ABOUT THE SPEAKER
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.

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.

More profile about the speaker
Erik Hersman | Speaker | TED.com
TED2009

Erik Hersman: Reporting crisis via texting

Erik Hersman -- 利用手機短訊報導危機

Filmed:
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.
- 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

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
So I'm here to tell you a story故事 of success成功 from Africa非洲.
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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充分 time members會員
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有五個人,他們是全職的 “Ushahidi“
00:21
at UshahidiUshahidi的,
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“Ushahidi“ 在斯瓦希里話中是「證詞」的意思
00:23
which哪一個 means手段 "testimony見證" in Swahili斯瓦希裡,
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其中有四個人
00:26
were TEDTED Fellows研究員.
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是 TED 的會員
00:28
A year ago in Kenya肯尼亞 we had post-election選後 violence暴力.
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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原型 and built內置,
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那時候我們花了大約三天
00:34
in about three days, a system系統 that would allow允許
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建立了一個系統模式
00:36
anybody任何人 with a mobile移動 phone電話
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這個模式能讓任何人用行動電話
00:38
to send發送 in information信息 and reports報告 on what was happening事件 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知道 about Africa非洲,
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我們將我們對非洲的認知
00:43
the default默認 device設備,
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透過這個原始裝置 --
00:45
the mobile移動 phone電話, as our common共同 denominator分母,
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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報告 like this.
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我們收集到的報告如下
00:56
This is just a couple一對 of them from January一月 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系統 was rudimentary初步. It was very basic基本.
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我們的系統非常陽春,非常基本
01:05
It was a mash-up混搭 that used data數據 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地圖.
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然後放在我們的地圖上
01:10
But then we decided決定 we needed需要 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需要 to take what we had built內置
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我們要把我們架構的系統
01:14
and create創建 a platform平台 out of it so that it could be used elsewhere別處 in the world世界.
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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球隊 of developers開發商
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因此我們有了一組開發人員
01:20
from all over Africa非洲, who are part部分 of this team球隊 now --
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他們全來自非洲各地
01:23
from Ghana加納, from Malawi馬拉維, from Kenya肯尼亞.
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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建造 for smartphones智能手機, so that it can be used in the developed發達 world世界,
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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發展 world世界.
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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實現 that this is true真正.
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我們瞭解這是可行的
01:36
If it works作品 in Africa非洲 then it will work anywhere隨地.
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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建立 for it in Africa非洲 first
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因此我們首先從非洲開始
01:41
and then we move移動 to the edges邊緣.
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然後擴展到周邊地區
01:43
It's now been deployed部署 in the Democratic民主的 Republic共和國 of the Congo剛果.
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現在它已擴展至剛果民主共和國
01:46
It's being存在 used by NGOs非政府組織 all over East Africa非洲,
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全東非的非政府機構都使用這個系統
01:49
small NGOs非政府組織 doing their own擁有 little projects項目.
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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部署 by
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就在上個月它已經
01:54
Al Jazeera半島電視台 in Gaza加沙.
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被加沙的半島電視台所使用
01:57
But that's actually其實 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下一個 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發現 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容量 to report報告
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我們有能力為我們親眼看到的事情
02:05
eyewitness目擊者 accounts賬戶 of what's going on in real真實 time.
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作出即時性的報導
02:09
We're seeing眼看 this in events事件 like Mumbai孟買 recently最近,
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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更輕鬆 to report報告 now
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現在做新聞報導甚至要比
02:14
than it is to consume消耗 it.
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閱讀新聞報導容易得多了
02:16
There is so much information信息; 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推特 reports報告 for over three days
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這是 Twitter 在那三天內
02:21
just covering覆蓋 Mumbai孟買.
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有關孟買的報導
02:23
How do you decide決定 what is important重要?
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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準確性 level水平 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合同 of wasted浪費 crisis危機 information信息
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有太多多餘的資訊存在
02:32
because there is just too much information信息 for us to
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因為我們現在所接受的資訊
02:35
actually其實 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其實 really concerned關心 with
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我們真正關心的是
02:40
is this first three hours小時.
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最初三小時的事情
02:42
What we are looking at is the first three hours小時.
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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合同 with that information信息 that is coming未來 in?
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我們如何應付進來的資訊呢?
02:47
You can't understand理解 what is actually其實 happening事件.
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你根本不明白究竟發生什麼事
02:49
On the ground地面 and around the world世界
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在事發現場,還有全世界的反應
02:51
people are still curious好奇,
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人們仍富有好奇心
02:53
and trying to figure數字 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內置 of course課程, UshahidiUshahidi的,
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所以我們所建立的 Ushahidi 當然
02:59
is crowdsourcing眾包 this information信息.
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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推特, too. You get this information信息 overload超載.
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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信息. 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有趣 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球隊 who is working加工 on this.
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我們有一個小團隊正在做
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We think that we can actually其實 create創建
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我們相信我們可以建立
03:15
a crowdsourced眾包 filter過濾.
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一個大眾資訊的過濾網
03:17
Take the crowd人群 and apply應用 them to the information信息.
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選一群人,然後讓他們接收資訊
03:20
And by rating評分 it and by rating評分
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然後給這些資訊評分
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the different不同 people who submit提交 information信息,
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給那些提供資訊的人評分
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we can get refined精製 results結果
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我們就可以取得更準確的結果
03:26
and weighted加權 results結果.
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和有利的結果
03:28
So that we have a better understanding理解
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因此我們更可以瞭解
03:30
of the probability可能性 of something being存在 true真正 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革新 that is,
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這是一種創意
03:35
quite相當 frankly坦率地說 -- it's interesting有趣 that it's coming未來 from Africa非洲.
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有趣的是這創意是來自非洲
03:37
It's coming未來 from places地方 that you wouldn't不會 expect期望.
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它來自一個我們不曾預期的地方
03:40
From young年輕, smart聰明 developers開發商.
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是一些年青頂尖的開發人員
03:42
And it's a community社區 around it that has decided決定 to build建立 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快樂 to be part部分 of the TEDTED family家庭.
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我們很高興成為TED的一分子
03:49
(Applause掌聲)
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(鼓掌)
Translated by Jeannie Cheng
Reviewed by Joyce Lynn

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
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.

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.

More profile about the speaker
Erik Hersman | Speaker | TED.com