BLOG 6: CROWSOURCING IN A CRISIS

According to Merriam Webster 2022, “Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.”

(Khoros n.d.)

Essentially, crowdsourcing uses the internet and social media to “virtually” bring people together in support of a disaster. Aiding in the assistance of projects, launching new business initiatives, or engaging large numbers of people to tackle a complex problem (Riccardi 2016).

What does this all mean when crowdsourcing in a disaster response situation?

Well, according to Riccardi 2016, there are three prominent themes to suggest ways in which emergency managers can maximise the benefits from crowdsourcing during disaster operations.

Control:

A key motivator in victims participating in crowdsourcing is the individual desire to have some manner of control over the disaster they are part of and this theme was evident in the 2013 Colorado flooding. From within the impacted area, victims can provide disaster managers with real time information on the status of functions such as electricity, communications, food, water, damage, and other key bits of information.

Verification:

During the Haitian earthquake, volunteers from the United States and Canada translated reports from individuals impacted by the earthquake. This information was sent to another group of volunteers outside of Haiti who mapped trends such as lack of food, water, or electricity. Just as important, these volunteers were able to map locations of violence that were occurring within the disaster area. People want to help during a disaster and for all their good intentions, the simple truth is that sometimes the information they provide is inaccurate.

Usage:

Software programs are available that enhance the power of crowdsourcing but the basic requirements include individuals motivated to help who have some sort of access to the internet. An example of this would be Ushahidi, as this has become a sophisticated tool for crowdmapping. The tool has evolved quite a bit, but initially worked by integrating SMS, 'Twitter, Facebook as well as updates from the web, so that a crowdsourced picture of an event unfolding over time could be depicted on a single map' (Ford 2012, p. 35). Therefore, response organisations require individuals to monitor the social media feeds and analyse and verify the incoming data, but there are tools available to help them do this efficiently. The power of social media was demonstrated during the Haitian earthquake when donations exceeded $8 million U.S. Dollars were received by the Red Cross in 48 hours.

(Ushahidi 2010)

The Digital Divide

Harrison & Johnson 2019 describe the #digitaldivide refers to those populations who don’t have access to the internet and its services, primarily in least developed countries but also present amongst marginalised populations in developed countries.

The countries with the lowest percentage of internet users and/or no access to the internet or other computer resources are in Africa, the Asia Pacific region, and Latin America (Bradley 2010). The digital divide is also a choice for some populations, such as those who choose not to embrace technology or to remain technologically illiterate. Such a divide proves to be a challenge for government agencies and NGOs engaging in technology and the internet for emergency management.

Do you agree or disagree with the below statement?

In order to ethically run a crowdsourcing program in a conflict or disaster-affected environment, organisations need to ensure that their staff and the “crowd” participating in the project have been trained to use the technologies and assess the unique risks of the digital information environment (Martin-Shields 2016).

References

Ford, H 2012, ‘Crowd Wisdom‘, Index on Censorship, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 33-39.

Harrison, S & Johnson, P 2019, ‘Challenges in the adoption of crisis crowdsourcing and social media in Canadian emergency management’, Government Information Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 501–509.

Kelly, BP 2010, What countries suffer most from the divide?, Atlassian, viewed 15 May 2022, <https://wiki.uiowa.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=42016923>.

Khoros, ‘Crowdsourcing customers’ [image], in Khoros n.d, Resources, viewed 18 May 2022, <https://khoros.com/resources/crowdsourcing-customers>.

Martin-Shields, C 2013, The technologist’s dilemma: ethical challenges of using crowdsourcing technology in conflict and disaster-affected regions, German Development Institute, viewed 16 May 2022, <https://www.die-gdi.de/en/others-publications/article/the-technologists-dilemma-ethical-challenges-of-using-crowdsourcing-technology-in-conflict-and-disaster-affected-regions/>.

Merriam Webster 2022, Definition of crowdsourcing, Merriam-Webster, viewed 16 May 2022, <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing>.

Riccardi, MT 2016, ‘The power of crowdsourcing in disaster response operations’, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 20, pp. 123–128.

Ushahidi, ‘Crisis Mapping Haiti: Some Final Reflections’ [image], in Ushahidi 2010, Crisis Mapping Haiti: Some Final Reflections, viewed 18 May 2022, <https://www.ushahidi.com/about/blog/crisis-mapping-haiti-some-final-reflections>.