This tactic is good for creating or gathering information, reporting on public events such as elections or protests and responding to disasters or outbreaks. This tactic card includes:

• video stories
• a case study
• suggestions for the different ways you could use this tactic
• a featured tool
• tips

To download this card click here.


VIDEO STORIES

Tactic 8 - Use collective intelligence from Tactical Technology Collective on Vimeo.

Examples from this video:

• Field Reporting the 2008 Mumbai Terror Attacks - by citizens of Mumbai.
• Gathering Citizen Reports of Violence - by Foko, Ushahidi and the citizens of Madagascar.

CASE STUDY

Unsung Peace Heroes honoured those who worked for peace after post-election violence in Kenya in December 2007. Kenyans could nominate people and organisations by text message and email, and with paper forms at peace events. The groups Butterfly Works and Media Focus on Africa collected these nominations. Working with a local design school, Nairobits, nominations were translated, verified and added to a map, using the community reporting tool, Ushahidi. In addition to online outreach, Peace Heroes placed newspaper, radio, and television advertisements, and Nairobits students distributed paper handouts. In 2009 the eight winning Peace Heroes were recognised on national television, and they used their prize money to support their communities and peace projects. One winner, Joel, hid 18 people for two weeks in his compound to protect them from violence. He says, "I received congratulations through telephone and text messages from diverse communities from far and near. As a family, we decided to draw a party and invite these people, those from my community, a local councillor, and the administration to celebrate. The need to form a peace initiative emerged during the party, and they mandated me to register a peace group and recruit members to address the violence." Marten Schoonman of Media Focus on Africa says, "The aim was to spread a message of hope and focus on the good in this time of trouble. The conflicts are far from solved, even today. Like the butterfly effect, a relatively small initiative like this has potential spin-off effects and unexpected benefits."

Tools used: Ushahidi, mobile phones, Facebook, website.  

Reach: National. Over 500 nominations in one month, with peaks of 80 per day after Kenyan press coverage.

Cost: USD$18,000 (SMS system was USD$3000; remainder for publicity and awards for participants)

Resources: Local staff, volunteers and partner organisations to publicise the campaign and design the Facebook page.

Time: One month to collect nominations; three months later, awards and recognition given to Peace Heroes at ceremony.

Level of Difficulty: 3 out of 5

Links to learn more:

• Heroes' projects
• Facebook
• Implementing Ushahidi

DIFFERENT WAYS YOU CAN DO THIS

1. You can use mobile reporting to draw collective attention to an issue. Ask people to answer questions related to your campaign by sending in text messages or photos with their mobile phones. You can share these reports on a website or a mobile phone accessible website.

2. Live reporting can keep advocates safe during a protest or action. Two tools people have used for this are Twitter and a mobile video programme called Qik.com, with which advocates can share text and video updates on who may have been arrested, and draw attention to this news from supporters around the world.

3. If mass media are not listening, or if your campaign faces censorship, advocates can use tools like Twitter or Ushahidi to report on direct actions. If being identified as an advocate is risky, reports can also be sent by text message to someone outside the action to share online publicly. This way, people outside a hotspot of activity or danger can be the ones to post the photos and videos online, by uploading them to blogs and websites like blip.tv or WITNESS HUB for human rights videos.

4. If you have a fast connection to the internet, you can use live video to broadcast a campaign event live to the internet with a computer, a video camera (which may be built into your computer), and a live video programme like Ustream.tv or Livestream.com. 5. You can protect information from being confiscated by sharing it across a network of trusted supporters. If people have captured photos or videos and there is a concern that their cameras will be taken from them, they can share photos and videos with others by phone-to-phone file transfer, MMS (multimedia message), or email, and then delete them from their phones.

TIPS

Ken Banks of FrontlineSMS, on collaboration:

"Using technologies, you can combine the collective voice of people. You can aggregate information from live reporting with news coming in from the mainstream. Bringing that all together you get a much bigger picture of what is happening on the ground."

Dina Mehta, technology researcher, on the power of community:

“We have communities that we have developed over time in several spaces on the web – on blogs, Facebook, Twitter. What these tools allow you to do is network with all of your online communities, to operate as hubs of connected people. So when something happens and you need to respond, it’s about the spontaneous mobilisation of a community that already exists online, through the multiple nodes and hubs that you have created as you leave your footprints on the web.

Sami Gharbia, of Global Voices, on live reporting arrests:

“Activists are using Twitter to alert their fellow bloggers and activists about the case of arrests of bloggers. We’ve seen the case of a US journalist who was witnessing a demonstration in Mahala city in Egypt during the 6th April strike. When he was arrested he just sent a message to Twitter with the text ”arrested” and that alerted his friends, his relatives, and even the US embassy to intervene and get him released from prison.”

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