report - Crowd Sourced City
Contents
1. Introduction Background The city of Brownsville is located in the center of Brooklyn NY with a population of approximately 117 000 The highest concentration of New York City Housing Authority NYCHA public housing developments in all of NYC are located in Brownsville and some of the highest violent crime drug use and poverty rates in NYC are associated with this neighborhood Over 50 of the community s residents live below the poverty line and the unemployment rate is an astonishing 32 In light of increasing crime in their community residents and other community members of Brownsville have begun to meet regularly to discuss the issues they face and how to improve their quality of life and feel safe again Part of this initiative is collaboration with the Brownsville Partnership BP a non profit organization whose mission is to create a safer and stronger community in Brownsville Community Solutions the umbrella organization of the BP works to prevent homelessness in communities where the risk of becoming homeless is great due to high rates of unemployment poor health crime family violence low educational achievement and overcrowding Since its installation in the community in 2008 the BP has become a resource for thousands of residents by providing access to job training better education opportunities for youth and adults healthier food and social assistance programs Now a trusted establishment in th2. Ageregated data on crime TI ot Vicihla In this add edit box you can change the Category Name Description the color of the marker a color spectrum pops up when you click on the entry field below Color and the Parent Category Currently all of the categories are Top Level Categories You can change this here and make a category a subcategory by changing the Parent Category If you want to have an image icon for a category you can upload the image on this page as well When you have made all the changes click on Save 18 To add a new category simply click on the Add button above the list of categories and the same box that appeared when you clicked on Edit before will appear only this time with none of the entry boxes filled out Add Edit Category Name Description Color Parent Category Top Level Category 4 f 2 P Tr m bda a 4 ategory argatiora image icon her Aucun fichier choisi Community Events Edit Visible Delete Current events within the commurtity COMM Aggregated data on crn Streetlights E rerthoni mi wrine Hidden m Eg Visible m re E I3 tt IJ tt Designate a Category Name Description Color and Parent Category You can also add an associated image icon but this is optional Make sure to click Save before leaving the page Once you save the new category will be added to the list
3. com bvilleloop com admin username admin password admin 2 Access messages sent via text email and twitter All reports that were not posted on the website are received as messages From the admin site you can classify them as reports and localize them on the website s Brownsville map ES FAQ s Forum The Brownsville Loop Manage Your Public Listing Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons SMS Email Twitter Inbox DELETE SPAM NOT SPAM Mother Gaston and Blake 2011 12 01 Create a Report Delete 13473835865 2011 12 01 View Report Delete On the top menu select Messages The page that opens will show all messages received by text message in order by the time received By selecting Reporters you can view the messages sorted by who sent them Each reporter will be listed by their phone number with the number of messages they sent listed below The Brownsville Loop Wiki FAQs Forum Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons SMS Email Twitter Inbox Mother Gaston and Blake 2011 12 04 Create a Report Delete 2011 12 01 View Report Delete Messages sent via email and twitter can be accessed by selecting Email and Twitter on the menu When either of these options are selected the messages will be displayed in the same way all messages received in order by date You can always choose to view the messages sorted by reporter by selecting Reporter on
4. disclosure you want All other form fields on the report page are optional Click Save Report or Save and Close in the bottom left corner and the report will be posted on the map The same procedure holds for messages received via twitter and email 3 Access reports made on bvilleloop com and the Ushahidi smartphone app Reports made on the website and through the phone app arrive in the Reports section of the admin page rather than the Messages page They require approval by the administrator before being made public on the site The Brownsville Loop whi FAQs Forum Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons View Re ports Create Report Comments Download Reports Upload Reports Show all Street imt Out 2011 12 01 Approve vert y we te Edit Log i4 There ts a light out 2911 11 15 Appro Verily eiet Meri Let out and Th was dark wa cared More TaY When you select Reports on the top menu the page that opens will list all reports both approved and visible on the map and awaiting approval not visible on the map You also have the option to Verify reports but reports both verified and unverified will be visible on the map This is simply a further measure to confirm classify the reports You can approve reports either by checking the box to the left of the report and selecting Approve on the above menu or by simply selecting Approve to the right of the report If Ap
