Mapping Haitian SMS Messages
Lately, I have been becoming familiar with streets in neighborhoods I’ve never walked, navigating regions of a country I’ve never known. In the weeks following the earthquake in Haiti, an organization called Ushahidi has been collecting, translating, evaluating, and mapping thousand of SMS text messages from those in need. Needing volunteers to map messages twenty-four house a day in wake of the crisis, the students of Lewis & Clark college were asked fill a gap not covered by those on the East coast or in Geneva. On the night pictured in this photo, over forty students from the Undergraduate, Graduate, and Law Schools were packed into the Pamplin room to be trained in message mapping. Over the course of the week, many more came to be trained, including some faculty members.
While the training room was full of long faces, dampened by the tragedy, it was also an inspiring scene. The overwhelming student response to the crisis was one of the largest gatherings of the institution-wide community that I have ever been a part of. This project, I think, is perfect for students. We have time to share, technological savvy, and a desire to share our compassion. I am continually amazed by the wonders of technology. Between our Skype chat, cinematically titled the “Portland Situation Room,” online mapping resources, and Google Earth, we were able to be part of a chain which facilitates meaningful aid in Haiti. Maybe someday I will walk the streets whose satellite images I have surveyed. In the meantime, I and many other faithful volunteers will continue tracing them from our own homes, hoping to support Haitians in rebuilding theirs.
Maddie Cole
Hey Maddie,
I am so happy you were able to work on the 4636 mapping project. I wish I could have been there in the Portland Situation Room! I am very curious how you heard about the project. It is amazing how our small world comes full circle from time to time.
This project actually involved several pieces of technology, including FrontlineSMS to receive the text messages locally in Haiti and upload them to the web, and then Ushahidi to visualize the messages on a map. The Ushahidi community played an awesome role, but the project was actually started by my buddy Josh from FrontlineSMS:Medic (see: http://is.gd/7Z8iY), an organization that happens to have employed Pamplin Fellows (myself and Dieterich Lawson) as 2 of its 3 full time employees. Last year I co-founded FrontlineSMS:Medic more or less while sitting on the red couch in the very Portland Situation Room you have pictured above. I should have been writing my thesis, but instead I was brainstorming about how to use mobile phones to improve health services and disaster response in low infrastructure areas like Haiti. 4636 is one of a few great projects we’ve started in the last year, and I am so incredibly grateful that Lewis & Clark offered me the flexibility to work for the future even while managing thesis responsibilities, and that the Pamplin Society provided me with a place to brainstorm and some encouragement to think big.
I know you and some of the other Pamplin Service folks have discussed doing a phone recycling drive with our Hope Phones campaign (hopephones.org). You might want to let the community know that FrontlineSMS:Medic and the 4636 initiative have deep roots at LC. And if you or other LC folks are interested in working on tech for development full time either for a summer or after graduation, be in touch with me. I might be able to help you out.
cheers
Isaac