The purpose of PeaceTXT is to leverage mobile messaging to catalyze behavior change around peace and conflict issues. In the context of Chicago, the joint project with CeaseFire aims to leverage SMS reminders to interrupt gun violence in marginalized neighborhoods. Several studies in other fields of public health have already shown the massive impact that SMS reminders can have on behavior change, e.g., improving drug adherence behavior among AIDS and TB patients in Africa, Asia and South America.

Our mobile messaging campaign in Kenya builds on the very successful interruption and behavior change work performed by CeaseFire in Chicago. Note that CeaseFire has been directly credited for significantly reducing the number of gun-related killings in Chicago over the past 10 years. In other words, they have a successful and proven methodology; one being applied to several other cities and countries worldwide. PeaceTXT International simply seeks to scale this success by introducing SMS.

PeaceTXT Chicago builds another successful campaign in the US: “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink and Drive.” Inspired by this approach, the PeaceTXT Team in Chicago is looking to launch a friends-don’t-let-friends-get-killed campaign. Focus groups recently conducted with high-risk individuals have resulted in rich content for several dozen reminder messages (see below) that could be disseminated via SMS.

These messages are user-generated in that the content was developed by high-risk individuals themselves—i.e., those most likely to get involved in gun violence. The messages are not limited to reminders. Some also prompt the community to get engaged by responding to various questions. Indeed, the project seeks to crowdsource community solutions to gun violence and thus greater participation. When high-risk individuals were asked how they’d feel if they were to receive these messages on their phones, they had the following to share: “makes me feel like no one is forgetting about me”; “message me once a day to make a difference.”

Given that both forwarding and saving text messages is very common among the population that CeaseFire works with, the team hopes that the text messages will circulate and recycle widely. Note that the project is still in prototype phase but going into implementation mode as of 2012. So we’ll have to wait and see how the project fares and what the initial impact looks like.

In the meantime, PeaceTXT is partnering with Sisi ni Amani (We are Peace) to launch its first international pilot project. Rachel Brown, who spearheads the initiative, first got in touch with me back in the Fall of 2009 whilst finishing her undergraduate studies at Tufts. Rachel was interested in crowdsourcing a peace map of Kenya, which I blogged about here shortly after our first conversation. Since then, Rachel and her team have set up the Kenyan NGO Sisi ni Amani Kenya (SnA-K) to leverage mobile technology for awareness raising and civic engagement with the aim of preventing possible violence during next year’s Presidential Elections.

SnA-K currently manages a ~10,000 member SMS subscriber list in Baba Dogo and Korogocho, Kamukunji and Narok. SnA-K’s SMS campaigns focus on voter education, community cohesion and rumor prevention. What SnA-K needs, how-ever, is the scalable SMS broadcasting technology, the type of focus that PeaceTXT brought to CeaseFire Chicago and the unique response methodology developed by the CeaseFire team. So I reached out to Rachel early on during the work in Chicago to let her know about PeaceTXT and to gain insights from her projects in Kenya. We set up regular conference calls throughout the year to keep each other informed of our respective progress and findings.

Soon enough, PopTech’s delightful Leetha Filderman asked me to put together a pitch for international applications of PeaceTXT’s work, an initiative I have “code-named” PeaceTXT International. I was absolutely thrilled when she shared the good news at PopTech 2011 that our donor, the Rita Allen Foundation, had provided us with additional funding, some of which could go towards an international pilot project. Naturally, Sisi ni Amani was a perfect fit.

So we organized a half-day brainstorming session at the iHub last week to chart the way forward on PeaceTXT Kenya. For example, what is the key behavioral change variable (like friendship in the PeaceTXT Chicago project) that is most likely to succeed in Kenya? As for interrupting violence, how can the CeaseFire methodology be customized for the SnA-K context? Finally, what kind of SMS broadcasting technology do we need to have in place to provide maximum flexibility and scalability earlier rather than later? Answering these questions and implementing scalable solutions essentially forms the basis of the partnership between SnA-K and PeaceTXT (which also includes Revolution Messaging). We have some exciting leads on next steps and will be sure to blog about them as we move forward to get feedback from the wider community.

Conflicts are often grounded in the stories and narratives that people tell themselves and the emotions that these stories generate. Narratives shape identity and the social construct of reality—we interpret our lives through stories. These have the power to transform relationships and communities. We believe the PeaceTXT model can be applied to catalyze behavior  change vis-a-vis peace and conflict issues at the community level by amplifying new narratives via SMS. There is considerable potential here and still much to learn, which is why I’m thrilled to be working with SnA, PopTech & partners on launching our first international pilot project: PeaceTXT Kenya.