5. form fields select Submit on the bottom of the page SUBMIT A REPORT Brownsville Partnership HOME KEEP US IN THE LOOP STAY IN THE LOOP WHO WE ARE THOUGHTS Submit a New Report gume Report Title a wu T a Description a g j 4 m a Betr h Date amp Time Today at 12 31 pm Modiity Oste g ty j ss b 7 200 m s i i Stu 9 Taw Categories L Cenrunty Evet Warg oa Oriara oropan ci Gospa X i sy Sodhi City State and or Country Refine Location Name Last Name News Source Link Email External Video Link Upload Photos mider Aucun fichier choisi 6 Submitting comments If you want to comment on reports you must do this from the public site bvilleloop com not from the admin site On the homepage of the site either click on the report in the Reports box below the map or click on the marker on the map and then on the title of the report that pops up the image below shows the pop up box that has been displayed after clicking on the marker KEEP US IN THE LOOP STAY IN THE LOOP WHO WE ARE THOUGHTS FILTERS PPO amp CATEGORY FILTER pan he H cab a C ALL CATEGORIES u von er E WALKING There is a light out STREETLIGHTS mi array _ r ovn Ou 3 boai A a How to Report 1 By sending a message to 13125607937 sending an email to owns oie i a Arman Ded com o U oe a a tweet with he hasmag s 4 By tiling fis fom 2 Goren ortua G
6. into three categories unique visitors visits and pageviews definitions of these three terms is displayed on the bottom left corner In the menu above the graph you can select the date range that you want statistics for You can simply select 1 Month 3 Months Six Months or All or you can specify dates by either entering the date ranges in the fields to the right or by clicking on the calendar icons next to the entry fields 12 2 Report statistics You will most likely be interested in gathering statistics on the reports that have been submitted There are a number of different ways that you can do so The first is by selecting Report Stats on the top menu Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Statistics Visitor Summary Country Breakdown Report Stats Category Impact Report Punchcard Reports Statistics Choose a date range 1 Month 3 Months onths A 2011 11 15 E Se a date rana Reports Categories Reports Status t EE Verified 0 BB Anoroved 2 GE Unverified 2 GS Unapproved 0 gi ion g The first chart on this page compares the types of reports that you are getting by category In this instance since all of the reports are related to streetlights the pie chart is 100 streetlight reports The two smaller charts below compare verified versus unverified and approved versus unapproved reports Again in this image 100 of the reports are unverified so the circle on the left is entir
7. it to enhance community initiatives Figure 4 Anticipated Project Maintenance Costs Modem 20 This modem is needed to receive texts to be managed and sorted on the computer in FrontlineSMS It needs to stay plugged in to the computer in order for the texts received to be compiled in the program and for the automatic response to be sent Any texts received while FrontlineSMS is not running or the computer is off would be uploaded into the program upon restart of the program Data plan 30 month This plan would allow for unlimited sending and receiving of texts FrontlineSMS free This program is free to download and install on any computer The rules we create could be uploaded to the computer that you end up installing the program on Domain name 10 year We purchased the domain name bvilleloop com and paid for hosting for the year Both of these purchases will expire in one year on November 15 2012 At this point in order to keep the website operating you will need to pay another 10 for the domain name and you will need to pay for hosting normally around 5 10 month If you already have a server on which you can host the site this additional monthly cost will not be necessary The overall goal is to allow the BP to capture what is taking place at the community level in a formal way to then quantify and use for advocacy We hope that these tools will facilitate the use of the Loop and help the BP in community safety
8. newsfeeds simply fill out the entry form fields in the Add Edit box at the bottom of the page 20 3 Adding deleting editing bvilleloop com emails phone numbers and twitter accounts To update the email connected to the website select Settings on the upper right corner of the admin page and Email in the subheading This is the email that the public can email messages reports to By setting up the mail server all messages reports sent to this email will be forwarded to the bvilleloop com admin page Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Website Map SMS Email Clean URLs HTTPS API Facebook Mail Server Settings SAVE SET CANCEL TEST SETTINGS In order to receive reports by email please input your email account settings below Please note that emails will be received at your site email address brownsvilleloop gmail com so your settings have to be associated with this email address Mail Server Username brownsvillelbop gmail com Some servers require a complete email address Mail Server Password Email account password Mail Server Port 995 Common ports 25 110 995 Gmail POP3 SSL 993 Gmail IMAP SSL Mail Server Host pop gmail com Examples mail yourwebsite com imap gmail com pop gmail com Mail Server Type pop Examples pop3 imap Mail Server SSL support Enable or disable SSL connections Update any appropriate entry fields and click Save Settings in the upper
