Erik Hersman: How texting helped Kenyans survive crisis

翻译人员: 尤 卓玲 校对人员: Qu Wei

So I'm here to tell you a story of success from Africa.

在这里，我要跟大家分享一个在非洲的成功故事。

A year and a half ago,

一年半以前

four of the five people who are full time members

在这里的5个人

at Ushahidi,

是Ushahidi的专职委员

which means "testimony" in Swahili,

“Ushahidi”在斯瓦希利语里的意思是“证据”

were TED Fellows.

其中4个人是TED的同道中人

A year ago in Kenya we had post-election violence.

一年前在肯尼亚的一次选举后发生了一起暴力事件

And in that time we prototyped and built,

而在那个时候我们利用短短三天

in about three days, a system that would allow

建造了一个系统平台的雏形

anybody with a mobile phone

这个系统平台允许任何人通过手机

to send in information and reports on what was happening around them.

发信息和报告那些发生在他们周围的事情

We took what we knew about Africa,

我们把我们所认识的非洲

the default device,

默认装置

the mobile phone, as our common denominator,

手机，作为我们的共同点

and went from there.

信息就是来源于那里

We got reports like this.

我们收到这样类似的报告

This is just a couple of them from January 17th, last year.

这只是在去年1月17日众多短信里的几条

And our system was rudimentary. It was very basic.

那时候我们的系统平台发展还未成熟，非常基本的

It was a mash-up that used data that we collected from people,

我们从人民那里收集数据，这是一个混合模式

and we put it on our map.

然后我们把它标在在地图上

But then we decided we needed to do something more.

但是那时我们意识到我们需要做更多东西

We needed to take what we had built

我们需要更好地利用这个已经建立

and create a platform out of it so that it could be used elsewhere in the world.

和创造好的平台，以便它能够在世界其他地方中应用

And so there is a team of developers

于是产生了一个开发人员的团队

from all over Africa, who are part of this team now --

现在，团队成员有来自非洲各地

from Ghana, from Malawi, from Kenya.

来自加纳、马拉维和肯尼亚

There is even some from the U.S.

甚至有一部分是来自美国的

We're building for smartphones, so that it can be used in the developed world,

我们正在开发智能手机，以便于它不仅能够在发达国家里使用

as well as the developing world.

也能在发展中国家里使用

We are realizing that this is true.

我们渐渐意识到这是正确的

If it works in Africa then it will work anywhere.

如果它在非洲管用的话，那么它在任何地方都管用

And so we build for it in Africa first

于是我们先在非洲建立它

and then we move to the edges.

然后再向外发展

It's now been deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

现在已经在刚果民主共和国做好系统的部署

It's being used by NGOs all over East Africa,

东非很多的非政府组织也有使用

small NGOs doing their own little projects.

小型的非政府组织做他们自己的小项目

Just this last month it was deployed by

就在上个月，我们把这系统应用到

Al Jazeera in Gaza.

加沙的半岛电视台

But that's actually not what I'm here to talk about.

但是实际上这不是我在这里要讲的东西

I'm here to talk about the next big thing,

我在这里要谈论另一件重要事情

because what we're finding out is that

因为我们发现

we have this capacity to report

我们有能力

eyewitness accounts of what's going on in real time.

根据目击者所叙述的真实情况进行实时报道

We're seeing this in events like Mumbai recently,

就像最近发生在孟买的几起事件让我们意识到这点

where it's so much easier to report now

现在在那里，报道消息比隐瞒消息

than it is to consume it.

变得容易多了

There is so much information; what do you do?

有这么多的信息，你要怎么做呢？

This is the Twitter reports for over three days

这是三天以来Twitter的消息

just covering Mumbai.

仅仅关于孟买地区的消息

How do you decide what is important?

你如何决定哪一条消息才是重要的呢？

What is the veracity level of what you're looking at?

而你所看到的消息，它们的真实性又有多高呢？

So what we find is that there is this

我们发现

great deal of wasted crisis information

充斥着大量多余的危机信息

because there is just too much information for us to

因为对于我们来说存在着太多的信息

actually do anything with right now.

需要马上处理

And what we're actually really concerned with

而实际上我们真正关注的

is this first three hours.

是头三个小时

What we are looking at is the first three hours.

我们在头三个小时所注意到的

How do we deal with that information that is coming in?

我们如何处理那些流进的信息呢？

You can't understand what is actually happening.

你不可能知道到底正在发生什么事情

On the ground and around the world

无论是在现场还是世界各地的

people are still curious,

人们都是很好奇的

and trying to figure out what is going on. But they don't know.

并尝试去了解清楚事情的进展。然而他们并不知情。

So what we built of course, Ushahidi,

那么当然在Ushahidi我们所建立的

is crowdsourcing this information.

正是要把这些信息人肉资源化

You see this with Twitter, too. You get this information overload.

你在Twitter上看到的情况也是一样的。你得到超负荷的信息。

So you've got a lot of information. That's great.

那么你得到了许多资信。那实在太好了。

But now what?

但是现在接下来呢？

So we think that there is something interesting we can do here.

于是我们想到我们能够做一些有趣的事情

And we have a small team who is working on this.

我们有一个小团队做这方面的工作

We think that we can actually create

我们觉得我们实际上能够创造

a crowdsourced filter.

一个人肉资源过滤器

Take the crowd and apply them to the information.

吸纳这些群众以及把他们应用到信息上

And by rating it and by rating

然后通过把它分等级类别

the different people who submit information,

把提交信息的人分不同等级类别

we can get refined results

我们能够得到精确的结果

and weighted results.

和衡量过的结果

So that we have a better understanding

以致我们有一个更好的了解

of the probability of something being true or not.

这些信息的真实程度

This is the kind of innovation that is,

这种革新

quite frankly -- it's interesting that it's coming from Africa.

十分直接——有趣的是这个革新来自非洲

It's coming from places that you wouldn't expect.

来自一些你意想不到的地方

From young, smart developers.

来自一群年轻有为的开发者

And it's a community around it that has decided to build this.

有一个围绕着它的共同团体决定要建立它

So, thank you very much.

最后，非常感谢大家

And we are very happy to be part of the TED family.

我们很高兴成为TED大家庭的一份子

(Applause)

（鼓掌）