“Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management: Online Dispute Resolution, Governance, Participation” is the title of a new book edited by Marta Poblet. I recently met Marta in Vienna, Austria during the UN Expert Meeting on Croudsource Mapping organized by UN SPIDER. I’m excited that her book has just launched. The chapters are is divided into 3 sections: Disruptive Applications of Mobile Technologies; Towards a Mobile ODR; and Mobile Technologies: New Challenges for Governance, Privacy and Security.
The book includes chapters by several colleagues of mine like Mike Best on “Mobile Phones in Conflict Stressed Environments”, Ken Banks on “Appropriate Mobile Technologies,” Oscar Salazar and Jorge Soto on “How to Crowdsource Election Monitoring in 30 Days,” Jacok Korenblum and Bieta Andemariam on “How Souktel Uses SMS Technology to Empower and Aid in Conflict-Affected Communities,” and Emily Jacobi on “Burma: A Modern Anomaly.”
My colleagues Jessica Heinzelman, Rachel Brown and myself also contributed one of the chapters. I include the introduction below.
I had long wanted to collaborate on a peer-reviewed chapter in which I could combine my earlier study of conflict resolution theory with my experience in conflict early warning and crisis mapping. See also this earlier blog post on “Crowdsourcing for Peace Mapping.” I’ve been a big fan of Will Ury’s approach ever since coming across his work while at Columbia University back in 2003. Little did I know then that I’d be co-authoring this book chapter with two new stellar colleagues. Rachel has taken much of this thinking and applied it to the real world in her phenomenal project called Sisi ni Amni, or “We Are Peace.” You can follow them on Twitter. Jessica now serves on their Advisory Board.
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On your recommendation I’ve started experimenting with crowdmaps for tracking state violence in Syria. I love what it can do and how it is easier than google maps. However it is also a very frustrating experience as there are almost no instructions on how to use it. For example the Wiki page for how to use crowdmaps has nothing on it. http://wiki.ushahidi.com/doku.php?id=crowdmap
The FAQs are too general.
Using the forums for help means leaving a question and hoping that somebody sees and answers it before I forget what I asked and where.
I don’t really understand the terminology used in the backend. For example, I’ve been fooling around with it for weeks now and I still don’t know what “Layers” and “blocks” are. Why do layers need urls? And how on earth do you use Swiftriver?
Are these problems going to be improved soon because it’s almost unsable without a glossary or manual.
Have you looked through this, particularly the first guide?
http://community.ushahidi.com/resources
There’s also a dedicated Skype chat for tech support, which I’d be more than happy to add you to.
Thanks for replying Patrick. I thought those pdfs were for something else since I’m using the crisis map’s web interface. I’ll have a read of it when I get a chance. Thanks for the offer of Skyping. I’ll probably have to take you up on it sooner or later.
Thanks Patrick. Could you just tell me what Layers and Blocks are and how to use them?
Hi, this is a blog post and comments section on a book on conflict management, not the best place for tech support on Ushahidi. please use this to get tech support:
http://ushahidi.com/contact-us
thanks
Okay thank you for your information ……..