Vo.4-Moshirnia-Final

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2013 / Valuing Speech and OSINT in the Face of Judicial Deference 448 [T]he majority of the mapping, translating, and processing work for the Ushahidi platform was done purely by volunteers. In the spirit of the Ushahidi platform itself, the very large and daunting task of aggregating thousands of reports was manageable only because the body of work was crowdsourced to a dedicated international network of volunteers. 340 Ultimately, the team translated 25,186 SMS messages, along with other media communications, creating 3,596 actionable reports. 341 Craig Fugate of the FEMA Task Force noted that “[t]he crisis map of Haiti represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date map available to the humanitarian community.” 342 While the great majority of actionable reports collected and mapped in Ushahidi during the immediate aftermath of the earthquake concerned food, water, and shelter, a much smaller number dealt with violence. 343 Of the 3,596 reports generated, only 54 were related to security. 344 However, these reports, and the U.S. military’s response to them, provide key insight into the possible role of Crisis Mapping in addressing violent situations in foreign countries. As noted earlier, many aid workers felt that the delay in delivering supplies to areas perceived as dangerous due to exaggerated reports would increase the chance of violence on the part of a disaffected populace. This view was largely corroborated by reports of possible food riots posted on Ushahidi: “[r]esidents angry that they have not received aid have been reported to be building roadblocks between Carrefour and Portau-Prince” 345 and “Angry mobs are moving up route national no. 2 from the district of Merger. They have set up road blockades and are threatening to move up the road towards Port-au-Prince. They are angry because they have not received any food aid. They are also threatening to escalate violence.” 346 On both occasions, the U.S. Marine Corps responded to the 340 Id. at 8. 341 Id. at 9. 342 Id. 343 See NATHAN MORROW ET AL, INDEPENDENT EVALUATION OF USHAHIDI HAITI PROJECT, DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL USHAHIDI HAITI PROJECT 21 (2011), available at, http://www.alnap.org/pool/files/1282.pdf. 344 HEINZELMAN & WATERS, supra note 329, at 9. 345 Id. at 10. 346 Id.
449 Harvard National Security Journal / Vol. 4 report and dispersed the crowds before violence erupted. 347 The Crisis Map not only provided location data but also contextualized the violence, allowing other actors to assess the security threat and craft targeted solutions. 348 While the above examples represent reactions to distinct threats, crisis map analysis also provides for the possibility of discerning society-wide attitudinal shifts. Sentiment analysis, which utilizes a word analysis to determine the emotional state of the populace, can be employed to predict imminent conflict. 349 In the case of Haiti, the European Council’s Joint Research Center conducted a sentiment analysis by identifying words and word combinations as either positive or negative and running the reports through this filter. 350 3. Syria The Ushahidi-Haiti deployment demonstrates the vital role of Crisis Mapping in organizing and assisting humanitarian aid. The current deployment of Syria Tracker 351 continues to demonstrate the importance of crisis mapping in assessing war and violence. Syria Tracker impressively integrates data mining and eyewitness reports. 352 Working off of a modification of the HealthMap software, Syria Tracker searches Google News for reports of violence and converts these to visualizations on the Syria Tracker Map. 353 Due to the Assad government’s monitoring of phone networks, Syria Tracker relies on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube posts 347 See id. 348 See generally MORROW ET AL, supra note 343. 349 Cf. Patrick Philippe Meier, Sentiment Analysis of Haiti Text Messages (Updated), IREVOLUTION, Mar. 3, 2008, http://irevolution.net/2010/03/08/sentiment-analysissms/. 350 HEINZELMAN & WATERS, supra note 320 at 5. 351 Syria Tracker: Crowdsourcing Crisis Information, USHAHIDI.COM (May 24, 2011), http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2011/05/24/syria-tracker-crowdsourcing-crisisinformation/. 352 See Jim Giles, Mapping the human cost of Syria’s uprising, NEW SCIENTIST, Mar. 27, 2012, http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328576.000. 353 Id.
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