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: c.billen@peoples-intelligence.org

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.

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TPU

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UTC

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PAC

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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

• natwalker2002@yahoo.com

• nwalker@lpbo.org

• +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