Tagged: ushahidi RSS

  • Erik Hersman 6:09 pm on January 19, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: clustering, , , , ushahidi, visualization   

    Server-side clustering and visualization.

    We’re getting too many points on the map for effective use. David is instituting server-side clustering to deal with this, which should help with both site performance and general readability/usability. This isn’t live yet, but will be going up soon. We continue to tweak the UI, but it’s coming along nicely.

    Here’s what it looks like when all points are selected:

    All points mapped and clustered

    Here’s what it looks like when only one sub-category is chosen:

    An example of a sub-category visualization of clustering

     

  • Erik Hersman 1:38 pm on January 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , ushahidi   

    Ushahidi Situation Report 

    What we’re working on at Ushahidi currently and the point person for each issue.

    Dev and Design Side:

    • **critical** “Action tag” system – to tag reports with who’s reported on them (feedback loop)
    • **critical** Swift River/Haiti Twitter Tracker “curated tweets” – need update and ETA [Jon & team in UG / Swift River community]
    • Ensure timestamp is accurate (Github link). Note: set for right timezone? [Henry Addo]
    • Search query via the API (for http://www.haiti.com and other iframe users) [Henry Addo]
    • “Download data” link on frontend [Ken Kasina / Caleb Bell]
    • The Flickr page should use frames from Extraordinaires so that people can help tag flickr images [Caleb Bell]
    • Beefing up the How to help page, including an option to map organizations providing assistance and adding a way for volunteers to indicate where they are and what they are available to do. [Juliana Rotich]
    • Clustering of Haiti Map data [David Kobia]
    • Degradation of map data over time (fading out over 12/24hr period). Closely related: degrading of “resolved” items from the map, maybe to their own category only, or an indication visually that it’s been resolved. [David Kobia]
    • 4636 bug reporting place needed [Brian Herbert]
    • 4636 feature request: Solving for the “urgency” problem. How does an org receiving the feed understand what is the “most important”? [Brian Herbert]
    • Do something with the KML overlay section (either dropdown or move under the timeline) [Caleb Bell]
    • Main page: we have a banner with the SMS info and then a box just above the map. I think that’s too much. Could we please remove [Caleb Bell]
    • Admin stats page for “impact” is borked (link: http://haiti.ushahidi.com/admin/stats/impact) [Henry Addo]

    Non-Dev Side:

    • **critical** Strategy for approval/verification situation room sustainability. Fletcher Situation Room is putting together a guide to map incoming SMS, please hold off on creating reports from incoming SMS until then. Guide should be available by 4am Boston time. (need link) [Patrick Meier / Ory Okolloh]
    • Get Comcel 4636 shortcode going [Josh Nesbit and US Dept of State]
    • Reports approval/verification [Juliana Rotich / Patrick Meier & Team / Ory Okolloh]
    • Twitter, Blog updates [Erik Hersman]
    • Situation Room & Situation Report coordination [Erik Hersman]
    • Graphic explaining how the 4636 system works [Caleb Bell / design volunteer?]
     

    • Erik Hersman 2:52 pm on January 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Update as needed via the comments.

      • caleb 4:33 pm on January 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        Main Page: SMS Shortcode announcement above map has been removed.

      • jongos 5:17 pm on January 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        Swift River/Haiti: button is working and live on the site, should be passing all correct values accept location and username

      • Henry 6:44 pm on January 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        Search query via the API (for http://www.haiti.com and other iframe users) : Fixed

      • caleb 8:08 pm on January 18, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        KML overlay section has now been moved to below the timeline on the home page

  • Erik Hersman 6:43 pm on January 17, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , reuters, , ushahidi   

    Reuters and InSTEDD are using 4636 too for messages, whereas at Ushahidi we’re handling the incoming ones and the database: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60G16420100117

    Anyone who texts into us will also receive from them.

    Currently InSTEDD team in Haiti is setting up 5-10 local SMS gateways for outgoing SMS, just waiting on SIMs

     

  • Erik Hersman 6:33 pm on January 17, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , ushahidi   

    Ushahidi Situation Report (1/17/2010) 

    Ushahidi Haiti Deployment: Situation Report – Jan 17, 2010

    Dev items

    1. Look/fix the geoRSS from the 4636 system
    2. Fixing bugs and adding usability features on 4636.ushahidi.com (Note: Brian is 100% on this, has no spare capacity)
    3. Ory’s “Action tag” system – to tag reports with who’s reported on them (feedback loop)
    4. Halfway done on cluster mode
    5. Swift River – needed VERY badly for situation room to process incoming reports (how soon?)
    6. Add public data download on main page (Ken and/or Emmanuel)
    7. Bug reports – http://github.com/ushahidi/Ushahidi_Haiti/issues
    8. Make sure that the comments are fixed, there was an issue with the security code
    9. Figure out an automated way to track who is subscribing to the feeds – Brian to busy to do it now, can we use feedburner or something – that will help me see which organizations are tracking us.
    10. Admin report edit log so people can see what’s been edited, what hasn’t, and a log of who edited

