Panel 3 @CrisisMappers #ICCM
Jul 08, 2015
Panel 3
@CrisisMappers #ICCM
You Can't Get There from Here:Generating, Analyzing & Using Information
from Hard-to-Access Areas
Michael Kleinman
@HumanityUnited
Aditya Vashistha
@adityavash
Enabling Robust Multi-way Communication in Crisis Scenarios
Aditya VashisthaUniversity of Washington
Joint work with Bill Thies at Microsoft Research India
www.ivrjunction.org@ivrjunction
Voice Remains Primary Interfacefor Mobile Subscribers
Most subscribers lack smart phones
Internet Penetration is expected to be 19% in 2014
Mobile Internet: < 3% of subscribers
Smart Phone: ~ 5% Feature Phone: 50-70%(e.g., music player)
Basic Phone: 30-50%
Literacy and Language Barriers
Literate in English
Non-Literate
Literate in Other
Language
LanguageKnown
Text interfaces are hindered by low literacy and language diversity!How can we reach out to people who are low-literate?
How can we reach out to literate tribal people (limited font support)?
Designing Technology for People
Image Credit: Jayanta Shaw/Reuters/Corbis
Low-literateLow SESDumb PhoneNo Internet
Interactive Voice Response Systems
Connecting UnheardVoices to Global Social Media
Phonecall
Internet
Distributed Architecture
Affordability Scalability Resilience
Coordinate Efforts in Multiple Regions
Mumbai
USA
UgandaKenya
New Delhi
More Advantages!
• Easy to Install, Configure and Maintain
• Resilient to Intermittent Power & Internet Outages
• Resilient to Internet Crackdown by Network Provider or Internet
• All hardware fit in a laptop bag
Setting Up ‘Your’ Voice Forum• Laptop
• Windows OS
• Internet
• IVR Junction Software (free)
• Free Web services• YouTube account
• SkyDrive or Dropbox account
• Facebook page
• Paid Components • GSM or Fixed line modem
($100 per port)
• Voxeo Prophecy 11
(free for 2 ports, $298 for 4 ports)
Protect Indian Women Voice PetitionGiving Voice to the Protestors in India
IVR Junction has enabled women rights activists from all economic backgrounds and varied literacy levels to raise their
voice for advocating women safety and empowerment.
Vehicle for Civic Engagement and Political Stability in Somaliland
Getting News to and from Mali
Lessons Learnt
Technology Amplifies Human Intent and Capacity; It Doesn’t Substitute for Them - Kentaro Toyoma
Use technology only when necessary!
End Users Must Trust the (Technology) System
Work with “trusted” grassroots organizations!
Lessons Learnt
More Data is not Always Good; BAD Data Hurts!
Facts verification is critical especially in crisis mapping!
Don’t Overestimate or Underestimate End Users
Some people struggle with even IVR and SMS; Intrinsic motivation and intermediated use enable some to perform complex tasks
Over 20,000 Voices Heard
Thank you!@adityavash
Christophe Billen
@PeopleIntel
Limits to crowdsourcing HR
violations• Lack of quality information
• No (standard) taxonomy
• Lack of source evaluation
• Deduplication, verification and analysis
hampered
• Lack of feedback loops and empowerment
• Data security and users’ safety
How to address these
issues?• Paradigm shift: from monologue to dialogue
• Low-tech (SMS or USSD)
• 5W1H questions
• Semantic and syntactic analyses combined with
machine learning and micro-tasking
• Ethics
Challenges• Users’ safety and data security (USSD?)
• Low literacy rates and vernacular languages
(IVR + microtasking)
• Sensitization of user base
• Buy-in from NGOs and IOs
• Funding
Next steps• ICCM Self-organized session @ 15:30 Room 7
• Finalize market research/SWOT analysis with OSJI
• Requirement analysis + Feasibility plan
• First prototype
• Pilot in situations
Web: www.peoples-intelligence.org
Mail: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeopleIntel
Call: +31 654 76 36 70
Nathaniel Raymond
@nattyray11
Nat Walker@nat_EWER
Generating, Mapping and Analyzing Conflict Data
An Overview of Civil Society, Liberian Government and United Nations
Collaboration in Liberia
Early Warning / Early Response Actors
Comprise of civil society organizations, government agencies, UN agencies and other international partners working on issues of peacebuilding and conflict prevention.
With support from Humanity United and other partners, the Liberia Peacebuilding Office coordinates the group
EWER Working Group comprises of 27 plus organizations and a large network of community-based reporters that work to provide relevant data via frontline sms for the EWER incident-reporting map, developed by Ushahidi (www.lern.ushahidi.com)
How does the group Work?
Organizations are grouped into clusters according to their individual thematic focus ( some organizations are in more than one cluster):
1. Warning
2. Response
3. Technology
4. Research
Strategic Approach to EWER in Liberia
SA #1The creation and support of a nationwide network comprising of civil society, government and United Nation organizations that are:
a. Collaborating and sharing information relating to issues that could lead to widespread violence while
b. Formulating recommendations for policy makers on ways of addressing those issues that threaten peace and national security
Strategic Approach to EWER in Liberia
SA #2• The development of a community based early
warning and early response system involving county peace committees which help identify local conflict factors; and resolve and transform these local conflicts through mediation, dialogue and other community initiatives.
SA #3
• Linking community based early warning / early response actors with the Government’s regional justice and security system through rapid response centers in three regional hubs
What are we trying to achieve?Short Term (1-3 years)
1. EWER through a network of civil society actors ( EWER Working
group)
2. EWER through county peace
committees and other community level
actors
1. Peacebuilding Office has the capacity tocollect, mapped assess and communicateinformation on potential threat to peace bothat the community and national levels
2. Information from Community based EWERsystems reaches relevant decision makers andthe public, and informs early action in theform of contingency planning and earlyresponse for national and county level3. Members of county peace committees aretrained to identify and report on ewer issuesand engage in first stage early responseactivities
Major potential community violent conflicts in Liberia are
detected, mapped and dealt with before escalating to the county
and national level.
OU
TPU
SO
UTC
OM
ESIM
PAC
T
How Short term? Medium term
New initiatives/pilot studies
Establishing a community based ewer mechanism
involving peace
committees
1. Expand collection and mapping capabilities
2. Consolidation 3. Establishing
community managed rapid response pool
fund4. Comm-police rapid response centers at three regional hubs
EWER Working group
EWER small grants initiatives to build capacity, motivate and enable CSO to engaged in response activities
Existing initiatives
ER Course of Action• Watch – aggregate information as reports come
in
• Inquire – actively seek additional information for ongoing analysis
• Analyze – conduct in-depth analysis with a view of generating possible response options, including setting up task forces to intervene where necessary
• Refer – make referrals to state security agencies, peace committees, etc
• Close – the issue is resolved and no further action is anticipated
A snapshot of the LERN platform
Some Lessons Learned Relating to Mapping
• One will expect a low tech data collection method like sms to be simple, but it proved difficult for some
• Constant feedback to reporters on data utilization is necessary for motivation
• Mapping and even collating conflict trend data is meaningless unless it comes with recommendations for possible response
• Individual organization working early warning achieve far less than when they operate in networks and integrate their work in a coordinated manner
Contact
• +231886944659 (Liberia)
• +7736964565(USA)
• natwalker2(skype)
Aditya Vashistha@adityavash
Christophe Billen@PeopleIntel
Nathaniel Raymond@nattyray11
Nat Walker@nat_EWER
Thanks for participating!@CrisisMappers #ICCM
Many thanks to our sponsors!
CrisisMappers 2013