Mapping Violence with Plan Benin

In addition to producing the ICT4D project guide, Plan also is running a number of it’s own projects to promote child rights through participation and media in Africa. One interesting example of this is Plan’s program to increase the reporting of child abuse in Benin. In Benin, reporting violence generally goes against the cultural norm and many feel that they either don’t have access to communication with authorities or that the authorities won’t act on the information. To address this issue, plan has partnered with Ushahidi to produce crowdsourced maps on incidences  of violence.

The system allows victims or witnesses to send text messages to a special number through an application called Frontline SMS to report the abuse. The website is carefully monitored and all reported cases are verified. Children can also email their stories or send audio or video testimonials. This allows the project to gain a deeper more personal understanding of the accounts. Once the stories have been verified, they appear on an Ushahidi map. This both allows locals to be aware of incidents of violence and alerts the authorities. Plan can also try to match children and their families to the appropriate support service.

While mapping cases of violence is a valuable tool for raising awareness and changing the culture against silence, privacy is still a top concern. Linda Raftree, one of the project coordinators, describes the challenge in the Plan report as such, “‘“Can we capture all the information that comes in, yet scrub it before publication on Ushahidi so that it doesn’t identify the victim or alleged perpetrators, yet keep it in a file for the local authorities to follow up and respond? And a second challenge: If everyone knows everything that happens in the community,how can we ensure privacy and confidentiality for those who report?”’ These are all quite important to consider since the backlash from perpetrators can be severe. However, I think that crowdsourced mapping is a great wait to begin to expose acts of violence without revealing too much about the victim.

As with most ICT4D projects, this technology presents a number of other challenges and limitations that have to do with the digital divide. Of course, if a person doesn’t have access to a cell phone or computer, than this technology is useless. There are also issues with illiteracy. Many people who are illiterate would prefer to call instead of text or email but the system is not set up for this. This would require phone operators and make the system more like a hotline. Also, sending text messages is not free so some people don’t have enough phone credit to text in a report. PlanBenin says that they are working with the government to try to set up a charge free number.

Because of all of these problems, this project is not the ultimate solution to child abuse. However, it is beginning a discussion and working to change a culture of silence and abuse. I’m not sure how effective this technology will be right now for bringing individuals to justice but it does work at the root of the problem so I think it definitely has merit and is worth expanding.

From Matatus to Mobile Phones; Kenya’s Growing Tech Success

Throughout the semester we have discussed multiple application of ICTs that aid the the development of nations around the world. While many of these are practical and goal based, I stumbled across and fun an innovatice applicaction of information communication technologies that boosts the economy of the given nation, connects customs of the country to the world and is a catalyst for fun.

The African nation of Kenya has been at the forefront of ICT development for a long time, with incredibly high rates of mobile phone use relative to the rest of Africa. A newer start-up had been in the video game world. As mentioned in the Eocnomist’s Article Upwardly Mobile, Kenya has taken one of their craziest ways and turned it into enterntainment. In the capital city minibuses called matatus fill the streets moving with homicidal turns, twists, starts and stops. Signals are seldomly used, and brakes are used sparingly. With all the excitment they have to offer, Planat Rackus, a Nairobi based start-up, released “Ma3Racer”, a mobile phone game where each user steers a matatu down the street, with the quite unrealistic goal of avoiding pedestrians. Within a month of the games release, .25 million people in 169 countries around the world had downloaded the game.

This game brings the exciting street life of Nairobi to the world, but also demonstrates the growing trend of starts-ups popping up in the past few years. These companies are part of a quiet tech boom in Kenya happening alongside the coffee and safari industries the nation is known for. In 2010, Kenya’s tech related exports reached $360 million, and Nairobi is now known as the “Silicon Savannah”. However it still hold one crucially differential factors from its silican counterparts. Almost all of the tech firms have desinged their programs from mobile phones rather than computers. Why, well for ever 100 kenyans, 74 have cell phone, and nearly 99% of internet subscriptions in Kenya are on mobile phones

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As a result of the nation’s tech success, investors ore flooding in. Ranging from small firms like Nailib and 88mph Ngong Road, to Kenya’s largest bank, Equity Bank, opening an “innovation centre” the city has become a melting pot for innovation and growth, focusing most of the investment funds on on mobile technology. GSMA, a global association of mobile operators, is about to open an Africa office, also on Ngong Road.