Run-off election results on the map

In the days between the run-off and NEC’s first announcement, the Liberia Media Center published unofficial rolling results from field journalists covering the polling places. These initial results were the first and only vote counts available to the Liberian public, and were published right away on the elections instance as “LMC run-off vote counts” (just below categories, under “other layers”). The Elections Coordinating Committee, active observers during the first round, sent out another 1,750+ monitors on run-off day who have now returned to iLab and are diligently recording the events that occurred at Liberia’s polling places. These ECC reports from the first round can be found under the category “ECC election day monitoring”). Second round ECC reports will appear on the map once the data operators have received all polling checklists.

ECC polling station reports from the first round

During the last week, the majority of the map’s reports have been about the events surrounding Monday’s CDC rally turned violent, and minor incidents during the run-off and the following day. Some of the incidents reported include: attempted ballot box stealing, the torn down polling station results, tear gas fired by police when a crowd refused to give up ballot boxes, the closure of three major radio stations on charges of hate speech, the burning of a major radio station that is still under investigation, and Thursday’s release of 84 persons arrested during the rally.

Picture from the map of an opposition rally turned violent

Young voters proud to cast their ballots

Since Wednesday, the Ushahidi Liberia team has mostly been mapping news from the local media and international observers such as the Carter Center and ECOWAS. We plan to continue updating these vote counts until the final results are released. However, with recent news that opposition leader Winston Tubman will contest the results and seek legal action to hold another election next month, this election map may not go quiet simply because the last vote is counted.

The 2nd round of voting, scheduled for November 8^th, has two candidates on the ballot: Congress for Democratic Change (CDC)’s Winston Tubman, and the Unity Party’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in October.

Friday, November 4^th

- As of Friday, CDC’s Tubman announced a boycott of the run-off election. Just two days before, Tubman said the CDC would participate in the 2^nd round, despite differing statements from within his party. The US State Department said it was “deeply disappointed” by Mr. Tubman’s decision to boycott the runoff and that Tubman’s accusations of fraud were “unsubstantiated.”

Monday, November 7^th

CDC supporters gather for rally near party's headquarters

- Despite warnings from the international community, Tubman called for a rally on Monday, November 7^th – on the eve of the Nov 8^th run-off. Campaigning ended officially on Nov 6^th, and the CDC did not have the requisite permit from the government to conduct the rally by Monday morning when CDC supporters were amassing in the streets. CDC supporters were told in this flier that the 2^nd round as “a cheating run-off” and encouraged to demonstrate in protest.

CDC supporters meet UN peacekeepers' and National Police's blockade

- “CDCians” gathered near the party’s headquarters on the main street that runs through the capital. By noon, a blockade was formed first by UN Peacekeepers and, behind, the Liberia National Police backed by UN armored vehicles. Within an hour of the crowd’s formation, there was a breach at the edge of the blockade and CDCians who broke free began throwing rocks and glass bottles at the officers. Police responded with tear gas grenades, fired repeatedly into the scattering crowd. The police pushed the main crowd backwards to the party headquarters, continuing the tear gas and soon after firing live ammunition at supporters. Five civilians are confirmed dead, with many others injured. A nearby gas station was looted and destroyed, allegedly because the owner was a Unity Party supporter.

National Police officers move towards retreating CDC demonstrators

-  Shortly after nightfall, the court ordered three radio stations be shut down for inflammatory speech. These stations were said to be operated by CDC supporters.  As for the rally’s deaths, CDC’s vice presidential candidate blamed President Johnson Sirleaf directly for the loss of life. President Johnson Sirleaf vowed an investigation would be conducted.

Tuesday, November 8^th

- Election morning saw reduced numbers at the polls. Many more women than men were voting. In CDC strongholds across the capital, voter turnout was little more than a trickle. When an international election monitor asked a lone male voter why the women largely outnumbered the men in the 2^nd round, he said simply, “They look out for their own”, suggesting women were voting for Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf.

Women voting at nearly empty polling station in Monrovia

- While the turnout appeared to be significantly less than the 1^st round, this election did not include the Senate and House of Representatives, and was between two presidential aspirants rather than October’s 16. It is suspected among observers that the short lines may have been in part because of the streamlined process and not only because voters were concerned about violence.

- Isolated reports of instability came in at the end of the day, including attempted ballot box stealing and more rounds of tear gas fired at citizens trying to prevent the police from removing ballot boxes at close of polls. All in all, a calmer day than expected after the events of Nov 7^th.