9. of categories and you can change the hidden visible settings as well as the order in which it appears in the list of categories as described before 19 2 Adding deleting newsfeeds To change the feeds connected to the newsfeed box displayed on the bottom of bvilleloop com select News Feeds on the Manage page The page that opens will list all news feeds currently displayed Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Categories Blocks Forms Sharing Pages News Feeds Layers Scheduler Public Listing Actions Badges Feeds Brownsville Facebook View items i Edit Visible Delet http www facebook cam feeds page shptid 808164102378 formaterss20 Brownsville Partnership Blog View Items 25 Edit Visible Delete teo roe ert aes aL g 4 Twitter View items 1 Edit Visible Delete httg api twitter com 1 statuses user_tinetine rss screen_name browrswilicloop 1 Pages 1 Add Edit Feed Name Feed URL Just like on the Categories page from this list you can change whether the feeds are visible or hidden delete feeds or edit them by selecting edit When you select Edit the information for that news feed will appear in the Add Edit box below the newsfeed list Here you can change the Feed Name displayed on the website and the Feed URL the RSS feed connected to the news source Make any necessary edits and make sure to click Save before leaving the page To add new
10. right corner You can also test the new settings before you click Save Setting by clicking Test Settings 21 To update the phone number connected to the site through which all text message reports are received select SMS on the subheading of the Settings page Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Website Map SMS Email Clean URLs HTTPS API Facebook SMS Setup Options SAVE SETTINGS CANCEL Default Sending Provider Select One 4 Enter all the phone numbers that users can use to send text messages into your system below Phone 1 13125607937 Phone 2 Phone 3 CANCEL The phone number shown in this image is the number of the modem used during the length of the Columbia class project and will be disconnected at the end of the semester If you wish to set up an SMS reporting system enter the phone number in one of the entry fields on this page and Save Settings 22 The other means of receiving messages and reports is through twitter Any tweets that contain BrowsvilleLoop will be directly sent to the bvilleloop com admin page for administrative approval described previously To change the twitter account connected to the website click on Settings The page that opens is the general Website settings Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons PS PI Website map SMS Facebook Clean URLs H Email Site Settings Site Name The Brownsville Lo
11. the menu For each message listed the message sender date and actions you can take are displayed If Create a Report is listed this means that the message has not yet been classified as a report and has not yet been placed on the bvilleloop com map If View Report is displayed instead this message has already been classified as a report and posted on the map To create a report select Create a Report This will open a new page with the default report form including a map of Brownsville on the right side of the page The Brownsville Loop Dashboard Reports Messages View Reports Create Report comments Download Reports Upload Reports New Report Title Description Modify Date Today at 09 01 pm Categories t Show Menage t Mody Sate t New Category Stats Addons Incident Location wa o 2 City State and or Country News Source Link External Video Link Refine Location Name Wki f AQ s Forum Manage Your Public Listing b 40 6656652 gaude 73906145 i ponhe Each report must be given a title and a description You can also modify the date of the report if relevant and if included in the message and the category that it is in on this page To localize the report move the red place marker on the map to the appropriate location You must also Refine Location Name This can be as specific as you want based on the information included in the message and how much
12. D Aapa Reports from the map listed in chronological order Official amp mainstream news View More displaying the report details HOME KEEP US IN THE LOOP STAY IN THE LOOP WHO WE ARE THOUGHTS Street Light Out Edit UNVERIFIED pane db Vb bd a Description pe There a street light Peci bility El Comments t Nupur Dec 2 2011 a saw hat light cut amp t KI 5 ment Rating tr i Leave A Comment Administrator __ p an Ih Comments bor n ortoyats n GU Cabge Additional Reports There is a light out Security Code LAFA To submit a comment simply write it in the Leave a Comment box that appears on the left enter the security code below it and click Submit Comment 10 Report statistics 1 Accessing site statistics There are a variety of ways that you can get statistics about site usage and reports from the admin page To do so click on Stats on the top menu Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Statistics Visitor Summary Country Breakdown Report Stats Category Impact Report Punchcard Visitor Summary Choose a date range 1 Month 3Months amp Month All 2011 11 07 m 2011 12 06 5 o E r E pa Unique Visitors Visits Pageviews Glossary Unique Visitors Unique Visitors The number of individuals coming to your deployment Urique Visitors are determined using The first page that will open shows the statistics of visitors to the site broken down
