AudiencScapes

by David Montez, AudienceScapes Research Analyst

8 June 2010

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010, the media proved once again to be a crucial element in how humanitarian agencies respond to such crises. New and old forms of communication were utilized to communicate between responders and victims and to coordinate efforts between agencies and NGOs. Recently, the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) held a panel discussion to discuss how humanitarian media was used in Haiti and what lessons could be gleaned from the experience.

The panel comes on the heels of a conference held by CDAC (Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities), an interagency working group of leading humanitarian relief and media development organizations, that brought together response teams, local Haitian journalists, and international media representatives to discuss digital and traditional media and lessons learned from the earthquake in Haiti. A video of the event can be seen at CIMA’s website here, though you will need to turn up the volume considerably. While much of the event centered upon what relief efforts took place just after the earthquakes, key questions remain about the effectiveness of these efforts, how best to learn from them and whether or not they are replicable in other situations.

One of the new software platforms that cut its teeth in humanitarian relief in Haiti was Ushahidi. At the event Patrick Meier, Ushahidi’s director of crisis mapping, explained how they were able to shift the online platform from a crowdsourcing tool meant to document post-election violence in Kenya to a real-time asset that could be used by crisis responders to find out about on-the-ground needs. The story about how this was done is well documented on Ushahidi’s blog. [1]

In all, Ushahidi documented between 3500 and 3600 submissions coming from a variety of sources including Facebook, Twitter and eventually an SMS short code, in which subscribers on the DigiCel network in Haiti could report incidents by sending text messages free of charge to 4636. The debate over the effectiveness of crowdsourcing as a means of collecting and sharing crisis information has often centered on the notion of accuracy and verifiability. Apparently between 90 percent and 95 percent of the incidents of missing persons or relief needs reported were classified by Ushahidi as “unverified”, according to a Ushahidi staff member at the event.

Despite the enthusiasm surrounding mobile communications, they have real limitations in an environment such as Haiti where most households lack access to the electrical grid and the mobile subscription rate is less than 45 percent. Even Thomson-Reuters, which launched a service that allowed survivors of Haiti's earthquake to receive critical information by text message directly to their phones, free of charge, only had 24,000 people register. [2]

This is a recognized limitation even by the resource’s proponents. Where the tool draws its strength is in its ability to provide “real-time” information. Ushahidi’s answer to critics of crowdsourcing’s lack of verifiability is SwiftRiver, a new open source software platform that acts as a verifying filter that sifts through information through the multiplicity of channels that feeds crowdsourcing. However, the platform has only just recently been made available to the public, so it too is somewhat untested.

The question of how useful Ushahidi was during the crisis in Haiti for the most part remains unanswered. Meier provided anecdotes of those who had informed Ushahidi that their platform was useful, including a group of volunteer doctors, the 22 Marine Corps Expeditionary Unit and the World Food Program. These are also documented on the group’s blog. However, more concrete answers on the usefulness of Ushahidi in humanitarian relief efforts are soon to come. Tufts University, according Meier, has recently hired a group of independent consultants to conduct an inquiry into the effectiveness of Ushahidi and who exactly used it.

Despite the enthusiasm surrounding the potential for crowdsourcing to provide real-time information in event-oriented scenarios, whether the public at-large can and will provide information will vary from country to country and event to event. For example, during the May 2009 national elections in India the NGO eMoksha with the help of the Ushahidi and SwiftRiver projects deployed the Ushahidi platform in an effort to record violations of the electoral code. The Vote Report India project found itself limited by its inability to form a grassroots movement because of its inability to access the mainstream media. This reveals an important element in the potential success of crowdsourcing initiatives. That even within relatively well connected societies like India, the effectiveness of crowdsourcing will only stretch as far as the initiative’s own media campaign.

Is Haiti an Exception?

At the event it was Ivan Sigal of Global Voices who emphasized that Haiti in many ways was an exception rather than the new rule pointing to several factors. The humanitarian relief community has progressed over the years learning from each crisis how important and how best to use the media. In addition, Haiti’s long history with the United States and the US’s geographic proximity allowed for a quicker and better coordinated and concentrated response to occur. Many of the humanitarian assistance groups that were key responders also possessed extensive experience in the country, as a result of previous development efforts.

An example of this may be that of DISA, the Defense Information Systems Agency. Just days before the earthquake struck Haiti, DISA along with the military’s Southern command in Miami, SOUTHCOM, were preparing to test a new information and communication network called TISC (‘the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation’) in a simulation of a hurricane landing in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

TISC was DISA’s newest version of an All Partners Access network (APAN). In other words, it is a fancy social networking platform that while simple to use allows partners to file-share, access wikis, blogs and calendaring tools. Its chief purpose is to advance the coordination of information and actions among a wide range of actors within a certain theatre of operations. TISC was designed for operation scenarios such as provincial reconstruction teams, natural disaster response and humanitarian relief.

The aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti became the system’s first true field test. During deployment the TISC platform became one of the de facto standards for communication among the relief effort in Haiti. There were more than 1700 different users in Haiti, ranging from government agencies to relief organizations of various size and specialty seeking how to get involved, minimize redundancy and to coordinate efforts to maximize their results. The World Food Programme set up its own communication network with Wi-Fi access points and long-range point-to-point wireless systems supporting about 100 users.

For some the use of TISC as a coordination tool was a sign of the militarization of U.S. humanitarian relief efforts, while others perceive it to be a much needed tool that provides a shared means of accessing and dispersing information. [2] DISA’s preparation of the TISC platform prior to the earthquake placed the US military in a more advantageous position, if possible, to lead the complex effort required to respond to the disaster. In fact, according to the Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE), communication systems were operational ‘in a matter of hours,’ as they were already sitting on pallets in Miami. [3] 

No doubt that previous U.S. military deployments to Haiti, such as Operation Uphold Democracy in 1994 and Operation Secure Tomorrow in April 2004, and the military’s past assistance in transporting humanitarian aid has influenced the willingness of government and military officials to act compared to possible crises in other Central American countries. The deployability of TISC or other APANs outside the U.S.’s general sphere of influence or current conflict zones is strongly in question. See here for a short white paper on the TISC platform.

Similarly, Internews was somewhat well placed to respond to the needs of local media in Haiti. In 2007 Internews received a three-year grant from USAID to expand local media. The project built up the technical and journalism skills of 40 community radio stations throughout Haiti that eventually formed a network called RAMAK (Rasanbleman Medya pou Aksyon Kominotéé). In addition, in December 2007 Internews opened an office in Port-au-Prince and proceeded to build a radio production studio to serve as a training and production facility. [4]

Internews, along with previously out of work local journalists, produced a 15-minute news program called Enfomasyon Nou Dwe Konnen (News You Can Use). The program broadcast initially on 20 different radio stations, now 25, provided its audience with up to date information on humanitarian efforts. Listeners will also able to connect with radio stations and the show’s producers through SMS-text message, informing them of some of communities’ most pressing concerns.

The purpose of these observations are not to undercut the difficult tasks these organizations took head on after the earthquake but to point out that next time a crisis of a similar magnitude unfolds, humanitarian agencies may not be so well positioned. When approached with this idea Mr. Frohardt acknowledged the somewhat exceptional nature of the humanitarian response to the Haitian crisis. However, he saw it less as a situation that couldn’t occur somewhere else in the world, but as a situation where humanitarian agencies learned a great deal about the effectiveness of new techniques and practices that will only strengthen their response capability in the future.

CDAC, in particular, seems to be taking this point to heart. The organization plans to continue to hold meetings like the one in Miami so that as a working group it can continue to revisit how to better coordinate efforts in the future. The meetings are to result in a comprehensive report. In addition, Internews Eur0pe has partnered in a soon to be announced project concerning contingency planning in regards to the role of media in humanitarian crises.

[1] For more in-depth information about the potential for new technologies in responding to emergency and conflict situations Meier , along with Diane Coyle, recently penned a report for the UN Foundation entitled, “New Technologies in Emergencies and Conflicts: The Role of Information and Social Networks”.

[2] Pierce, David. “Pentagon’s Social Network Becomes Hub for Haiti Relief”. Wired. 21 January 2010. Accessed May 2010. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/pentagons-social-network-becomes-hub-for-haiti-relief/#ixzz0pFqh03qG and “Press Release: DISA Supporting Haiti Relief”. DISA. 15 January 2010. Arlington, VA. Accessed May 2010. http://www.disa.mil/news/pressreleases/2010/haiti_11510.html. and Laing, Aislinn and Tom Leonard “US accused of 'occupying' Haiti as troops flood in”. Telegraph Media Group. 18 January 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/7020908/US-accused-of-occupying-Haiti-as-troops-flood-in.html.

[3] Brewin, Bob. “Defense launches online system to coordinate Haiti relief efforts”. Nextgov.com. 15 January 2010. http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100115_9940.php.

[4] Strengthening Community Radio in Haiti”. Internews. Washington, DC Accessed May2010. http://www.internews.org/regions/lac/default.shtm.

Photos Courtesy of Flickr and the US Air Force.