- Unofficial preliminary results will be released by the Liberia Media Center this evening and throughout the week. The National Elections Commission says official preliminaries will be in on November 9^th with most votes counted by the 11^th. All of these results will be posted on the Ushahidi election instance under “other layers” (just below “categories”) on the homepage. The national Elections Coordinating Committee, with more than 1,700 field monitors, will also have detailed reports from each polling station on the Ushahidi instance as information rolls in.

More to come this week about the Ushahidi elections instance and its role during and after the run-off.

Ushahidi Liberia elections instance

Liberia 2011 election instance

The Liberia 2011 election instance received 239 crowdseeded messages from trusted reporters during the Referendum and the following week before official results were announced. These reporters have received training in how to report to the Ushahidi platform using the free “2011” shortcode; among them are local election monitors, Liberian police officers, international election observers and local journalists. Most of the messages focused on the following: a low voter turnout (only about one-third of the voting population), a printing error on the ballot that confused voters about Proposition 2, the high number of incorrectly marked ballots (approximately 12% counted as invalid), the frustration of NEC workers over long hours without break and some incidents of violence. Overall, there were few violent incidents during and after the Referendum; those reported include one ritualistic killing with political motives, an attack on a political candidate as well as NEC staff counting ballots at night, and a few fights that broke out at polling stations over how to vote on the Referendum’s four propositions.

Sierra Leone's Election Watch and ECC observers

iLab Liberia, the tech lab at Ushahidi Liberia’s office, served as a data entry hub for the Elections Coordinating Committee and Sierra Leoneon observers during the Referendum, and in the days following each partner organization that received messages on the election instance used iLab’s facilities to verify and approve reports for public viewing. It became clear as we assisted partners with their data that polling station geo-coordinates were a must for the election instance. Our team realized this months ago, but were not able to locate a data set with more than the name and county location of each polling station.

ECC Referendum observers entering incident reports into their database

Once in a blue moon, data heroes come along when you need them most – and that was what happened the week after the Referendum when a UN officer who attended iLab’s mapping party offered to share a KMZ file with each polling station’s confirmed latitude and longitude. A dream come true! But we ran into a familiar problem – we only had the coordinates and the stations’ code numbers in this file. After a serendipitous trip to the NEC where I ran into the IT Director on his way out, he showed me the pdf with all the polling stations’ descriptive details – and, even better, it was online! But, as was the case with our KMZ file, a crucial piece of data was missing – the geo-coordinates. After a bit of tweaking and rearranging, our team merged the two data sets and placed them on the election instance.

Polling stations for Liberia's election

What is now displayed on the election instance constitutes the first complete online data set of all 1,780 polling stations and their exact locations. We may soon incorporate these stations into the “categories” section of the instance, but for now you can find them by clicking on the “polling stations” layer located just below categories. Each time you zoom in, it’s necessary to refresh the polling stations layer; when you do, and click on a station, you’ll see the station’s code, name of the building, town, county and total voters registered at that site. Other layers on this map include electoral district boundaries for quickly viewing how many reports and polling stations are located in each district.

One of the Referendum’s four propositions suggested a date change for the presidential election; official results revealed the date would stay the same – October 11th. That leaves a month between this dress rehearsal and the main event. The Ushahidi Liberia team is going to be busy preparing with up-country trips trainings for 200+ new reporters, turning iLab into the Elections Coordinating Committee’s situation room and making sure all systems are go for what is perhaps Liberia’s most anticipated event since its first democratic election 6 years ago.

During my first week in Liberia, I met with NGOs, the Peacebuilding Office, UNMIL – a variety of actors.  Despite their different missions and programs, they all grew silent at the mention of one word: “crowdsourcing.”  “Do you know what crowds do here?” One NGO director said to me.  I asked if he meant the police officer who was recently burned alive by an angry mob in the middle of a busy highway, or the crowd in Lofa County that set fire to Christian churches when they got wind that their mosque had been burned (the mosque’s burning, it turns out, was a false rumor).

Crowd gathers for the daily news

“Let me give you an example,” said another NGO staff member, someone who has spent significant time in rural areas.  “My friend, he is a Deputy Minister of Health.  He was driving at night outside of town; one of those motorcycles – they drive crazy – my friend hit him by accident.” He stops the story to remind me where we are – in between villages, no streetlights.  “He acted quickly – changing into civilian clothes, getting out of the car and standing away from it.  In five minutes – really, five minutes – a crowd had formed and doused the car in gasoline.  ‘Where’s the driver?’ The crowd asked, chanting ‘We’re going to kill him! Kill him!’, the car blazing in front of them. My friend [still dressed incognito] suggested they go to the police, but the mob was too furious to listen.  That charred car is still sitting in that town, at the police station.”  Crowdsourcing in Liberia: different.