The tech investment is spurring an increase in Aid, inspriring NGO’s to focus on devleopment of the tech economy alongside agricultural and humanitarian assistance. This growth focuses on solutions to many local problems, but also holds a valuable spot in the global stage, with braggign rights to platforms like M-PESA and Ushahidi. Head of Google in Kenya, Joe Mucheru, says “We need to solve the nitty-gritty first and then we can invent new things”. This is where we say programs like M-Farm, a service that gives farmers access to markt prices via text, and allows them to group and sell products. This helps Kenya, and can be exported to other poor coutnries.

Over all the movement towards mobile phone application development in Kenya will allow the nation to continue to grow in all sectors of the economy, regardless of there geographic position or underdeveloped past.

Ushahidi open source platform

In class we have briefly talked about Ushahidi, an open source platform that allows users to send crisis reports through a variety of distribution channels including SMS, email, Twitter and the web. The idea started during the post-election upheaval in Kenya when popular blogger, Ory Okolloh, asked her viewers to send in emails describing events that were not being reported.  Information began flowing into her site faster than she could manage.  Okolloh sought the help of two software developers to build a program that could place the reports on Google Maps.  The basic system has since transformed into comprehensive participatory platform that is used to track crises throughout the world.

As Ushahidi has become more widely used, the program has encountered a challenge of dealing with the plethora of information users submit. As this diagram shows below, the crowd-sourced information was easier for people to report than the system to manage. How could they decide what data was important and ensure that they did not waste any imperative crisis information?

The developers addressed this issue by incorporating the SwiftRiver platform to help make sense of the excessive information.  The platform allows Ushahidi to analyze information, indentify trends, and rate data to filter and refine the information they receive.  This addition to Ushahidi is able to better verify reports and produce more accurate crisis locations.  To read more about Ushahidi and it’s development check out this case study

Pakreport: Crowdsourcing for the Pakistan Floods

Pakreport is an ICT initiative that began in response to the 2010 Pakistani floods. The initiative’s case study describes the program as bringing together crowdsourcing companies, crisis mapping organizations, relief agencies, and engineers in a disaster management effort. Pakreport achieved this through utilizing Ushahidi software in two forms of crowdsourcing: the use of people to provide reports from the ground and use of people around the globe to translate, categorise and geolocate incoming messages. Once this information was processed it was displayed on pakreport.org in an online map for all to see.

As seen in Haiti’s Mission 4636 which we discussed in class, the main source of information for Pakreport was from on the ground assessments from local relief agencies. Similar to 4636, Pakreport set up a 3441 SMS code with the message “what you see about floods,” which was spread via the mass media and relief agency workers. This led to an exponential increase in data, most of which needed to be translated from Pashto or Urdu to English. As in Haiti, volunteers from around the world came together to help evaluate these messages. In the end Pakreport collected over 1,500 real time reports from people on the ground through SMS, while crowd volunteers completed over 2,500 categorizations of reports. Additionally, the initiative created general mapping knowledge and information in Pakistan that did not previously exist.

I think crowdsourcing is an amazing way to provide disaster management in the digital age. The ENTIRE cost of Pakreport’s project came to $7,000, all of which came from a fundraising campaign at globalgiving.org. The microtasking platform and technical services were provided by CrowdFlower for free, as well as the time and expertise of three independent engineers. The idea that an undefined public from around the world can spontaneously come together to help a foreign community in their time of need is a really unique concept, one that is endlessly relevant and important to our ditigal age.

How does Cognitive Surplus relate to ICT4D

     After reading Richard Heeks “ICT4D Manifesto“, which discusses the potentials (and limitations) of information and communication technologies in past development and in today’s “ICT4D 2.0 age”, we watched Clay Shirky’s TED talk titled How Cognitive Surplus Will Change the World.