    Design items

    • “About” page formatting
    • “How to Help” page formatting
    • “Report” page categories
    • Improve UI on KML layers: text font too large, also big massive white space below time slider
    • Graphic explaining how the 4636 system works

    Non-dev items

    • Put together database of contacts in Haiti with affailiation and contact info for Nigel (Patrick)
    • Replying to emails coming to Haiti@ushahidi.com (Patrick/Ory)
    • Approving reports to Ushahdi (Patrick/Ory & team)
    • Add SMS reports to map (Patrick & team)
    • Situation Reports (Erik/Patrick)
    • Compiling updated database for Clinton (Patrick)
    • Processing of non-English email reports – Creole especially
    • We need to devise an sustainability strategy ASAP, can’t keep the Fletcher Sit Room open for more than a day or two, can shift to fully virtual Sit Room but this still requires some management, not sure how to do this.
    • Need to show how are data is being used, who is using, etc, stuff that Ory is trying to find out
    • Flag particular reports that have critical information e.g. a hospital needs supplies and broadcast to our network but then there is a risk of noise (part of “Action Tag”)
    • Encourage responders, situation allowing to let us know if an action has been taken. We can then leave a comment on a report or something. (Part of “Action Tag”)

    Recently done/currently doing:

    • David – Timeline fixed.
    • David – Map changes/updates
    • Brian – 4636 system
    • Caleb – formatting on homepage
    • Caleb – new language switcher
    • Ory – media outreach, with focus now on local media
    • Ory – closing the loop – make sure aid organizations are tracking us and that we can then track their actions if possible.
    • Ory – putting together a list of who is tracking us so that we can publicize
    • Ory – approving reports on Haiti admin
    • Ken – cleaned up and uploaded the KML overlays
    • Patrick – combing all news sources
    • Patrick – updating mapping locations database which CrisisMappers group found very useful
    • Patrick – managing group of 20+ volunteers, in Boston situation room and virtual
    • Erik/Sarah – Media release & blog update
    • Erik – Twitter & media
    • Erik – situation updates & team coordination
    • Henry – bugs
    • Henry/David – Alerts system
    • Jon – Haiti tracker: “send to Ushahidi” button, tagging and controlling for duplicates
     

  • Erik Hersman 1:02 pm on January 16, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , information, , ushahidi   

    Ushahidi Situation Report (1/16/2010) 

    ACTION ITEMS

    Good morning American chappies, here’s an update for you… Know, the Kenya tech team is still going strong with 8 members of the community having a hack day at Java Junction.

    Dev Items: (most issues are up at http://github.com/ushahidi/Ushahidi_Haiti/issues already)

    Design items:

    • The layout of the categories list on the submit report page needs to be made more usable: http://haiti.ushahidi.com/reports/submit
    • The KML layers are pushing the news/reports section further and further down the homepage. We need to come up with a solution for this. My suggestion is to move the KML layers to be side-by-side in 2 columns underneath the timeline.
    • Please format the “how to help” section so that it looks nice
    • The “About” page needs formatting to make it look better.
    • Can we find a place to add the “missing persons” embed code to the homepage? Maybe replace the video area? http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/embed

    Non-Dev items:

    • Make sure to post remaining reports on this spreadsheet to Ushahidi (note the color coding): https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Avs6NHXfC9andFA0ay1qSlZReEtuUGVEWWxwbkFac3c&hl=en
    • We need a comprehensive strategy for report approvals/verification past Sunday when the Fletcher team can no longer work on it. (here for more on this) Patrick and Ory are handling this.
    • Local Outreach:
      Important to try and get more direct reports via web and via mobile when that’s up. These are unlikely to be from citizens in the beginning given the communication challenges but we can start reaching out to local NGOs, international NGOs with whom we have contacts, local media and regional media and build from there.

      Ideas:
      - Maybe put together an outreach kit including the one-pager flyer of Ushahidi that Caleb put together, the how to filter guide Patrick has put together, and a riff of the press release indicating why they should report information or track our reports, and asking them to let us know if the website turned out to be helpful or what can be improved.
      - Translate the outreach kit into French/Creole
      - Connect with the various Facebook groups and diaspora forums.

    • Feedback loop:
      we need to find a way to ensure critical information especially from a needs perspective is getting to people who can respond. I am not sure how best to do this? Can we maybe see who is currently subscribing to our lists/alerts and keep that as living/continually updated document that is part of the outreach kit?

      Other ideas
      - Flag particular reports that have critical information e.g. a hospital needs supplies and broadcast to our network but then there is a risk of noise
      - Encourage responders, situation allowing to let us know if an action has been taken. We can then leave a comment on a report or something.

    Crisis Camps:
    There are several crisis camps taking place (DC, NY, Silicon Valley) which is going to include hackathons. How can Ushahidi take advantage to correct bugs, etc?

