CommuniSense: Crowdsourcing Road Hazards in Nairobi

Nairobi is one of the fastest growing metropolitan cities and a major business and technology powerhouse in Africa. However, Nairobi currently lacks monitoring technologies to obtain reliable data on traffic and road infrastructure conditions. In this paper, we investigate the use of mobile crowdsourcing as means to gather and document Nairobi's road quality information. We first present the key findings of a city-wide road quality survey about the perception of existing road quality conditions in Nairobi. Based on the survey's findings, we then developed a mobile crowdsourcing application, called CommuniSense, to collect road quality data. The application serves as a tool for users to locate, describe, and photograph road hazards. We tested our application through a two-week field study amongst 30 participants to document various forms of road hazards from different areas in Nairobi. To verify the authenticity of user-contributed reports from our field study, we proposed to use online crowdsourcing using Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to verify whether submitted reports indeed depict road hazards. We found 92% of user-submitted reports to match the MTurkers judgements. While our prototype was designed and tested on a specific city, our methodology is applicable to other developing cities.Comment: In Proceedings of 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2015

Information and Communication Technologies in Areas of Limited Statehood

This paper analyzes the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on governance where the state‘s ability to authoritatively implement and enforce political decisions is weak or functionally absent – areas of limited statehood (AoLS). How do ICTs influence the provision of collective goods in AoLS, especially in policy fields such as security, welfare and the environment? In addressing this question we focus on the emergence of ICT- enabled forms of steering. Virtual organizations such as Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS enable the coordination of collective goods without the same level of hierarchical structure historically associated with traditional forms of governance. The focus lies on quasi-organizational forms that rely on mass collaborative action across electronic networks. The consideration of these questions is supported by fieldwork in Africa in 2011, and on previous research in Afghanistan and various African countries in 2010. The paper concludes with some tentative hypotheses on the interconnection between ICT, statehood and governance.Dieses Arbeitspapier analysiert die Effekte von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (ICT) in Räumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit (RbS) mit Bezug auf Governance. Es geht dabei v.a. der Frage nach, wie ICTs die Bereitstellung kollektiver Güter insbesondere in den Politikfeldern Sicherheit, Wohlfahrt und Umwelt beeinflussen. Bei der Beantwortung dieser Frage konzentrieren wir uns auf die Entstehung neuer Steuerungsformen, die auf ICTs basieren. Virtuelle Organisationen wie Ushahidi oder FrontlineSMS beispielsweise ermöglichen die Erbringung kollektiver Güter auch ohne staatlich-hierarchische Strukturen, die in einem traditionellen Verständnis häufig als Voraussetzung von Governance betrachtet werden. Unser Fokus liegt somit auf Governance-Formen die auf kollektivem Handeln über elektronische Netzwerke basieren. Die Diskussion dieser Fragen wird durch die Ergebnisse von Forschungsaufenthalten illustriert, die in den Jahren 2010 und 2011 in Afghanistan und verschiedenen afrikanischen Staaten stattgefunden haben. Das Paper endet mit einigen vorläufigen Hypothesen zu der Verbindung von ICTs, Staatlichkeit und Governance

Developing a Framework for Stigmergic Human Collaboration with Technology Tools: Cases in Emergency Response

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), particularly social media and geographic information systems (GIS), have become a transformational force in emergency response. Social media enables ad hoc collaboration, providing timely, useful information dissemination and sharing, and helping to overcome limitations of time and place. Geographic information systems increase the level of situation awareness, serving geospatial data using interactive maps, animations, and computer generated imagery derived from sophisticated global remote sensing systems. Digital workspaces bring these technologies together and contribute to meeting ad hoc and formal emergency response challenges through their affordances of situation awareness and mass collaboration. Distributed ICTs that enable ad hoc emergency response via digital workspaces have arguably made traditional top-down system deployments less relevant in certain situations, including emergency response (Merrill, 2009; Heylighen, 2007a, b). Heylighen (2014, 2007a, b) theorizes that human cognitive stigmergy explains some self-organizing characteristics of ad hoc systems. Elliott (2007) identifies cognitive stigmergy as a factor in mass collaborations supported by digital workspaces. Stigmergy, a term from biology, refers to the phenomenon of self-organizing systems with agents that coordinate via perceived changes in the environment rather than direct communication. In the present research, ad hoc emergency response is examined through the lens of human cognitive stigmergy. The basic assertion is that ICTs and stigmergy together make possible highly effective ad hoc collaborations in circumstances where more typical collaborative methods break down. The research is organized into three essays: an in-depth analysis of the development and deployment of the Ushahidi emergency response software platform, a comparison of the emergency response ICTs used for emergency response during Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and a process model developed from the case studies and relevant academic literature is described

