QuestionBox is a project that allows offline people in emerging markets to ask questions and get answers. It’s an analog solution for those who don’t have their own digitally connected data devices. Open Question is a free and open source software application used for the purposes of collecting and disseminating information via phone in extreme environments. It’s being launched today, in conjunction with TEDIndia, where founder Rose Shuman is presenting.

“The longterm vision is to have it integrate with other open source software and data collection platforms like RapidSMS, FrontlineSMS, Open Data Kit (ODK), OpenRosa, JavaRosa, Kannel, Asterisk, Ushahidi, Sahana and others, to make them work quickly and efficiently in a call center environment… The product is designed specifically for the purpose of collecting and disseminating information from humans that is often difficult to automate (ex. the use of IVRs in emergency situations may not be effective). This includes people who may call to answer complex questions, situations where each caller speaks a different language, for reaching the illiterate, the visually impaired or in situations where privacy must be protected. In addition, the system works on or offline, on one non-networked computer, a closed LAN or across a distributed network. “

This is a big deal. If integrated in the right way it can make up for the shortcomings that a purely digital solution has in places where illiteracy, language or lack of phones makes tools like Ushahidi less useful.

Methods for Deployment

1. Call Boxes
Open Question can be configured to work with remote phones. In this scenario a call center acts as the central location to receive, while users visit designated location points to call in. The operator proceeds to collect demographic info, but doesn’t need to collect location info (the location of the caller can be determined by the phone number and foreknowledge of where that unit is located).
The benefit to using these phones (we call them Question Boxes) is that all calls are free as the deploying organization pays for them in advance. Open Mind offers an optional hardware product that can be pre-wired to dial specific numbers, to prevent users from using the phones for any other purpose but calling for emergencies or calling operators for information.

2. Caller Hotline
A number is publicized and anyone with a phone can call it. In theory, using a software PBX system like Asterisk, would allow for call routing or ‘hunting’ at the call center. The disadvantage to this method of deployment is there is no control for scale, if the number ‘is simply out there’ or publicized too heavily, the call center may be overwhelmed by anyone who decides to call preventing the assistance of people who actually need help.

3. Short Message Services
SMS collection of information and distribution of information is the easiest method of deployment is highly scalable and easy to implement. Unfortunately, it also has the highest barrier to entry for the rural poor, who may not be able to read English.

Methods for Answers

1. Local Database and Relevancy Engine
Open Question was designed by Ugandan software developers who had bandwidth constraints in mind. As such, it shines in environments where there are few alternatives for quick access to information. A localized database of documents is installed on the client machine or network, indexed, and allows the operator or user to search for information in real time….something that would not be possible if the service relied only upon searching the internet. As new documents are added to the database, the software’s relevancy algorithms determine which information is most relevant through extended use. (ex. if the same question is asked multiple times, the answer most associated with those keywords is ranked higher).

2. Escalation and Distributed Network of Experts
If the user or operator cannot find the answer in the Open Question database, the query is ‘escalated’ to a human expert who can then address the concern. In an Open Question implementation, the deploying organization should have at least one (but we recommend several) ‘experts’ who are ready to address such emergencies within 48 hours. At deployment these experts designate how they would like to be contacted (Instant Message, Email or Phone), then later when the service is in use, messages that are escalated are put into a queue and the system attempts to reach the experts using the methods they prefer.

3. Web Search and The Cloud
In the event that internet access is available, Open Question operators do have the option of searching the web. To improve the relevancy of the search results, administrators can use filters to define the web search to specific urls like http://wikipedia.com or company intranet sites. This is far more efficient than searching the entire web. Because Open Question is designed with the absence of internet as at the forefront, all relevant content that is found on the web can be archived and indexed. Once added to the database they then become ‘documents’ and can then be ranked and searched quickly as mentioned in above.

How to get Involved

Interested parties can find Open Question 0.2.0 and the developer’s roadmap at http://github.com/openquestion/

Vote Ki Vaat Mat Lagne Do is Mumbai-speak for “Don’t Let Them Screw Around With the Vote“.

Please feel free to share the poster on blogs and social networks.

“The world’s largest democracy, India, goes to election starting April 16, 2009. The month long general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha will be held in five phases on April 16, April 22, April 23, April 30, May 7 and May 13, and the results will be announced on May 16.”

The last week has seen an incredible amount of activity amongst the Indian team putting together VoteReport.in – a site to track the upcoming elections in India. At Ushahidi, we’ve seen a number of deployments of the platform, but few have been as well organized and grown with as much community input as this Indian one, led by Gaurav Mishra. On the technical side, Selvam Velmurugan of eMoshka, a non-partisan non-profit organization to enable stronger democracies through increased citizen awareness and engagement, has done most of the heavy lifting. Selvam is also organizing India’s first Gov 2.0 Barcamp.

Indians can send in reports four ways, by

Interestingly, Indian has a Twitter-like service called SMS GupShup that has millions of users subscribing to certain channels. The team is creating city-specific update accounts on Twitter and SMSGupShup for the top 8 cities in India (ex: VoteReportMumbai, VoteReportDelhi etc.). They can then point the RSS feeds for these cities to these accounts and give users four options for subscribing to alerts: by email, by RSS, or by SMS on Twitter or SMSGupShup.

