Category: Crowd-Sourcing

MicroMappers Launched for Pakistan Earthquake Response (Updated)

Update: MicroMappers is now public! Anyone can join to help the efforts!

MicroMappers was not due to launch until next month but my team and I at QCRI received a time-sensitive request by colleagues at the UN to carry out an early test of the platform given yesterday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake, which killed well over 300 and injured hundreds more in south-western Pakistan.

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Workshop report explores use of mass collaboration in disaster management

The growing use of social media and other mass collaboration technologies is opening up new opportunities in disaster management efforts, but is also creating new challenges for policymakers looking to incorporate these tools into existing frameworks, according to a new report from the Commons Lab at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The Commons Lab, part of the Wilson Center’s Science & Technology Innovation Program, hosted a September 2012 workshop bringing together emergency responders, crisis mappers, researchers, and software programmers to discuss issues surrounding the adoption of these new technologies.

The Commons Lab is pleased to announce the release of “Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management: Workshop Summary,” a report discussing the key findings, policy suggestions, and success stories that emerged during the workshop. The report’s release coincides with the tenth annual Disaster Preparedness Month, sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Department of Homeland Security to help educate the public about preparing for emergencies.

The workshop charted new territory for the field by prioritizing academic and applied research opportunities and challenges. The report points to best practices, useful tools, and practical approaches for integrating crowdsourced data with more traditional data sources.

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MicroMappers: Microtasking for Disaster Response

My team and I at QCRI are about to launch MicroMappers: the first ever set of microtasking apps specifically customized for digital humanitarian response. If you’re new to microtasking in the context of disaster response, then I recommend reading this, this and this. The purpose of our web-based microtasking apps (we call them Clickers) is to quickly make sense of all the user-generated, multi-media content posted on social media during disasters. How? By using microtasking and making it as easy as a single click of the mouse to become a digital humanitarian volunteer. This is how volunteers with Zooniverse were able to click-and-thus-tag well over 2,000,000 images in under 48-hours.

We have already developed and customized four Clickers using the free and open source microtasking platform CrowdCrafting: TweetClicker, TweetGeoClicker, ImageClicker and ImageGeoClicker. Each Clicker includes a mini-tutorial to guide volunteers. While we’re planning to launch them live next month, these Clickers (described below) can be used right now if need be. When a disaster strikes, we can automatically upload tweets to the TweetClicker, for example. These tweets are pre-filtered for keywords and hashtags relevant to the disaster in question. We can also automatically identify multimedia content posted to Twitter and upload this to the ImageClicker to tag pictures that show damage, for example.

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Enabling Crowdfunding on Twitter for Disaster Response

Twitter is increasingly used to communicate needs during crises. These needs often include requests for information and financial assistance, for example. Identifying these tweets in real-time requires the use of advanced computing and machine learning in particular. This is why my team and I at QCRI are developing the Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response (AIDR) platform. My colleague Hemant Purohit has been working with us to develop machine learning classifiers to automatically identify and disaggregate between different types of needs. He has also developed classifiers to automatically identify twitter users offering different types of help including financial support. Our aim is to develop a “Match.com” solution to match specific needs with offers of help. What we’re missing, however, is for an easy way to post micro-donations on Twitter as a result of matching financial needs and offers.

This is where my colleague Clarence Wardell and his start-up TinyGive may come in. Geared towards nonprofits, TinyGive is the easiest way to accept donations on Twitter. Indeed, Donating via TinyGive is as simple as tweeting five words: “Hey @[organization], here’s $5! #tinygive”. I recently tried the service at a fundraiser and it really is that easy. TinyGive turns your tweet into an actual donation (and public endorsement), thus drastically reducing the high barriers that currently exist for Twitter users who wish to help others. Indeed, many of the barriers that currently exist in the mobile donation space is overcome by TinyGive.

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