The 4636 emergency shortcode has been setup to run on the Digicel and the Comcel networks in Haiti. It has been running for six days now, with a great deal of usage taking a large amount of communication by the volunteers around the project. Rob Munro is one of the key figures in this process. This is his report on how things have come together.
The 4636 Process
- People in Haiti text location, name and requests for aid / reports etc. to 4636.
- The data is streamed from different celtels to a server hosted by Ushahidi.
- 100s of Kreyol-speaking volunteers translate, categorize and plot the geocoords of the location if possible.
- The structured data is streamed to different orgs on the ground like Red Cross and InSTEDD, who act on it / pass it to appropriate people there.
- It is also streamed to the main Ushahidi database (the publicly viewable one) where it is combined with other data, further annotated etc. and made available to other orgs.
I am making sure that #3 happens, coordinating volunteer efforts. I have only worked a little on the software – this was put together primarily by Brian Herbert of Ushahidi who has been an *angel* in getting everything together so fast. A small number of the volunteers I work with coordinate directly with people on the ground to get improved data (this also happens further down the chain).
I am also coordinating the volunteers for migrating Missing Person records to the main PeopleFinder databaase – many 4636 volunteers do this in downtime when volunteers exceed the texts coming in, but I’ve got other groups involved too (Tim Schwartz adapted Brian’s code for this in lightening speed).
The Volunteers
Of all the incredible efforts in crowdsourcing right now, I think that the work of the 4636 volunteers are the most amazing. They are using a simple form to enter data from the text messages, have parallel screens open with different maps and collaborate with each other on a chat-space dedicated to their work, esp for confirming locations.
Some positive results are attached, and here are a few lines from the
4636 chat-space:
(12:52:55) (Dalila): I need Thomassin Apo please
(12:53:02) (Apo): wait
(12:54:53) (Apo): Kenscoff Route: Lat: 18.495746829274168,
Long:-72.31849193572998
(12:57:25) (Apo): This Area after Petion-Ville and Pelerin 5 is not on
Google Map. We have no streets name
(12:58:05) (Dalila): @Apo I thank you for ur help
(12:58:24) (Apo): you are welcome
(12:58:53) (Apo): I know this place like my pocket
(12:59:08) (Dalila):
(12:59:14) (Dalila): thank God u was here
In brief, Dalila asked to know an address written in one of the texts she was translating and 2 minutes later she had the latitude and longitude, even though no map showed it, thanks to the local knowledge of Apo. This has been *typical*. Almost noone is physically together (after a week I met Josh Nesbit, the other main coordinator for 4636, face-to-face briefly last night, and that’s been all)
Here are the screen names people have used in the 4636 chat – most of them will prob never know each other:
Admiral, Apo_Montreal, Barb, Brian, Carline, Caroline, Christina_Xu, Claire, Dalila, Gina, Guerda, J-R, Jenn, Jennifer, M300_Ministrie, Mel, Montreal, Nan, RAM, Rebecca, Regine, Robens, Robert_Montgom, Robert_Munro, Robs, Sebastien, UNIONHAITI, Union_Haiti, Victoria, aline, brianherbert, csik, downeym, duygu, gerhard, gina, guerda, marc, maribux, mik, myrka, nick, pouchon, rebecca, regine, rescuemehaiti, ronny, sandra, stephan
These are from the ~1000 people who have stepped in so far (my guess from IPs). It would be great if this list could be publicized – their efforts need to be recognized however pseudo-anonymous they are!
They are often using their own local resources (texting to Haiti) to better translate / clarify the messages:
(11:56:55) (marc): i will pass it on that is my cousins hospital.
Text volumes vary from one every 5 seconds in the day to every 5 minutes overnight. The average turn-around for us receiving a text and having it translated, categorized and back on the ground with coordinates, message and return # is about 10 minutes.