Citizen science and remote sensing for crop yield gap analysis

The world population is anticipated to be around 9.1 billion in 2050 and the challenge is how to feed this huge number of people without affecting natural ecosystems. Different approaches have been proposed and closing the ‘yield gap’ on currently available agricultural lands is one of them. The concept of ‘yield gap’ is based on production ecological principles and can be estimated as the difference between a benchmark (e.g. climatic potential or water-limited yield) and the actual yield. Yield gap analysis can be performed at different scales: from field to global level. Of particular importance is estimating the yield gap and revealing the underlying explanatory factors contributing to it. As decisions are made by farmers, farm level yield gap analysis specifically contributes to better understanding, and provides entry points to increased production levels in specific farming systems. A major challenge for this type of analysis is the high data standards required which typically refer to (a) large sample size, (b) fine resolution and (c) great level of detail. Clearly, obtaining information about biophysical characteristics and crop and farm management for individual agricultural activities within a farm, as well as farm and farmer’s characteristics and socio-economic conditions for a large number of farms is costly and time-consuming. Nowadays, the proliferation of different types of mobile phones (e.g., smartphones) equipped with sensors (e.g., GPS, camera) makes it possible to implement effective and low-cost “bottom-up” data collection approaches such as citizen science. Using these innovative methodologies facilitate the collection of relatively large amounts of information directly from local communities. Moreover, other data collection methods such as remote sensing can provide data (e.g., on actual crop yield) for yield gap analysis. The main objective of this thesis, therefore, was to investigate the applicability of innovative data collection approaches such as crowdsourcing and remote sensing to support the assessment and monitoring of crop yield gaps. To address the main objective, the following research questions were formulated: 1) What are the main factors causing the yield gaps at the global, regional and crop level? 2) How could data for yield gap explaining factors be collected with innovative “bottom-up” approaches? 3) What are motivations of farmers to participate in agricultural citizen science? 4) What determines smallholder farmers to use technologies (e.g., mobile SMS) for agricultural data collection? 5) How can synergy of crowdsourced data and remote sensing improve the estimation and explanation of yield variability? Chapter 2 assesses data availability and data collection approaches for yield gap analysis and provides a summary of yield gap explaining factors at the global, regional and crop level, identified by previous studies. For this purpose, a review of yield gap studies (50 agronomic-based peer-reviewed articles) was performed to identify the most commonly considered and explaining factors of the yield gap. Using the review, we show that management and edaphic factors are more often considered to explain the yield gap compared to farm(er) characteristics and socio-economic factors. However, when considered, both farm(er) characteristics and socio-economic factors often explain the yield gap. Furthermore, within group comparison shows that fertilization and soil fertility factors are the most often considered management and edaphic groups. In the fertilization group, factors related to quantity (e.g., N fertilizer quantity) are more often considered compared to factors related to timing (e.g., N fertilizer timing). However, when considered, timing explained the yield gap more often. Finally, from the results at regional and crop level, it was evident that the relevance of factors depends on the location and crop, and that generalizations should not be made. Although the data included in yield gap analysis also depends on the objective, knowledge of explaining factors, and methods applied, data availability is a major limiting factor. Therefore, bottom-up data collection approaches (e.g., crowdsourcing) involving agricultural communities can provide alternatives to overcome this limitation and improve yield gap analysis. Chapter 3 explores the motivations of farmers to participate in citizen science. Building on motivational factors identified from previous citizen science studies, a questionnaire based methodology was developed which allowed the analysis of motivational factors and their relation to farmers’ characteristics. Using the developed questionnaire, semi-structured interviews were conducted with smallholder farmers in three countries (Ethiopia, Honduras and India). The results show that for Indian farmers a collectivistic type of motivation (i.e., contribute to scientific research) was more important than egoistic and altruistic motivations. For Ethiopian and Honduran farmers an egoistic intrinsic type of motivation (i.e., interest in sharing information) was most important. Moreover, the majority of the farmers in the three countries indicated that they would like to receive agronomic advice, capacity building and seed innovation as the main returns from the citizen science process. Country and education level were the two most important farmers’ characteristics that explained around 20% of the variation in farmers’ motivations. The results also show that motivations to participate in citizen science are different for smallholders in agriculture compared to other sectors. For example fun has appeared to be an important egoistic intrinsic factor to participate in other citizen science projects, the smallholder farmers involved in this research valued ‘passing free time’ the lowest. Chapter 4 investigates the factors that determine farmers to adopt mobile technology for agricultural data collection. To identify the factors, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) model was employed and extended with additional constructs of trust, mastery-approach goals and personal innovativeness in information technology. As part of the research, we setup data collection platforms using open source applications (Frontline SMS and Ushahidi) and farmers provided their farm related information using SMS for two growing seasons. The sample for this research consisted of group of farmers involved in a mobile SMS experiment (n=110) and another group of farmers which was not involved in a mobile SMS experiment (n=110), in three regions of Ethiopia. The results from the structural equation modelling showed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, price value and trust were the main factors that influence farmers to adopt mobile SMS technology for agricultural data collection. Among these factors, trust is the strongest predictor of farmer’s intention to adopt mobile SMS. This clearly indicates that in order to use the citizen science approach in the agricultural domain, establishing a trusted relationship with the smallholder farming community is crucial. Given that performance expectancy significantly predicted farmer’s behavioural intention to adopt mobile SMS, managers of agricultural citizen science projects need to ensure that using mobile SMS for agricultural data collection offers utilitarian benefits to the farmers. The importance of effort expectancy on farmer’s intention to adopt mobile SMS clearly indicates that mobile phone software developers need to develop easy to use mobile applications. Chapter 5 demonstrates the results of synergetic use of remote sensing and crowdsourcing for estimating and explaining crop yields at the field level. Sesame production on medium and large farms in Ethiopia was used as a case study. To evaluate the added value of the crowdsourcing approach to improve the prediction of sesame yield using remote sensing, two independent models based on the relationship between vegetation indices (VIs) and farmers reported yield were developed and compared. The first model was based on VI values extracted from all available remote sensing imagery acquired during the optimum growing period (hereafter optimum growing period VI). The second model was based on VI values extracted from remote sensing imagery acquired after sowing and before harvest dates per field (hereafter phenologically adjusted VI). To select the images acquired between sowing and harvesting dates per field, farmers crowdsourced crop phenology information was used. Results showed that vegetation indices derived based on farmers crowdsourced crop phenology information had a stronger relationship with sesame yield compared to vegetation indices derived based on the optimum growing period. This implies that using crowdsourced information related to crop phenology per field used to adjust the VIs, improved the performance of the model to predict sesame yield. Crowdsourcing was further used to identify the factors causing the yield variability within a field. According to the perception of farmers, overall soil fertility was the most important factor explaining the yield variability within a field, followed by high presence of weeds. Chapter 6 discusses the main findings of this thesis. It draws conclusions about the main research findings in each of the research questions addressed in the four main chapters. Finally, it discusses the necessary additional steps (e.g., data quality, sustainability) in a broader context that need to be considered to utilize the full potential of innovative data collection approaches for agricultural citizen science.</p