13. and health efforts The Loop will serve as a resource for the BP and the community facilitating stewardship promoting community engagement and empowerment and ultimately lead to positive community change Figure 5 Report Statistics for Advocacy 2 Report statistics You will most likely be interested in gathering statistics on the reports that have been submitted There are a number of different ways that you can do so The first is by selecting Report Stats on the top menu Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Statistics Visitor Summary Country Breakdown Report Stats Category Impact Report Punchcard Reports Statistics Choose a dete range 1 Movwth Months GMonths AZ 2011 11 15 m 2011 12 01 Tr t Reports Categories Reports GE Stocttgte 2 Categories Reports Status E vod i m Uveted 2 m Uneoproved 0 or o 00 o GE oo 2 References Community Solutions The Brownsville Partnership 2011 Web Accessed October 2011 http cmtysolutions org projects brownsville partnership Ushahidi 2011 Web Accessed October 2011 http ushahidi com FrontlineSMS 2011 Web Accessed October 2011 http www frontlinesms com 10 the brownsvill 5A User Manual Day to day operations The Brownsville Loop A Brownsville Partnership Initiative Username Password Stay logged in on this computer Log In Forgot your password 1 Log into the admin side of bvilleloop
14. e community the BP staff has remarked that many people have been sharing their frustrations over degraded conditions and diminished public safety in Brownsville Not only are high rates of crime discouraging people from enjoying their neighborhood but poor pedestrian conditions i e no crosswalks in busy intersections also contribute to the fact that people walk less and stay indoors more These informal discussions with community members have been very helpful for the BP staff to understand their concerns but without a formal tool to measure them their ability to effectively advocate for better public safety and take action is limited As a non profit organization the BP has already maximized the capacity of its staff members and has limited financial resources to create an effective tool for advocacy These concerns and objectives were shared with us a group of urban planning graduate students at Columbia University who created a tool called the Brownsville Loop for them as part of our Fall 2011 course Crowd Sourced City Client Needs When Nupur our contact at the BP first took on her position she was tasked with increasing the physical activity levels of Brownsville residents However there are numerous issues that must be addressed before community health can be effectively addressed Given Brownsville s high crime rates uneven and incomplete streets and general lack of safety Nupur understood that community safety wa
15. ely yellow and 100 of the reports have been approved so the circle on the right is entirely green og Just as you were able to do on the previous stats page on the menu above the charts you can select the date range that you are interested in 13 You can also compare the number of reports in each category over time by selecting Category Impact on the top menu Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Statistics Visitor Summary Country Breakdown Report Stats Category Impact Report Punchcard Category Impact Choose a date range 1Month 3Months 6Months AR 2011 11 15 2011 12 01 r s gt m lt T tg y w ew of the reports Oy category ower time Scrol tram iett to ment to see a comparate wew of the Re ports different catesor house ower the graph for more detalis Categories As described on the top of the page that opens this page breaks down the reports by category and indicates the frequency of reports by category In the above image one category is shown streetlights Next to the name of the category are the number of reports in that category and displayed lineally below are the dates of the reports in this case November 15 and December 1 2011 Again to change the date range of the statistics being shown you can select any of the options in the menu bar above or choose a custom date range by either entering the date or clicking on the calendar icons 14 For statistics on when people are subm
16. ery specific locations It would have limited the ability to share more general information about community events and concerns Our focus shifted to utilizing an Ushahidi map and FrontlineSMS Ideally this would allow users to text information and keywords would elicit specific responses 1 e I heard gunshots outside the BRC would receive an appropriate response such as If you are in an emergency situation please call 911 and move to a safe location However the FrontlineSMS software does not enable to use of keyword specific responses and instead uses the first word of the text message as the keyword Unless the community instinctively types the keyword first they would not receive the appropriate response We decided to choose a generic response to all messages instead in order to simplify the communication until an alternative and improved system is in place Our technical skills were limited and adapting the Ushahidi platform for our project was challenging We needed to make the website user friendly and accessible for the BP staff that will manage and implement it in the future In addition the site needs to be time efficient so that it does not consume too much of the staff member s time if people do start using this on a regular basis and sending hundreds of messages daily Data Collection Our original timeline allotted three weeks as a testing period for a focus group comprised of Brownsville community membe