Here are the most common categories:
4636 SMS messaging category distribution chart
Food distribution 23.27%
Missing Persons 11.06%
Asking to forward a message 10.94%
Response 9.79%
Water shortage 9.33%
Health services 5.65%
Medical Emergency 4.38%
People trapped 4.38%
Shelter 3.46%
Earthquake and aftershocks 3.23%
Emergency 3.00%
Persons News 2.19%
Collapsed structure 1.73%
Non-food items 1.73%
Vital Lines 1.04%
Except for ‘Asking to forward a message’, these all correspond to WHO categories of the same name (I hope the WHO add this as a result of this effort).
About Robert Munro
Rob Munro of the 4636 Haiti project
18 Responses
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Yet another detailed and highly specific post. You people are amazing. The value of this post goes far beyond technical matters, it helps people like me in an NGO explain exactly how and by whom information is managed. That is crucial. It doesn’t necessarily mean I can make recommendations but does mean I can provide a convincing rationale for advice re. prioritising our resources. There are many aspects of the ‘open information as aid’ idea which should concern and interest us all as well as inspire us. Posts like this, during times like this when time is precious, are helpful and constructive. Further engagement when appropriate is a must. Best wishes to all.
Dear Colleagues and Friends:
We are now at a time when every person, in an effort to begin or continue working, is trying to reach out to people he/she knows more or less, to reach those he/she does not personally meet, but who needs his/ her services (or must have access to such services). It is with these needs for reliable collaboration or cooperation in mind that I am writing this note to you to ask you to use whatever resources or contacts you may have to help some people reach out to others in need. I know for security reason due to scams in the past that people are encouraging to donate mainly to prominent funds like American Red Cross, UNICEF, ClintonBush funds. I am 100% agree and reinforce that donors should really make sure that they can trace where their money is going. However, I must reassure you that not all of us are scams, or are out to take advantages of others or misfortunate victims either.
As a translator and a medical interpreter, I have been working diligently with the Haitians who have language barriers and have difficulties to communicate with healthcare providers when they go to hospitals, advocate on their behalf. For the past four years, I have been providing over the phone interpretation services to Haitians through affiliate services like TeleLanguage, Network Omni, Language Services, University Language, and Cyracom International. I have a team which composed of me, my sister and my father (Joseph N Pierre, Agronomist, PhD) who worked and offered our services to Haitians within the community. We are not there to steal from them and we never once take advantages from any situations. We give our services and time with all our hearts. Today, we would like to be the ones reaching out to the communities in Haiti, because we have families that we lost as well, and we are ready to work with everyone.
So I am sending you this present note to suggest that we continue to support each other and cooperate actively with those who have the ability to set and / or strengthen the bases for strong and durable constructions; I think we have to act in this way even when we are militating in different organizations. I am urging you to be among (or to help) the capable Haitian professionals and technicians (living abroad) who want to go back and help the earthquake victims as well as the younger generations to participate ore efficiently in the development of their communities. If you cannot, yourself, go to Haiti (or do not want to), but have the capacity (using your resources and/or contacts) to help others including myself) to help those who need our expertise in scientific research, agriculture, education, health, and others, please be willing to make a move. Please feel free to visit our site http://www.atemjservice.com, to find out how you can contribute.
Thank you for your time and considerations.
Muriel Joseph, BA, (MS candidate)
helphaiti@atemjservice.com
781-867-1867
Joseph N Pierre, PhD
joenpierre@hotmail.com
774-826-7740
Nice work out there guys, keep it up
Hello
This is really good to know about 4636 Process.There is really an eye catching title of this post.I think text message is very easy and quick for donation.Thanks for this post.
Dear Colleagues
I do not want to reinvent the wheel … the Ushahidi Haiti 4636 initiative is awesome in the context of emergency … but it also has the potential to be tweeked to work as a data acquisition system for Community Analytics (CA). CA could be deployed in the Haiti context to help get some clarity about what is going on in different places. I do not want to get in the way, but this might help reduce rip-off as rescue moves to relief and then to rebuilding. Can anyone give me some pointers?
Peter Burgess
The article related pictures of this blog were beautiful. People from NY,Mass.,Florida, California. Chicago and NJ stated that the pictures were professionally done with an eye to detail.
Continuing the Discussion