In his lecture, Shirky discusses how digital technology combined with human generosity have created a new collaborative and social idea know as “cognitive surplus”. The 21st century has given us not only more free time, but also the ability and tools to let the consumers become the creators, who often times create for free. These technological and social changes are creating whole new opportunities for ICT and this in turn relates to ICT4D. Shirky’s point is not only are we in an age where this abundant creation is possible through new knowledge and interconnectedness, but that it is being done for pleasure, for “intrinsic motivations”, and for our fellow people.

This is not the neoliberal, top down, design of the past in how ICT worked, but a grassroots and collaborative effort that falls more into capabilities approach and post developmentalism. Individuals around the world are creating new things for others’ benefit, whether it be a simple laugh at an LOLcat or crisis mapping using the Ushahidi model, both examples Shirky discussed. These consumer created tools can then be used in development, like the crisis mapping in Kenya, and even better is that they were free and open to the public. This is not knowledge kept away for profit, but freedom of information and tools to better others. This is ICT4D 2.0 at work; innovative, using existing technologies, and collaborating across the world.

ICT4D Professional Profile: Ory Okolloh

Ory Okolloh is a Kenyan activist, lawyer, and blogger who is currently employed with Google as the Policy Manager for Africa. In addition, Okolloh has also been known to create a number of websites (engaging in mobile phones, social media, and Google Maps) in order to increase the use of communication and information practices in underdeveloped nations, specifically within the region of Africa where her geographical area of focus is. I chose to write about Ory Okolloh because I feel as though she is an incredible example of applying ICTs to underdeveloped nations by identifying a need and then applying that need to practices of communication and information.

Okolloh’s first ICT4D endeavor was during the year of 2006, where she had co-founded the parliamentary watchdog site Mzalendo, defined as Patriot in Swahili. The website’s mission is to “keep an eye on the Kenyan government” (www.mzalendo.com).  In addition to Mzalendo, Okolloh had also assisted in creating the website Ushahidi, defined as testimony in Swahili. Ushahidi collects and records witness reports of violence by using technological resources such as text messages and Google Maps.

Furthermore, although Okolloh has worked with underdeveloped nations through a number of ICT4D practices, she also has her own individual online blog that is called Kenyan Pundit. Kenyan Pundit was created in result of Okolloh’s  website Ushahidi. Reporting on happenings in Kenya and also referencing other Kenyan blogs of similarity, it acts as an outlet of information and communication for individuals that reside in Kenya and within other nations around the world. However, Okolloh has decided to resign as Ushahidi’s executive director, leaving a good-bye post on Kenyan Pundit. Okolloh states that since the beginning of the creation of Ushahidi “it has been a crazy ride…from producing an incredible open source platform and working towards scale, to building and working with an incredibly talented team, to seeing multiple uses of Ushahidi around the world, to numerous awards and press mentions.” 
For me, what has always been the most important aspect of the work we do has remained simple, building a tool that makes it easy for individuals and groups to tell their stories, and making it easy for these stories to be mapped/visualized. Ushahidi has grown to be that and much more, thanks especially to the wider community, which saw potential uses beyond crisis reporting and who largely shaped our growth and direction to date be it through translation efforts (Ushahidi now available in 10 languages!), or custom themes, or pushing for a hosted version (Crowdmap), or challenging us to address the shortcomings of the platform (through tools like Swift River and our community resource page) (Okolloh, www.kenyanpundit.com). Nevertheless, what Okolloh is most proud of, is the fact that Ushahidi’s platform has extended to underdeveloped nations around the world, each attempting to diminish the digital divide and continue to strive for increased accessibility of communication and information practices.

www.mzalendo.com

www.kenyanpundit.com

ICT4D Professional Profile: David Kobia

I chose David Kobia, co-founder of Ushahidi, http://ushahidi.com ,for my Thought Leader Profile because of his unique story and tremendous, ongoing contributions to the development world. Born and raised in Kenya, Kobia came to the United States to study computer science at the University of Alabama in 1988. After some time, however, Kobia dropped out to pursue a career in web developing. Soon enough, Kobia was employed by several top companies, including Reader’s Digest, Times, Inc. and Southern Progress as a web designer. Kobia always has been, and still is very involved online. He frequently tweets, @dkobia, and updates his blog, www.dkfactor.com, with useful information relating to development. It was this constant Internet activity, which lead to his involvement with Ushahidi.