    • I’ve been updating the CrisisCommons page with a few of the projects we’re involved in here. Josh Nesbit will be there in Washington DC today and will be the Ushahidi liason.
     

    • patrick 1:53 pm on January 16, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      + DEV 1 ITEM – Please change the date setting default on Time Line Slider to:

      From: Jan 2010 to **FEB** 2010

      • Erik Hersman 2:10 pm on January 16, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        If you look at the chart, it’s effectively just January, though the slider itself says it’s up until Dec 2010. So, not a huge issue at the moment.

    • patrick 2:27 pm on January 16, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      What’s the status on this, we need this layer up asap. Also, clicking on the locations layer creates an error

      • Erik Hersman 2:31 pm on January 16, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        None of the KML files had any gif/image to make them show up on the map. Ken has spent the last couple hours cleaning up the files and pushing them to the dev environment. The Locations/Hospital file is being pushed from “dev” to “live” as I write this.

    • Sanjana Hattotuwa 2:43 pm on January 16, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Erik, just to point a very small mistake – http://haiti-orgs.sahanafoundation.org/prod/

    • Rachel Weidinger 12:51 am on January 17, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Sitting at Srisis Camp Silicon Valley. What do you still need help with?

      Rachel
      415-793-2939
      skype:rachel.weidinger
      @rachelannyes

      • Erik Hersman 1:03 am on January 17, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        Probably the Twitter tracker right now. That’s the one item that needs the most work.

  • Erik Hersman 7:58 am on January 16, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , mobile phones, , ushahidi   

    Situation Report from the InSTEDD team:

    Ushahidi is working on getting a Haiti shortcode (4636, being arranged by Digicel and paid for supposedly by US State Department. Should be up and running by morning 16-Jan) to get MOs. MTs won’t probably work. They have no details on how they are going to get the messages yet.

    Original envisioned process was as follows:

    1. Put word out that people on the ground can send [Name location status/message]
    2. SMS submitted, with varying levels of structure/detail. SMS responds with information. For all messages, there will be a tinyurl that has more info on Haiti recovery.
    3. Enters database
    4. Passed to a mechanical turk type outfit for structuring/tagging
    5. Message is structured in the database
    6. Gets passed off to orgs (via Sahana) for action

    ————

    WE MUST HAVE THE SENDER’s number

    What Ushahidi will have:

    - URL is 4636.ushahidi.com
    - Ability to tag and structure SMS messages (note from nico: not sure what they mean with “structure”)
    - Structure= family name, given name, geotag, category of report (note from nico: same here)
    - Ability to re-expose feed via geoRSS
    - Data can also be output in the SMS table
    - When the SMS comes in, they will see where it needs to go and deal with it on main page.

    What we need from them by priority:

    1 – an RSS with the sender’s number as the author of the rss item
    2 – make the previous rss a Geo-RSS with the location of the sender
    3 – have the crowd-sourced tags as RSS tags.
    4 – Have them parse the “register” or “registre” + mobile phone and relaying that to us somehow. (Juan, any ideas on something easy for them/us?)

    What we (InSTEDD/Manas) need to do ASAP:

    Related to MOs

    0 – Switch the EIS EC2 instance to the biggest one we can get. We can’t afford timeouts or overloads.
    1 – Make sure the RSS importer recognizes the author as a mobile phone number and adds it to the list of registered phones.
    2- Paginate that list (Juan, I think it’s not being paginated, and it’s gonna get big very quick).
    3- Code: if the incoming item is a mobile phone number and it has a geo location, add that as the location of that citizen. (Juan, if they send us the lat/lon, we are loosing the clustering thing, we might need to reverse geo lookup to cluster them, we will see when we get there, but be ready and respond quickly)
    4 – Re-test tags into Riff from RSS tags.
    5 – Provide support for whatever relaying method of invitees Ushahidi gives us.

    Related to MTs

    1 – To Juan: It’s going to be a while probably until we get a way of broadcasting MT’s, we can test Clickatell tomorrow, but we need to figure out a way of round-robin between several LGW.

     

  • admin 5:48 pm on January 14, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , crisis, response, ushahidi   

    Why this space? 

    Welcome to the Ushahidi Situation Room.  We’ve setup this space as a way for us to curate information from the many Skype chats, emails, posts and news items going around the web when we’re in the midst of a major crisis and response.  Designated members of the team will be posting important information on this page so that you don’t have to go read 3000 Skype messages in order to be up to date after you’ve slept for 4 hours. :)

    What you’ll see here:

    • Big news items that you should know about
    • A list of people who are running certain parts of the operation so you know who to get in touch with for anything
    • A checklist of items that need to be done, which you can comment and “sign up” to complete

    The goal is to ONLY have important information on this page, not necessarily conversations, keep those in the chat and email channels.  Keep this easy to read for everyone and only post important items, use your judgement.

    The RSS feed URL for the situation room is: http://sitroom.ushahididev.com/index.php/feed

     

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