M4D: how the mobile phone becomes a tool for development Focus on the Republic of Kenya

This paper gives a glance into Africa's mobile revolution and what it represents, for not only is the mobile phone leading to a transformation of the technological landscape but also of African society as a whole, as well as its economy. The paper tells the story of how the mobile phone empowers Africans to tackle their development challenges, acting as an enabler to find innovative and locally relevant solutions to long-standing issues. It highlights the mobile phone's impact on Africa's important economic sectors of health, education and agriculture, as well as finance -through mobile money. Focusing on Kenya, one of Africa's most advanced countries in terms of information and communication technologies, illustrates the mobile revolution's full extent, with its opportunities and its challenges

Human Centered Design for Development

This paper describes the challenges faced in ICTD by reviewing the lessons learned from a project geared at improving the livelihood of marginal farmers in India through wireless sensor networks. Insufficient user participation, lack of attention to user needs, and a primary focus on technology in the design process led to unconvinced target users who were not interested in the new technology. The authors discuss benefits that ICTD can reap from incorporating human-centered design (HCD) principles such as holistic user involvement and prototypes to get buy-in from target users and foster support from other stakeholders and NGOs. The study’s findings suggest that HCD artifacts can act as boundary objects for the different internal and external actors in development projects

Engaging Pregnant Women in Kenya with a Hybrid Computer-Human SMS Communication System

A growing body of HCI4D research studies the use of SMS communication to deliver health and information services to underserved populations. This paper contributes a novel dimension to this field of study by examining if a hybrid computer-human SMS system can engage pregnant women in Kenya in health-related communication. Our approach lever- ages the different strengths of both the computer and the human. The computer automates the bulk-sending of personalized messages to patients, allowing the human to read patients’ replies and respond to those in need of attention. Findings from a 12-month deployment with 100 women show that our approach is capable of engaging the majority of participants in health-related conversations. We show that receiving messages from the system triggers participant communication and the amount of communication increases as participants approach their expected due date. In addition, analysis of participants’ messages shows that they often contain sensitive health information conveyed through a complex mixture of languages and ‘txting’ abbreviations, all of which highlight the benefits of including a human in the workflow. Our findings are relevant for HCI researchers and practitioners interested in understanding or engaging underserved populations

Periodismo ciudadano: evolución positiva de la comunicación

María Luz Congosto es autora de un estudio en el que se basan los autores para la elaboración de algunas partes de la obra.Medios tradicionales, redes sociales, reporteros, nuevos medios, blogueros, periodismo ciudadano, prensa en papel, contenido generado por el usuario, medios ciudadanos... Todo está cambiando en la era digital: la industria musical, la cinematográfica, la manera de informar e informarnos y, cómo no, los medios de comunicación. Conocer y saber qué está cambiando en este nuevo ecosistema mediático es imprescindible para innovar y afrontar esos retos con ciertas garantías. En este libro nos adentramos en el periodismo ciudadano, en la participación de los usuarios como generadores de información, convertidos ahora en creadores de sus propios medios(ciudadanos). La antigua audiencia pasiva ahora es activa: los usuarios se pueden informar unos a otros, tanto a nivel global como en los ámbitos más locales, haciendo un uso intensivo de las herramientas tecnológicas que tienen a su alcance, a través del gran canal de distribución que es Internet. Esta es una de las razones por las que los ciudadanos, implicados en tareas informativas (periodistas ciudadanos), se han convertido en el quinto poder, en los vigilantes del cuarto poder