After shutting down one of his online forums which had begun to take a radical, uncontrollable turn, enabling insensitive information and communication pertaining to violent events in his own homeland, Kobia was keen to make up for this mistake. It was at this time that Erik Hersman approached David about creating Ushahidi. Kobia immediately joined the team, and still holds an important position, as Director of Technology and Development. Kobia has created and owns several other online companies and resources (www.kobia.net), in addition to his ongoing work to improve Ushahidi.

David Kobia has received international accolades for his work with Ushahidi, including Humanitarian of the Year, and has been included on multiple prestigious lists highlighting accomplished innovators in the ICT4D field. What I find most remarkable about this admirable leader in development is his loyalty to Kenya, his first home, despite his decades spent in America. Kobia firmly believes in the ability of the African people, not the white Westerners, to achieve better levels of development. In support of this belief, Kobia has constructed a technology innovation center in his hometown of Nairobi to stimulate the development potential of the area. Kobia believes the African people will soon live up to their potential, confirming, “There’s a pool of mind-blowing talent just waiting to be tapped” (http://www.technologyreview.com/TR35/Profile.aspx?TRID=947).

Sonal Shah and ICTs in Social Innovation

If you did not see Sonal Shah’s speech tonight, you missed out. She was inspiring and discussed a lot of topics that we have been talking about in class. Her background is diverse. Shah most recently has been serving as the Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the White House. She has worked in development initiatives by holding positions in the U.S. government as well as in the private sector at Google.org as the head of Global Development Initiatives and Goldman Sachs. Shah also co-founded a non-profit Indicorps, which offers fellowships for people of Indian origin to volunteer in India.

Tonight she spoke on social innovation and sited some of the business models that should serve as models for future businesses. Shah mentioned Ushahidi as an example of a successful social business model and Sarvajal as a franchise model using technology in a productive way. The organization enlists local entrepreneurs to operate and distribute clean water to villages in Africa from company-owned filtration units. They provide maintenance, marketing and back-end operations support. They are able to track water production and quality, control filtration operations remotely, and manage maintenance issues before they occur with the usage of ICTs such as mobile phones. Their business model is for-profit and making a social impact.

Shah mentioned another institution using SMS notifications: the U.S. government. Low income women can sign up for cell phone alerts to notify them of what they need to be doing in terms of proper health care with the text4baby initiative. Since most of these women use texting over the Internet, it is proving to be widely successful. The cell phone companies provide free texting. This is an example of a public-private partnership as the U.S. government, Johnson and Johnson, and a few non-governmental organizations are in collaboration.

Shah emphasized the need for new businesses models and innovative solutions that make an impact. Our generation needs to break the barriers and change the models that are not working. We can start by creating a wedge into the model and making a successful change that others will want to follow. This can be applied to ICT initiatives especially in the for-profit world.  It is exciting to see that ICTs are gaining attention in all sectors by successes in tackling environmental and social issues.

Sonal Shah: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sonal-shah/gIQAWBsq6O_topic.html

Sarvajal: http://www.sarvajal.com/

Text4baby:  http://www.text4baby.org/

Ugandans Respond to Kony2012 Campaign through Social Media

After the viral hit of Invisible Children’s controversial Kony2012 video, social media sites lit up with responses. There was some praise and much criticism for the campaign. If nothing else, Kony2012 started a conversation. Soon enough, Ugandans themselves began weighing in through social media outlets. Through Twitter and other platforms, many Ugandans began explaining to the worlds some of the issues with the campaign and the reality of the LRA situation and life in Uganda.