How to get involved

• Let your family and friends in India know of this initiative. Email and SMS them the info.
• If you would like to get involved the best place to start is at the wiki used to organize this initiative.
• If you’re from the media you can start on the Press Page, or get in touch with members of the team.
• Blog, Twitter and GupShup the link.

Ushahidi’s First Elections and Swift River

This will be the first time that Ushahidi is being used in the workup to an election. It will be interesting to watch how it is used and how much of a factor it will play in gathering information from the general public. The groundwork for this interaction with the public and with media outlets is being setup now, so the team is optimistic that there will be a good number of incoming reports to work with.

Swift River is an initiative that seeks to do two very important things, both of which are crucial for not just Ushahidi, but for many emergency response activities in the future. First, it gathers as many possible streams of data about a particular crisis event as possible. Second, using a two-part filter, that stream of data is filtered through both machine based algorithms and humans to better understand the veracity and level of importance of any piece of information.

Concurrently to the rollout of VoteReport India, Swift River has has gotten to the prototype phase through the planning and hard work of Andrew Turner, Chris Blow and Kaushal Jhalla. Andrew took the foundational elements used for the initial “Twitter Vote Report” engine as a starting point.

We hope to see a greater number of information streams coming online, and a greater level of understanding of that information through the use of Swift River.

Many others are talking about the citizen reporting, and it’s value and challenges. Mainstream media is concerned, as are many experts and government officials, about how empowered ordinary people are in gathering, providing and amplifying information in ways that just weren’t possible before.

There is no stopping this change in information dynamics, there is only harnessing it in ways that add more value to the good guys than the bad (when you can figure out which is which). At the very least, we need to figure out how greater information flow and transparency can be leveraged to help in emergencies, especially when there are negative forces at work who have equal accessibility to the same tools.

Aggregation vs early warning

During, or after, a conflict there are a lot of tools available and already being used, especially in technologically advanced countries like India. Technically, it’s fairly easy to aggregate Twitter, Wikipedia, Flickr and YouTube videos. That should be done, and we are creating the superstructure for this to happen easily worldwide. (note: Twitter is useful in India, the US and Canada, but what about all those areas of the world where it was turned off?)

What is more interesting to me, especially about Mumbai and Jos, is the fact that if a tool like Ushahidi was available globally beforehand, then it would have provided a place for people to send in anonymous information and tips before anything happened. After all, even if the local law enforcement isn’t aware of what is happening, someone within the community does. Of course, this begs the question, “how would they know of it?” To which I don’t have any more of a complete answer other than if it was up and live, it would gain traction over time, just as any effective web/mobile service does.

The “right” and “best” tool

The best tool in any given crisis is what ever is available. There isn’t any time to deploy something then, you have to use devices and services that people are already using. Chris Albon noted that there was a lot of information and data flying around during the crisis in Mumbai, and that Ushahidi wasn’t present. Instead, it was a mixture of Wikipedia editing and Google maps that people were using. For a major global city, these two tools makes sense. But what about places like Jos?

This reminds me of a what I wrote about on holistically dealing with disaster scenarios during the hurricanes in the US earlier this year. The value of the current Ushahidi Engine is good for information gathering and visualization, but there is a definite need of a more wiki-like functionality in these tools. Both the hurricanes and these other conflicts have been rapidly collaborated and edited into Wikipedia, so the usefulness of that type of tool is shown. I’m very interested in getting something like this figured out, if we had the resources internally, we’d be doing it already.

What about when the ‘bad’ guys use it?

The other questions were hard, but this ones even harder. As much as mainstream media and experts are up in arms over the way that the terrorists in Mumbai could use information coming in from these new digital channels to monitor their own situation, we have to remember this isn’t new. Groups like this have been able to do this with mainstream TV and radio for years. What’s disturbing is that not even the government can stop it now.

The problem is that it’s no longer one-to-many mass broadcast, it’s now mass-broadcast to mast-broadcast. How do you stop 6 million SMS messages without crippling your own infrastructure and ability to get work done?

I think one answer might be found in figuring out a way to harness information from an even greater number of people. The more data that is collected, the less chance that bad data can have an adverse effect. For instance, if 2 reports come in that widely differ from the reports by 10 other people, then we can assume that they are false. That at least helps us solve for a greater probability of good info being available and can help with the adverse use of it by the “bad guys”.

What it doesn’t do is solve for the problem of the “bad guys” having more information available at their fingertips. Nothing will solve that now. What it does do is mean those opposing them will have equal access to the same information, and possibly even more than is currently available on the “bad guys” movements and operations by tapping into the greater public.

Just more questions…

This all left me with a no final answer, just more questions.

• How does the transparency of a tool help and hinder during hot-flash conflicts?
• Beyond Ushahidi, what are the best tools to use in hot-flashes?
• How does rural, and conflicts with greater geographic distribution than one city, differ in coverage and information?
• What is Ushahidi’s role?