Ushahidi and Queensland floods

Monique Potts (@moniquep)ABC Innovation

Media organisation trials

Al Jazeera – Gaza conflict BBC Tube Strike

Feral Month.

Overview Queensland floods site

Reports during crisis

From Public• Power outages• Property damage• Flood levels• Roads closed/impassable• Bridges closed/impassable• Where to get fuel• Photos of floods

From ABC staff• Evacuation centres• Police stations• Hospitals and health centres• Sandbag locations• Water contamination

reports• BOM weather advice

Reports during recovery

From Public• Emergency accommodation• Volunteers wanted and

available• Food and drink for

volunteers• Clean up supplies• Fuel supplies• Recovery equipment• Pets lost and found

From ABC staff• Centrelink recovery centres• Community recovery

centres• Free vaccinations• Bulk bin locations• Tipping stations• Schools clean up• Pet emergency

accommodation

Lots of traffic

24 days

230,000 unique visits

1,500 reports

Purpose

Purely crowdsourcing

Real time data layers

‘Supplemented’ Crowdsourcing

Editorial Challenges

• Verified vs Unverified events• Trusted sources attribution• Publishing personal details• Business names and references• Requests for help and information

Next steps

• Broader strategy for emergency digital services

• Integrated mapping strategy• Collaboration and partnerships• Sourcing data in suitable ‘map friendly’

formats• Building culture of participation