TED2009
Erik Hersman: Reporting crisis via texting
Filmed:
Readability: 3.5
466,307 views
At TEDU 2009, Erik Hersman presents the remarkable story of Ushahidi, a GoogleMap mashup that allowed Kenyans to report and track violence via cell phone texts following the 2008 elections, and has evolved to continue saving lives in other countries.
Erik Hersman - Technologist
Erik Hersman harnesses Africa’s boundless spirit of innovation by creating platforms to improve daily lives both inside and outside the continent. Full bio
Erik Hersman harnesses Africa’s boundless spirit of innovation by creating platforms to improve daily lives both inside and outside the continent. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
So I'm here to tell you a story of success from Africa.
0
0
4000
00:16
A year and a half ago,
1
4000
3000
00:19
four of the five people who are full time members
2
7000
2000
00:21
at Ushahidi,
3
9000
2000
00:23
which means "testimony" in Swahili,
4
11000
3000
00:26
were TED Fellows.
5
14000
2000
00:28
A year ago in Kenya we had post-election violence.
6
16000
3000
00:31
And in that time we prototyped and built,
7
19000
3000
00:34
in about three days, a system that would allow
8
22000
2000
00:36
anybody with a mobile phone
9
24000
2000
00:38
to send in information and reports on what was happening around them.
10
26000
3000
00:41
We took what we knew about Africa,
11
29000
2000
00:43
the default device,
12
31000
2000
00:45
the mobile phone, as our common denominator,
13
33000
2000
00:47
and went from there.
14
35000
2000
00:49
We got reports like this.
15
37000
3000
00:56
This is just a couple of them from January 17th, last year.
16
44000
3000
01:02
And our system was rudimentary. It was very basic.
17
50000
3000
01:05
It was a mash-up that used data that we collected from people,
18
53000
3000
01:08
and we put it on our map.
19
56000
2000
01:10
But then we decided we needed to do something more.
20
58000
2000
01:12
We needed to take what we had built
21
60000
2000
01:14
and create a platform out of it so that it could be used elsewhere in the world.
22
62000
3000
01:17
And so there is a team of developers
23
65000
3000
01:20
from all over Africa, who are part of this team now --
24
68000
3000
01:23
from Ghana, from Malawi, from Kenya.
25
71000
2000
01:25
There is even some from the U.S.
26
73000
4000
01:29
We're building for smartphones, so that it can be used in the developed world,
27
77000
3000
01:32
as well as the developing world.
28
80000
2000
01:34
We are realizing that this is true.
29
82000
2000
01:36
If it works in Africa then it will work anywhere.
30
84000
2000
01:38
And so we build for it in Africa first
31
86000
3000
01:41
and then we move to the edges.
32
89000
2000
01:43
It's now been deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
33
91000
3000
01:46
It's being used by NGOs all over East Africa,
34
94000
3000
01:49
small NGOs doing their own little projects.
35
97000
3000
01:52
Just this last month it was deployed by
36
100000
2000
01:54
Al Jazeera in Gaza.
37
102000
3000
01:57
But that's actually not what I'm here to talk about.
38
105000
2000
01:59
I'm here to talk about the next big thing,
39
107000
2000
02:01
because what we're finding out is that
40
109000
2000
02:03
we have this capacity to report
41
111000
2000
02:05
eyewitness accounts of what's going on in real time.
42
113000
4000
02:09
We're seeing this in events like Mumbai recently,
43
117000
3000
02:12
where it's so much easier to report now
44
120000
2000
02:14
than it is to consume it.
45
122000
2000
02:16
There is so much information; what do you do?
46
124000
2000
02:18
This is the Twitter reports for over three days
47
126000
3000
02:21
just covering Mumbai.
48
129000
2000
02:23
How do you decide what is important?
49
131000
2000
02:25
What is the veracity level of what you're looking at?
50
133000
3000
02:28
So what we find is that there is this
51
136000
2000
02:30
great deal of wasted crisis information
52
138000
2000
02:32
because there is just too much information for us to
53
140000
3000
02:35
actually do anything with right now.
54
143000
3000
02:38
And what we're actually really concerned with
55
146000
2000
02:40
is this first three hours.
56
148000
2000
02:42
What we are looking at is the first three hours.
57
150000
2000
02:44
How do we deal with that information that is coming in?
58
152000
3000
02:47
You can't understand what is actually happening.
59
155000
2000
02:49
On the ground and around the world
60
157000
2000
02:51
people are still curious,
61
159000
2000
02:53
and trying to figure out what is going on. But they don't know.
62
161000
3000
02:56
So what we built of course, Ushahidi,
63
164000
3000
02:59
is crowdsourcing this information.
64
167000
2000
03:01
You see this with Twitter, too. You get this information overload.
65
169000
3000
03:04
So you've got a lot of information. That's great.
66
172000
2000
03:06
But now what?
67
174000
2000
03:08
So we think that there is something interesting we can do here.
68
176000
3000
03:11
And we have a small team who is working on this.
69
179000
2000
03:13
We think that we can actually create
70
181000
2000
03:15
a crowdsourced filter.
71
183000
2000
03:17
Take the crowd and apply them to the information.
72
185000
3000
03:20
And by rating it and by rating
73
188000
2000
03:22
the different people who submit information,
74
190000
2000
03:24
we can get refined results
75
192000
2000
03:26
and weighted results.
76
194000
2000
03:28
So that we have a better understanding
77
196000
2000
03:30
of the probability of something being true or not.
78
198000
2000
03:32
This is the kind of innovation that is,
79
200000
3000
03:35
quite frankly -- it's interesting that it's coming from Africa.
80
203000
2000
03:37
It's coming from places that you wouldn't expect.
81
205000
3000
03:40
From young, smart developers.
82
208000
2000
03:42
And it's a community around it that has decided to build this.
83
210000
3000
03:45
So, thank you very much.
84
213000
2000
03:47
And we are very happy to be part of the TED family.
85
215000
2000
03:49
(Applause)
86
217000
1000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Erik Hersman - TechnologistErik Hersman harnesses Africa’s boundless spirit of innovation by creating platforms to improve daily lives both inside and outside the continent.
Why you should listen
Hersman is the CEO of BRCK, a rugged, self-powered, mobile Wi-Fi device that connects people and things to the Internet in areas of the world with poor infrastructure. He leads a number of web and mobile projects through organizations including iHub, a Nairobi community center that’s an epicenter for Kenya’s booming tech industry. The mobile app Ushahidi, which he co-developed, allows users to share breaking news through text messaging and continues to revolutionize and empower journalists, watchdog groups and everyday people around the world.
Erik Hersman | Speaker | TED.com