Scalable crisis relief

Abstract

Crowdsourced crisis response harnesses distributed networks of humans in combination with information and communication technology (ICT) to create scalable, flexible and rapid communication systems that promote well-being, survival, and recovery during the acute phase of an emergency. In this paper, we analyze a recent experience in which CrowdFlower conducted crowdsourced translation, categorization and geo-tagging for SMS-based reporting as part of Mission 4636 after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. We discuss CrowdFlower's approach to this task, lessons learned from the experience, and opportunities to generalize the techniques and technologies involved for other ICT for development (ICTD) applications. We find that CrowdFlower's most significant contribution to Mission 4636 and to the broader field of crowdsourced crisis relief lies in the flexible, scalable nature of the pool of earthquake survivors, volunteers, workers, and machines that the organization engaged during the emergency response efforts.

Intentionally building relationships between participatory online groups and formal organisations for effective emergency response

“…Mission 4636 (SMS-based reporting system) Several formal organisations from across the globe and Haitian NGOs and telecommunications companies worked together to launch a free SMS reporting system called Mission 4636 (George, 2008;Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, 2011). The Thomson Reuters Foundation and some local radio stations helped to publicise 4636 (in short code) to reach disaster-affected people, using various communication channels (Giridharadas, 2010;Hester, Shaw, and Biewald, 2010). Haitians began to report on their location and urgent needs using their own mobile telephones on 16 January 2010.…”

Prioritizing Disaster Mapping Tasks for Online Volunteers Based on Information Value Theory

“…More than 4,000 online volunteers from different countries around the world have participated in this response (Heinzelman and Waters ). Volunteers contributed to the relief efforts in a variety of ways: they helped collect and integrate information from different sources (Crooks and Wise ), translate the text messages sent by the local people (Meier and Munro ; Hester, Shaw, and Biewald ), monitor social media platforms to extract information (Rogstadius et al ), and collaboratively map the affected area based on remote sensing images (Liu and Ziemke ). In addition to the Haiti earthquake, online volunteers were also involved in the response to the 2011 crisis in Libya (Burns ), the 2012 Hurricane Sandy in the United States (Meier ), and the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team 2013).…”

Collaborative translation of emergency messages (Co-TEM): An Australian case study

“…Mission 4636 is an initiative by Josh Nesbit of FrontLineSMS to establish a text-message based emergency reporting system through a free ‘4636’ phone number, giving a voice to crisis-affected population [ 50 , 53 , 54 ]. The initiative was in response to the information needs of Haitians impacted by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck on January 12, 2010 [ 50 , 53 , 54 ].…”

“…Mission 4636 is an initiative by Josh Nesbit of FrontLineSMS to establish a text-message based emergency reporting system through a free ‘4636’ phone number, giving a voice to crisis-affected population [ 50 , 53 , 54 ]. The initiative was in response to the information needs of Haitians impacted by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck on January 12, 2010 [ 50 , 53 , 54 ]. CrowdFlower (a San Francisco-based technology company, now Figure-Eight) contributed to the success of the project, including through the processing of the SMS messages and the translations to generate situational maps [ 54 ].…”

“…The initiative was in response to the information needs of Haitians impacted by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck on January 12, 2010 [ 50 , 53 , 54 ]. CrowdFlower (a San Francisco-based technology company, now Figure-Eight) contributed to the success of the project, including through the processing of the SMS messages and the translations to generate situational maps [ 54 ]. In the first six weeks of the disaster, collaborative translation was used to translate more than 40,000 messages from Haitian Kreyol to English so that the primary emergency responders and the US Military could better respond and provide support [ 53 , 54 ].…”