17. es page you are also able to delete categories by clicking on Delete to the right and change categories from being hidden to being visible and vice versa If a category is hidden this means that is only visible to you the administrator but not to the public In the image above you can see that the Crime category is hidden This allows you to gather and store information reports related to crime while not displaying it to the public To change this setting simply click on Visible or Hidden on the right in each row and a window will pop up asking if you want to change this setting If you click on Visible the pop up window will ask if you want to make the category hidden If you click on Hidden the pop up window will ask if you want to make the category visible All other changes to the categories are made by clicking on Edit on the right side of each column 17 When you click on Edit a new box will be displayed above the list of categories as shown below Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Categories Blocks Forms Sharing Pages NewsFeeds Layers Scheduler PublicListing Actions Badges Add Edit Category Name Description Color Parent Category Commu y Evers Curert ewarts witin the con 663300 Top Level Category Category Trarsiations image icon Aucun chier choisi Community Events C Edt Visible Current events within the commurtity Crime Edit Hidden Delete
18. gh interaction with community we believed that we could build some level of trust and willingness to use our product once implemented In addition without properly testing the website before handing it off to BP we wouldn t have the opportunity to respond to feedback and work out technical Issues Although we set up multiple meetings with the community through the BP on two occasions nobody from the community showed up In addition the community did not feel comfortable communicating directly with us when we did attend a meeting among a close knit group of concerned citizens The BP was adamant that they remain our liaison to the community but we found that this resulted in very limited community contact as well as limited feedback We ultimately changed our approach to communicating with the BP and proceeded with our plans rather than relying on feedback from the BP and the Brownsville community Nupur was continuously updated as changes and progress were made Technical Challenges We originally envisioned a system in which signs with location codes would be posted around Brownsville People could then text information and the location code to allow for precise information mapping However this system was not possible as the BP does not have the legal permission to post signs or placards around the community In addition the system may not be fully understood by the community and would have required people to only send texts from v
19. ion the site provides space for Twitter feeds or links to other news sources which is another way to keep everyone in the loop which is what led us to name the final website The Brownsville Loop Figure 1 How the Loop Works ail Verizon 11 15 PM 50 m Messages 13 Loop Edit Call FaceTime Contact There is Dec 14 2011 11 14 PM light Thanks for keeping BP in gt out the loop Please tell us the A location of your concern if feel you haven t already s Check out your posting on unsafe i o ee See something you Text the want to tell us Brownsville oc o about LOOP We ll let you know we got your text WA abee Then check out your posting on j Sa ay ed bvilleloop com And see what others Boer p E UNSAFE STREET IlI mn i a are saying too WHAT S GOING ON ar i Map Gata 2097 Google thre a S On the Brownsville Loop site the home page is linked to Brownsville s Twitter feed and Facebook page aiding even more in the two way communication between BP and the community People can share information with The Brownsville Loop in four ways text message email direct submission on the site or via Twitter These postings once approved by BP will be located on a map of Brownsville that will be publicly visible Comment sections are provided for each message to encourage people to elaborate on what others post should they have additional information or other opini
20. itting reports most often select Report Punchcard on the menu bar Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Statistics Visitor Summary Country Breakdown Report Stats Category Impact Report Punchcard Report Punchcard The y axis displays the day of the week on which reports were submitted and the x axis displays the time of day For example here the two equally sized dots are showing that an equal number of people submit reports on Tuesdays around 1pm and on Thursdays around 8pm The larger the dot in relation to the other points the more frequent the submissions at that day time 15 Changing site settings 1 Adding deleting changing report categories You can add delete and change the report categories all from the admin page Simply click Manage in the top left The page that opens automatically will be the Categories page Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons Categories Blocks Forms Sharing Pages Newsfeeds Layers Scheduler Public Listing Actions Badges Add Edit Visible Delet m 4 Community Events Crime Ageresated data on crime Streetlights Visible Delete t Hidden Delet Trusted Reports Delete Special Category Visible Delete m Q Eg g To change the order in which the categories are displayed on the website scroll your mouse over the area to the left of each category name An arrow will appear allowing you to move each category From this main Categori