Al Jazeera (along with our very own Ugandan guest speaker in class) helped reach out to Ugandans to join in the conversation. They began working on the blog Uganda Speaks only two days after the video went viral. On the back-end, they used FrontlineSMS for text to twitter conversations, as well as Ushahidi to track Ugandan opinions throughout the Uganda. They sent out the message below from their twitter account to encourage Ugandans to respond with their opinions

One journalist from Uganda emailed them saying… “There is a total disconnect between the invisible children and the community they claim to serve. Why make Kony famous? You cannot make a wrong person famous. Stop Kony, then what? In the video, they are advocating for a militaristic approach of getting Kony, through the help of the US army, they should have shown the possibility of having other channels open too because in trying to get Kony, lives of many might be lost. And these are children and relatives of people in Northern Uganda. Now that Kony is famous online (Twitter, facebook, youtube etc), what next? If he is not captured by 31st Dec what will happen? stopping Kony is beyond the comfort of our living rooms on twitter using our Ipads and iphones.”

I personally believe that no campaign or movement in development should be immune to criticism and response from local people who are being affected. The same social media that made the Kony2012 video go viral is now an outlet for its critics and the very people of Uganda who are being affected the most by this campaign. If anything, Invisible children have sparked a dialog and have gotten people talking about Uganda. Ugandan voices are now being heard through the power of social media.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679507/joseph-konys-ugandan-victims-find-a-voice-on-twitter

http://mashable.com/2012/03/13/kony-2012-uganda-speaks/

Crowdsourcing the Gulf oil Spill

In order to track the effects of the Gulf oil spill, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has launched a Ushahidi supported database. Combining text messages, calls, and e-mails into a visually mapped and searchable source of information allows help to be directed to areas of urgent need. PBS’s Sam Weber interviews Anne Rolfes, who founded the Bucket Brigade, about this project.

Rolfes actually learned about Ushahidi in a class attended at Tulane University! This tool filled her already felt need for a tool to place text messaged information on a map.  The decision to transition to using Ushahidi was swift (done in under a week) and successful (in the interest point of view.) One setback of Ushahidi in this situation is in the reliability of data. Rolfes says that verification is extremely important in making sure that the data is accurate and truthful.

In the specific case of the Gulf Oil Spill, the livelihoods of people who live along the Louisiana coast are the most apparently affected. Alabama and Pensacola fishermen are banned from their careers, often ones that have been passed down through generations. These effects can be reported, while most of the environmental damage that is out further in the gulf cannot be reported.

Rolfes hopes that this project will give people a voice, encourage regular people to share their story, and increase the availability of information about this catastrophe. “It enables that voice to merge with the thousands of other commercial fishermen who are out of work.” Not only are these stories shared and allow these people to connect with others, but it also demonstrates the magnitude of the catastrophe. Rolfes hopes that by the end thousands of stories will be compiled and this project will become a stable source of information for first response teams such as Health and Human Services, the Coast Guard, or Wildlife and Fisheries.

When asked about other applications of Ushahidi in other situations within America, Rolfes says that she can think of 10 other applications off the top of her head in New Orleans alone.

“Think about the complaints over corruption. Imagine if we had an Ushahidi map of New Orleans’ City Hall and residents were able to text in when they had problems with a permit or got the run around getting a particular kind of contract. The [possibilities] are endless. We are extremely proud to have what we believe is the very first use [of Ushahidi] in the U.S. for humanitarian purposes.”

When related to the checklist for planning strategic use of ICTs, this open source of data assists with several criteria. Texts from people who are affected by disasters is a direct supply of information about the context in that area. Problems are reported from the perspective of those in need. By posting information in casual text messages or emails, the content is provided in an easy to read and understand format. This provides additional insight on how to formulate solutions or strategies for problems. Ongoing updates will also aid the monitoring and evaluation of implemented strategies.  Finally, since all of this information is open to public access, other people dealing with disasters that are similar will be able to learn from previous experiences and mistakes.