Mapping a Crisis, One Text Message at a Time Jennifer Bauduy

n interactive mapping project is revolutionizing the way crises are reported York, Los Angeles, Colorado, and New and managed, and is spotlighting the value of citizen journalism. The project, Zealand. The following week, 13 differ- Acalled Ushahidi, which means testimony in Swahili, uses crowdsourcing ent CrisisCamps took place stretching (gathering information from a large number of people) to map crisis information. It from London, to Canada, the U.S. and was developed as a website in 2008 in the wake of post election violence in Kenya down to Bogota, Colombia.4 Volunteers when media censorship made it difficult for people, particularly aid workers, to find from academia, nonprofits, government out what was happening and where assistance was most needed. Kenyan lawyer and agencies, specialists in geospatial data, blogger Ory Okolloh (who runs her blog, www.kenyanpundit.com, out of South Africa) programming, data creation, individu- was overwhelmed by reports of violence coming into her own website and proposed the als and internet-savvy individuals who need for a website to map the information that people were sending via text messages simply wanted to help, gathered to work from their cell phones.1 on different projects to aid those on the ground in Haiti. This crisis mapping tool has since ated ad-hoc CrisisCamps to discuss how Incorporating every kind of colla- been used across the world to monitor technology could benefit crisis manage- borative and social media tool (including violence in Gaza, track political unrest ment in general. These later turned into open source projects, wikis, blogs, Skype, in Congo, manage Washington, D.C.’s all day or weekend gatherings, where Twitter, and Facebook), CrisisCamp vol- record blizzard in 2010, help earthquake individuals with only their laptops and unteers have helped provide important victims from Haiti to Chile, and in scores power strips harness online tools to take information for Haiti’s recovery effort. of other situations. The technology is civic engagement to a new level. Project developers created mobile trans- free and open source, meaning individu- Within hours of the powerful 7.0 earth- lation tools, people finders, and open als and groups can modify it to fit their quake that struck Haiti on January 12, source applications that help rescuers needs. The web platform receives data 2010, a crisis map was set up at http://haiti. figure out the location of an intact hospi- via SMS (Short Message Service—e.g., ushahidi.com and run by volunteers out tal, or track what different nonprofits on text messages), email, or the web and of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of the ground were doing so they wouldn’t plots it on a map allowing people to visu- Law and Diplomacy, as well as volunteers duplicate efforts and could better coor- alize events or a timeline.2 The activist in Washington, D.C., Geneva, London, dinate the distribution of resources. mapping documents events in nearly real and Portland, Oregon.3 An emergency Volunteers have worked in a “surge time and helps humanitarian workers number was set up to receive text mes- capacity” to help build a digital map of determine areas in greatest need. sages, and thousands of messages began Haiti with OpenStreetMap (www.open Digital volunteers around the globe pouring in from Haiti—one every five streetmap.org), using satellite imagery have increasingly contributed their seconds in the initial days, according to and other sources, for responders and time using crisis mapping tools such an update posted on the Ushahidi website relief agencies to see which roads were as Ushahidi, Sahana, OpenStreetMap, six days after the earthquake. Haitians passable and better reach survivors; and other Web 2.0 tools to help in in the Diaspora volunteered to translate agencies can also use the map imag- emergency situations such as natural messages into English, other volunteers ery to assess damage to specific areas. disasters. In June 2009, a spontaneous mapped out the GPS coordinates to help Other volunteers helped build and group of self-described “geeks” created humanitarian workers respond. aggregate databases for missing persons CrisisCommons (crisiscommons.org) to Just four days after the quake, over into one effort—Google People Finder. advance the use of technology for better 400 volunteers gathered thousands of Volunteers with French or Creole lan- crisis management. The volunteers cre- miles apart in CrisisCamps in D.C., New guage skills, in D.C., Los Angeles, or

Social Education 142 http://haiti.ushahidi.com/ Reach New Heights

Gain valuable knowledge and tools at the nation’s most comprehensive social studies profes- sional development conference.

• Learn from 400+ presentations Miami, for example, could work trans- World Bank, in particular, has been a lating the thousands of text messages strong backer of CrisisCommons, offer- • Receive classroom-ready coming in from those beneath the rubble. ing up its headquarters—along with the lessons Volunteers also translated RSS (Really Miami Herald, George Washington Simple Syndication) News Feeds, which University, and National Public Radio, • Listen to the best in help provide a more global picture of to name a few—for CrisisCamps. the field the emergency. One project focused on emergency efforts to set up water sys- Notes • Network with colleagues tems. Another project, We Have We 1. Anand Giridharadas, “Africa’s Gift to Silicon Valley: How to Track a Crisis,” The New York Times (March • Hear about the revised Need (www.wehaveweneed.org) allows 12, 2010). NCSS curriculum standards nonprofits to list their equipment needs 2. “More about Ushahidi,” www.ushahidi.com/media/ and exchange supplies with other groups. Ushahidi_1-Pager.pdf. 3. Monica Hesse, “Crisis Mapping Brings Online Tool • See the latest teaching The list of projects was ever increasing to Haitian Disaster Relief Effort,” The Washington products and services as more cities around the world sprouted Post (January 16, 2010). 4. Niala Boodhoo, “South Florida Tech Community their own CrisisCamps in response to Brainstorms on Haiti Relief Efforts,” The Miami the earthquake in Haiti, and soon after Herald (January 24, 2010). Get more information at for the February 27 earthquake in Chile. 5. Sabina Carlson, “Ushahidi-Haiti: Connecting with Both Local Initiatives and OCHA [The UN Office www.socialstudies.org/ Because many of these projects are open for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs],” conference. source, individuals do not necessarily http://blog.ushahidi.com, (March 22, 2010). need to attend a CrisisCamp. These 6. Riva Richmond, “The Tech Savvy Lend a Hand in Haiti,” The New York Times (February 3, 2010). projects can be worked on from a com- puter at any location. An important goal noted by volunteers Registration opens is to work with community leaders on the in June. ground, in Haiti for example, so that the technology can be used for document- ing local needs such as mapping broken bridges or shedding light on problems 5 with aid distribution. Jennifer Bauduy is associate editor of The information and maps created Social Education. She can be reached at have been used by international bodies [email protected]. She would like to thank such as the Word Bank, the European CrisisCommons co-founder Noel Dickover for his feedback on this article. Union, and the United Nations.6 The

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