is not meant to replace humanitarian efforts, it is meant to augment them and make them more efficient and more effective.”

Nathaniel Manning, CEO, Ushahidi

Measuring earthquake activity, designing the Sydney Opera House & saving lives; crowdsourcing has got us covered. What is it? In its most basic form, it is the practice of obtaining information/services through engaging a crowd of people in order to solve a problem. In 1955, one of the earliest forms of crowdsourcing came to light when the Australian government began a contest for the design of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  The contest turned to designers, artists and engineers - receiving 233 entires from 32 countries.

Fast forward to 2019 and crowdsourcing has got its bread in many baskets. How? Social Media.  The dynamic nature of social media allows people to share brand new ideas, engage with people cross-globally and showcase our skills to the rest of the world; all on a 24/7 instantaneous platform! Coke for instance, turned to its 50+ million crowd through Facebook, asking fans to suggest an invention, cause or social app that could spread happiness. In this way crowdsourcing was brilliant! Crowdsourcing provided a way for coke to be socially responsible and proved to consumers that they were open, transparent and valued their consumers opinion. (All for free!) 

Aside from capitalist schemes to meet marketing quotas, crowdsourcing can REALLY help humanity. Particularly in times of crisis. Take the example of Ushahidi, a platform created to help marginalised Kenyan’s whilst post-election violence erupted in 2007.

Controversial issues were being disregarded and unreported to mainstream media, leaving Kenya in the dark. In response, Ushahidi’s crowdsourcing platform bypassed mainstream media, allowing people to provide real time information and identify key affected areas on a map. This helped emergency services, NGO’s, governments and not-for-profit groups to listen and respond more effectively to the situation at hand. Furthermore, the situation became increasingly transparent and services were able to respond quickly and effectively to save lives and offer assistance. This example is a true testament to crowdsourcing. Riccardi sums it up nicely; “the true power of crowdsourcing; individuals coming together from across the globe, who possess different sets of skills and can work together to solve a complex problem quickly and efficiently”.

As digital citizens we utilise our co-existing sphericules to gather information to help humanity and the overall public sphere. This is how crowdsourcing is effective in shaping our sociality and instilling democracy. Crowdsourcing for just causes helps to improve our sociality and even more importantly, aims to prove a utopian view of social media; where information, equal & protected participation, and the absence of institutional influence create the ideal public sphere.

When I used to think of the term crowdsourcing, I pictured Kickstarter Campaigns searching for investors in a smart wardrobe or a GoFundMe page raising money for  a community garden. This week I learnt there is so much more to the term, particular in relation to crisis communication.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary (2019) defines crowdsourcing as “the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet.” Despite my initial ignorance, crowdsourcing can be extremely useful to authorities, volunteers, relief teams and citizens when dealing with a crisis.

 The power of crowdsourcing was demonstrated during the horrific 2011 Queensland Floods, where social networks Facebook and Twitter played a crucial part in sharing the latest news.  The Queensland Police Service played a particularly important role in this process, with their Twitter account spreading information faster than news stations on TV (Bruns 2012). 

The information shared wasn’t just one-way, it also gave locals the opportunity to report back on their situation, sharing personal stories, organising volunteer efforts and requesting additional help. 

Another great initiative was the ABC’s Flood Crisis Map – an interactive map where those effected could submit their own reports or check the map for other reports. Users were able to see live information around road closures, flooded streets, evacuation centres, sandbagging locations, lost and found pets and more (Middleton 2011).

 Crowdsourcing has also been put to great use in the development of interactive mapping platform The Ushahidi – translated to “witness” in Kishwahilli (Casanovas and Poblet 2012). 

The map was developed as a tool to lodge eye-witness reports of violence following the 2007 Kenyan election and subsequent civil unrest. The public were able to log their location and add relevant information against an interactive map to alert others with real-time data (Casanovas and Poblet 2012). This was particularly useful to residence in a country where real, accurate information can be hard to come by due to media censorship and corrupt law enforcement.

 The use of crowdsourcing has completely changed the way we deal with crisis’, there is no doubt humanity will experience many more, and it’s exciting to think about where further technological developments will take us in term of crisis communication and management.