TED2009
Erik Hersman: Reporting crisis via texting
Erik Hersman -- 利用手機短訊報導危機
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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.
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我今天要告訴大家一個非洲的成功故事
00:16
A year and a half ago,
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在一年半前
00:19
four of the five people who are full time members
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有五個人，他們是全職的 “Ushahidi“
00:21
at Ushahidi,
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“Ushahidi“ 在斯瓦希里話中是「證詞」的意思
00:23
which means "testimony" in Swahili,
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其中有四個人
00:26
were TED Fellows.
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是 TED 的會員
00:28
A year ago in Kenya we had post-election violence.
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一年前肯亞發生了選舉後的暴力事件
00:31
And in that time we prototyped and built,
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那時候我們花了大約三天
00:34
in about three days, a system that would allow
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建立了一個系統模式
00:36
anybody with a mobile phone
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這個模式能讓任何人用行動電話
00:38
to send in information and reports on what was happening around them.
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把他們身邊所發生的事情報導出來
00:41
We took what we knew about Africa,
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我們將我們對非洲的認知
00:43
the default device,
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透過這個原始裝置 --
00:45
the mobile phone, as our common denominator,
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行動電話 -- 當作我們的共同點
00:47
and went from there.
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用這個共同點來作為出發點
00:49
We got reports like this.
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我們收集到的報告如下
00:56
This is just a couple of them from January 17th, last year.
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這是去年一月十七日收到的其中幾則
01:02
And our system was rudimentary. It was very basic.
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我們的系統非常陽春，非常基本
01:05
It was a mash-up that used data that we collected from people,
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它只是一堆我們從別人那裡收集到的資料
01:08
and we put it on our map.
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然後放在我們的地圖上
01:10
But then we decided we needed to do something more.
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不過，後來我們決定要做多一點
01:12
We needed to take what we had built
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我們要把我們架構的系統
01:14
and create a platform out of it so that it could be used elsewhere in the world.
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變成一個全世界都能應用的平台
01:17
And so there is a team of developers
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因此我們有了一組開發人員
01:20
from all over Africa, who are part of this team now --
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他們全來自非洲各地
01:23
from Ghana, from Malawi, from Kenya.
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從迦納、馬拉威、肯亞
01:25
There is even some from the U.S.
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也有一些是來自美國的
01:29
We're building for smartphones, so that it can be used in the developed world,
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我們要讓它可以給智慧型手機使用
01:32
as well as the developing world.
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這樣它在已開發國家和開發中國家都能使用
01:34
We are realizing that this is true.
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我們瞭解這是可行的
01:36
If it works in Africa then it will work anywhere.
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如果它能在非洲運作，那麼它在任何的地方也能運作
01:38
And so we build for it in Africa first
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因此我們首先從非洲開始
01:41
and then we move to the edges.
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然後擴展到周邊地區
01:43
It's now been deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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現在它已擴展至剛果民主共和國
01:46
It's being used by NGOs all over East Africa,
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全東非的非政府機構都使用這個系統
01:49
small NGOs doing their own little projects.
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小型的非政府機構把它用在一些小計畫上
01:52
Just this last month it was deployed by
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就在上個月它已經
01:54
Al Jazeera in Gaza.
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被加沙的半島電視台所使用
01:57
But that's actually not what I'm here to talk about.
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這其實不是我今天想談論的主題
01:59
I'm here to talk about the next big thing,
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我今天要講的是接下來的大事
02:01
because what we're finding out is that
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因為我們在這個過程中發現
02:03
we have this capacity to report
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我們有能力為我們親眼看到的事情
02:05
eyewitness accounts of what's going on in real time.
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作出即時性的報導
02:09
We're seeing this in events like Mumbai recently,
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我們最近在孟買所發生的事件中應證了這個能力
02:12
where it's so much easier to report now
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現在做新聞報導甚至要比
02:14
than it is to consume it.
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閱讀新聞報導容易得多了
02:16
There is so much information; what do you do?
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現在有這麼多資訊。你如何應對呢?
02:18
This is the Twitter reports for over three days
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這是 Twitter 在那三天內
02:21
just covering Mumbai.
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有關孟買的報導
02:23
How do you decide what is important?
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你怎樣決定那一則報導是重要的呢?
02:25
What is the veracity level of what you're looking at?
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你所看到的報導有多真實呢?
02:28
So what we find is that there is this
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我們發現
02:30
great deal of wasted crisis information
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有太多多餘的資訊存在
02:32
because there is just too much information for us to
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因為我們現在所接受的資訊
02:35
actually do anything with right now.
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已經超出我們所能消化的了
02:38
And what we're actually really concerned with
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我們真正關心的是
02:40
is this first three hours.
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最初三小時的事情
02:42
What we are looking at is the first three hours.
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我們想看得是這最初三小時的事情
02:44
How do we deal with that information that is coming in?
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我們如何應付進來的資訊呢?
02:47
You can't understand what is actually happening.
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你根本不明白究竟發生什麼事
02:49
On the ground and around the world
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在事發現場，還有全世界的反應
02:51
people are still curious,
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人們仍富有好奇心
02:53
and trying to figure out what is going on. But they don't know.
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想嘗試尋找箇中的真相。但是他們不知道
02:56
So what we built of course, Ushahidi,
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所以我們所建立的 Ushahidi 當然
02:59
is crowdsourcing this information.
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是為了解決這個資訊泛濫的情況
03:01
You see this with Twitter, too. You get this information overload.
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你們也看到Twitter了，資訊完全泛濫
03:04
So you've got a lot of information. That's great.
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你獲得很多資訊。這非常好
03:06
But now what?
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然後呢?
03:08
So we think that there is something interesting we can do here.
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因此我們覺得有些有趣的事情可以做
03:11
And we have a small team who is working on this.
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我們有一個小團隊正在做
03:13
We think that we can actually create
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我們相信我們可以建立
03:15
a crowdsourced filter.
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一個大眾資訊的過濾網
03:17
Take the crowd and apply them to the information.
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選一群人，然後讓他們接收資訊
03:20
And by rating it and by rating
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然後給這些資訊評分
03:22
the different people who submit information,
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給那些提供資訊的人評分
03:24
we can get refined results
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我們就可以取得更準確的結果
03:26
and weighted results.
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和有利的結果
03:28
So that we have a better understanding
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因此我們更可以瞭解
03:30
of the probability of something being true or not.
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那些資訊有多少是真實的、多少是假的
03:32
This is the kind of innovation that is,
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這是一種創意
03:35
quite frankly -- it's interesting that it's coming from Africa.
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有趣的是這創意是來自非洲
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It's coming from places that you wouldn't expect.
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它來自一個我們不曾預期的地方
03:40
From young, smart developers.
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是一些年青頂尖的開發人員
03:42
And it's a community around it that has decided to build this.
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跟他們周圍人，決定要建立這個系統的
03:45
So, thank you very much.
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謝謝各位
03:47
And we are very happy to be part of the TED family.
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我們很高興成為TED的一分子
03:49
(Applause)
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(鼓掌)
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