Emergency Information Systems: Thomson Reuters Fnd. & InSTEDD

EMERGENCY INFORMATION SERVICES (EIS)

Eduardo JezierskiEngineering, [email protected]: eduardojezierski@edjez

With tech support of…

INFORMATION TO SAVE LIVES

• EIS is a free information service for populations affected by disasters

• To help the people recover by giving

them access to information that will enable them to make decisions

INFORMATION TO SAVE LIVES • What kind of information?

– Fast, practical and verified information– Always in local languages

• What is the scale of the disaster?• Which areas have been affected?• Is safe to move to another area?• Are transportation links/infrastructure damaged?• Where should people seek refuge?• Where are the food distribution points?• Where are people find clean water?• What medical facilities are available and where?• What do people do if they have missing relatives?

THE EIS SYSTEM

Individual Messages

RSS (geo, tags)Email

Digest summaries

What can survivors do with EIS?

• Subscribe by texting a local number

• Receive free, location-specific SMS alerts and information

• Text information into the system

• People outside the disaster zone can add loved ones’ numbers

• Can unsubscribe at any time

• Information received in local languages and dialects

What can relief responders do?

• Monitor raw information from government, local media, aid groups and survivors

• Set up filters (by keywords, tags, topics, locations or time)

• Crowdsource the Diaspora (translate, map, tag as needed)

– As we did in Haiti

• Share own content via RSS, email and SMS

– SMS alerts, email alerts, email Digests daily/weekly

• Manage own collaborative work spaces (e.g. around field assessments submitted by SMS)

• Map, tag, prioritise, aggregate and annotate raw

information locally or remotely

And local journalists?

• All of the above, plus…

• Receive EIS bulletins by SMS, email or RSS (for repackaging or straight dissemination to local audiences)

• Two-way radio bulletins

• Radio broadcast support through digests

Key Learnings from Indonesia & Haiti

• Telco Preparedness

• Interoperability & Information Flow

• Collaboration & Reliable flow of needs from the ground

• Governance and Decision Making

• Tech capacity on the ground

Eric Rasmussen and Nico di Tada, partners from InSTEDD

Help and information requests

Empowering vulnerable populations with information

Relevance: Geographic, demographic, timelinessDialogue: Keep a 2-way channel open

How does the system work for the TRF team?

• Intelligent processing of multiple information streams

• Complete workflow from writing and translation through editing and publishing

• Send SMS alerts to specific groups and locations

– As targeted as desired: geo, category of message, profession

– Limited by our assessment of the message content

• Send longer information by email and RSS

• Local or global workflows (or combination of both)

• Manage external working groups and assign permissions

• Translate interface into any language

• Flexible configurations for different communications conditions

Home page for EIS Haiti~100.000 items as of 28 February 2010

12 feed sources

~25,000 subscribers

Sending ~80,000+ messages a day

~100.000 items as of 28 February 2010

12 feed sources

~25,000 subscribers

Sending ~80,000+ messages a day

Power of AlgorithmsSuggest from learnt behaviorsAccelerate sifting through data

Feature Extraction, Classification, Clustering

Wisdom of the Crowds

Large base of data & workHyperlocal knowledgeStrength in numbers

Instinct of the ExpertsCross-sector contributions of

specialized knowledge, Curation of a ‘live news’

Instinct of the ExpertsCross-sector contributions of

specialized knowledge, Curation of a ‘live news’

Priorit

izeTeachTeach

Suggest

Prioritize

Annotate

Ground-truth

Crowds + Experts + Algorithms

Translation of a broadcast message…

Experts using information to create an operational picture

Machine, know thy place…Design precept: machines suggest, humans commit

Beyond EIS & looking at the ecosystemHamish, MapAction – source of EIS entrapment localization requests

Anastasia Moloney describing EIS at the UN Humanitarian Forum