Effectively LeveragingOpen Data & Social Channels

Social Governance

Can we receive, process, and send an SMS from someone in Haiti to the

appropriate channels in

10 10 minutes minutes or less?or less?

FROMPEOPLEIN NEED

TOPEOPLE

WHOHELP

translation

geolocation

approval

structured

mapped

categorized

sms to 4636

report

170 situation room volunteers

Haitian diaspora volunteers

Crowdsourcing

• The state of crowdsourced applications:

• Outputting structured data

• Delivering actionable data

• Creating situation reports to turn high volumes of data

into shorter, digestible reports

• Partnerships with existing services and institutions

• Bringing agility to where there is already accountability

Libya Crisis MapThe Libya Crisis Map deployed by request of UN Office for

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

libyacrisismap.net

© Arc Finance

Concerns

• The data is not verified.

• We don’t know who it’s coming from.

• What if we receive bad information or misinformation?

• What if the cost of these systems and personnel don’t

provide valuable data?

The Right Application• Crowdsourcing as…

• Focus groups

• Polling data

• Online surveys

• Supporting infrastructure

• Speaking to people where they already are

Take home messageWhether for emergency response or civic affairs: 

crowdsourcing is happening and we have best practices to allow us to do it smarter. Let’s harness crowdsourcing to

improve public services and entrepreneurship.

  What existing services could benefit from a direct   connection with the public as information provider?

What major challenges in your country could benefit from crowdsourcing applications?

Thank YouRob Baker

Senior Program Developerrobbaker@ushahidi.com

Skype: rrbaker3