I share these accounts not to propagate rumors or amplify dramatic tales, but to convey the prevalence of severe mob violence in this country.  Whether in the city or “interior”, a justice-seeking crowd is likely to appear more rapidly than law enforcement officers.  My original understanding of crowdsourcing – the wisdom of crowds – is at odds with that of my Liberian colleagues, for whom crowdsourcing sounds like “the danger of volatile mobs.” But it goes both ways: these informal communication and mobilization networks are extremely effective (if we consider them in terms of achieving their objectives), and it is theoretically possible that these lines can be tapped and the information of the ephemeral mob can be aggregated outside of the crowd onto Ushahidi’s map.

What would cause a crowd to choose its current method of data collection and response over the model proposed by Ushahidi?  Here’s my guess: immediate action quickly avenges a perceived injustice.   In a country ravaged by two civil wars (not to mention hundreds of years of insufferable class disparities and pseudo-colonialism), there is little living memory of a formal justice system.  This violence may at first sound purely irrational, but it seems to be a trained response to the country’s weak rule of law and the population’s perception that information sharing and matters of justice must be taken into one’s own hands if they are to be resolved.  It’s crucial, then, that Ushahidi pays close attention to the response side of this early warning ecosystem; without a recognized response effort to these incidents, the mobs continue undaunted in their reprisals, and crowdsourcing will remain a dreaded word in Liberia.

Young woman in Monrovia

]]> http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2010/04/14/liberia-the-power-of-the-crowd/feed/ 13 http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2008/11/07/ushahidi-deploys-to-the-congo-drc/ http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2008/11/07/ushahidi-deploys-to-the-congo-drc/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:39:54 +0000 Erik Hersman http://blog.ushahidi.com/?p=82 In what is becoming typical Ushahidi fashion, we’re going into a hot zone with little warning and improve, yet only half-baked software…

Over the last week, while the world watched the US elections (as were we), we were also watching the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Since last Wednesday we’ve been quietly scrambling towards the first deployment of the new Ushahidi Engine into a crisis zone. Today, we’re announcing this instance to the world.

The DRC deployment can be found at http://DRC.ushahidi.com, and the mobile number to send SMS reports to is +243992592111.

Note: This is the alpha software for Ushahidi, so there are likely quite a few bugs and kinks that need to be worked out. If you find any, please submit them to bugs.ushahidi.com.

Help get the word out

We need to get the message to the people on the ground in the Eastern Congo that this tool is now available for them to report incidents in on. If you have contacts there, or can help spread the word through some other means, it would be a great help if you did so – even if it’s just point them to the website or telling them about the SMS number.

Setup and lessons learned

We don’t believe in waiting for software to be perfect before a launch, so we’ve tidied it up as best we can, and are doing constant updates along the way. This instance we’re running on our own servers for speed and ease of updates.

SMS Reporting Through Ushahidi, originally uploaded by whiteafrican.

We run what we’re calling our “tech hub”, which features a mobile phone with a DRC SIM card, tethered to a local PC running FrontlineSMS. Whenever this computer connects to the internet, it auto syncs with Ushahidi.

David Kobia worked very hard through the weekend to get the SMS functionality right. We’re using a combination here of FrontlineSMS to receive local SMS from anyone in the DRC at +243992592111, with a completing feedback loop from the admin area to the incident submitter that goes through Clickatell. Ken Bank’s team at FrontlineSMS has been very quick on the ball to provide us updated code samples to get everything working in time (big thanks!).

At the same time, this isn’t Kenya, so none of the Ushahidi team is well positioned to manage any kind of approval or verification of reports that come into the system. We’ve found a couple local groups that are willing to help us with this, including HEAL Africa. Their members are helping to report incidents, as well as verify incoming reports.

The categories being used in the DRC are different. One of the new ones is “verified reports” which only come from users who are known quantities by the groups managing the Ushahidi instance. It’s a form of more “trusted” reports. While we’re optimistic about gathering reports from people all over the Eastern Congo, we know that there is a certain amount of disinformation that goes on. We are actively looking at ways to neutralize false reports and encourage factual ones.

We’re also working on the French translation, and we need to be proactive here in doing other major language translations before they’re needed. If you’re an expert in a major global language, we’d love to hear from you.

Read about the methodology and find the report here.

Yellow icon = mainstream news reports;
Blue icon = citizen journalism blogs;
Green icon = Ushahidi reports.