Hey Victor, thanks for the reply. I'm sure you are aware but I'll list it anyway: please keep in mind that SMS data can be validated, e.g. not some tweet feed. Unless Ushaidi can find some ways to verfiy such data, it may become involved in a humanitarian situation itself in the future. Rumors cost innocent civilain lives, facts remove fear, confusion and intimidation.

Critics like Paul Currion, an aid worker who has been working on the use of ICTs in large-scale emergencies for the last 10 years, question the value to humanitarians of information obtained through crowd-sourcing. Limitations, he suggests, include the problem of connectivity where access to the internet is not reliable, reliability of the data and the functional perspectives of the interface.

"The visual appeal of Ushahidi is similar to that of PowerPoint, casting an illusion of simplicity over what is a complex situation," he argued . "If I have 3,000 text messages saying, "I need food and water and shelter", what added value is there from having those messages represented as a large circle on a map? ... crowd-sourced information will not ever provide the sort of detail that aid agencies need to procure and supply essential services to entire populations."

On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Victor Ngeny <victormaritim@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Aki,

Just some thoughts,

In each Ushahidi instance a report is submitted then there has to be an admin to check the veracity of the report then approve it, thus map it. It does not matter where the report is coming from, twitter or any other social network, it has to be verified.

I remember helping out during the Haiti crisis (we had a Kenya situation room) and there were guidelines on how certain reports should be treated and I think this is the case here. (Not sure though..)
It would be foolhardy to ignore reports from social networks because for every 10 tweets there's truth in one.

Cheers,

V