Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/33025
Ushahidi is a way for people everywhere to tell what’s happening to them during a time of crisis. According to the company’s site, it has been designed to be easy to use, accessible to anyone and deployable worldwide. Data can be gathered via text messages from an SMS-capable phone, via photo or video from a smart- phone, or by way of any online digital device. Reports are posted almost immediately to interactive, Web- based maps that can be accessed by computers and smartphones. Ushahidi uses volunteered geographic information and is an example of the new technology of Volunteer Geographic Services. In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, victims texted messages requesting help. Those messages then were mapped on the Ushahidi platform, and first responders were able to direct resources where they were most needed. Because Ushahidi is an open-source platform, the resulting maps can be integrated into any GIS technology. Esri: Ushahidi Partner Esri has had a history of providing GIS technology for humanitarian purposes and in support of democracy (Hansen et al., 2011). On Oct. 5, 2010, it partnered with Ushahidi. “Esri’s technology will provide Ushahidi users with access to extensive GIS data and advanced analytical tools,” said Patrick Meier, director of crisis mapping at Ushahidi. “Esri users will also have the ability to contribute to Ushahidi mapping efforts in more seam- less ways and use this data for further analysis.” Meier blogs regularly on crisis mapping and, in a recent contribution, noted that Ushahidi’s Japan Crisis Mapping Team would partner with Japanese government officials to use the Ushahidi iPhone App to record and map information from the field. To aid in this process, Japanese cell-phone operators pledged to donate 10,000 cell phones to volunteers. An example of the interactive map produced using Esri software and the Ushahidi platform is shown in the accompanying figure. Accessing the map (www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/japan- earthquake-tsunami-2011-map/index.html), users can zoom in and click on the individual locations to read tagged messages. Out of Africa There’s something delightful in the fact that Kenya, arguably the cradle of humanity, has given the world this wonderful gift of Ushahidi, a technology for alleviating the suffering of those exposed to natural disasters and political violence. Ushahidi and related geospatial technologies have done much to remove the difficulties in mitigating natural disasters. Gathering data now is easier because people can crowdsource this task using volunteered geographic information, and Ushahidi’s user interface is highly intuitive. The high cost of digitization is no longer relevant, and hardware bottlenecks are largely a thing of the past. Predictive models remain somewhat prob- lematic, but the recent spate of tragedies hopefully will galvanize the geospatial community to develop more-effective modeling approaches. In addition, politicians and government agen- cies won’t be oblivious to the dangers of natural disasters, as they appear to have been prior to the Tohoku earthquake. Perhaps then our politicians and regulatory agencies will be coerced into taking action before, rather than after, calamity occurs. References Carrara, A., Guzzetti, F., Cardinali, M. and Reichenbach, P. 1999. “Use of GIS Technology in the Prediction and Monitoring of Landslide Hazard,” Natural Hazards, Vol. 20 (2-3), pages 117-135. Hansen, C., Sun, H. and Waters, N. 2011. “The Media Communications Environment through a Spatial Lens: The Mapping the Media in the Americas Project.” Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol. 36. M AY 2O11 / WWW . GEOPLA CE .C O M 13 A map pulls in social media related to the recent events in Japan. In the Social Media box, users can change the search term for YouTube and Flickr by hovering over the feed’s name and then typing a new word into the displayed box.