21. nstalling the program on Domain name 10 year We purchased the domain name bvilleloop com and paid for hosting for the year Both of these purchases will expire in one year on November 15 2012 At this point in order to keep the website operating you will need to pay another 10 for the domain name and you will need to pay for hosting normally around 5 10 month If you already have a server on which you can host the site this additional monthly cost will not be necessary 24 Passwords OO ii oe fo gmail com Brownsvilleloop twitter com Brownsvilleloop 25 For help any further questions check out http wiki ushahidi com or email Danielle Dowler ded2123 columbia edu Norabelle Greenberger norabelle rose gmail com Aisha Qamar aisha qamar gmail com Stephanie Servetz stephservetz gmail com 26
22. o operate and maintain and little day to day maintenance to keep it running The Solution The Brownsville Loop Given the needs of the community and the BP we determined that data could be best visualized and contextualized using the Ushahidi platform This form of crowd sourcing information was born out of a need for information sharing in a crisis situation In fact it was developed as a crisis mapping application to facilitate the connections between responders and victims during disaster type situations Although we didn t want to create exactly a crisis map the platform was a perfect fit for the goals of this project After reviewing some of the Ushahidi based websites such as the map created during for Haitians in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake we realized how diverse the site was and how pertinent its applications were Even though in our case BP will control the site content there is a rather immediate visible response when someone shares information Using a Frontline SMS texting database text messages sent to a designated phone number get redirected to the website It is a relatively user friendly program for people without advanced technical skills so this was a good option for a non profit organization with limited resources Ultimately the user s message will be located on a map It will provide statistical information for the client and it will allow other people to read and comment on what was shared In addit
23. ons about the topic There is a place on the site for feedback as well so if anyone has suggestions on how to improve the site or other ideas they can send them directly to the BP administration Figure 2 Crowdsourcing Data for Advocacy Partnership e BRC 2011 12 08 Approve Verify Delete e best after sc ctivities ki g 2 amp is Dirty 3 stop 2011 12 08 Approve Verify Delete e 3 train the o y ck y Avi B c z Finally the site is a very low maintenance application that only requires one person to check messages daily and post on the site Considering that this is not a crisis map and that daily is not expected to be extremely high this is a reasonable option at this time The site is also very cost effective There is an up front cost of 20 for a modem that is necessary to receive and manage incoming text messages for the website There is an annual fee of 10 for the website s domain name And there is a monthly fee of 30 for an unlimited text messaging data plan sending and receiving Challenges Brownsville Partnership and the Community Challenges The primary goal of the project was to develop a tool for Brownsville through a collaborative process with the community We anticipated regular meetings with BP and the community in order to obtain ideas and feedback for our product not only to determine the direction our project would take but also to refine it using community input Throu
24. op Site Tagline A Brownsville Partnership Initiative a Pe ee ee CANCEL Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Twitter Search Terms For each twitter search term that you put in this entry box separated by commas all tweets containing these terms will be forwarded as messages to the bvilleloop com inbox and you can then create reports from these messages as described earlier Once you have Save Settings either on the bottom or top of the page Google Analytics Twitter Search Terms BrownsvilleLoop Hashtags Separate with commas Akismet Key Prevent comment spam using Akismet from Automattic You can get a free API key by registering for a WordPress com user account CANCEL 23 made all necessary changes select Anticipated Project Maintenance Costs Modem 20 This modem is needed to receive texts to be managed and sorted on the computer in FrontlineSMS It needs to stay plugged in to the computer in order for the texts received to be compiled in the program and for the automatic response to be sent Any texts received while FrontlineSMS is not running or the computer is off would be uploaded into the program upon restart of the program Data plan 30 month This plan would allow for unlimited sending and receiving of texts FrontlineSMS free This program is free to download and install on any computer The rules we create could be uploaded to the computer that you end up i
25. op com admin or on the public page bvilleloop com To submit a report from the admin page select Reports on the top menu and Create Report on the menu below The Brownsville Loop Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons View Reports Create Report Comments Download Reports Upload Reports New Report Form Incident Location Title dp w Qo Description a a Modify Date Today at 12 26 pm Categories City State and or Country Refine Location Name News Source Link External Video Link i beilas Mh ede ee Wik FAQ s Forum REPORT w 40 COS6658 Loyd ponhe Manage Your Public Lis ng CANCEL 73 506 1454 Wider map a ee The page that opens is the same as the one that is used to create a report from a message You must specify a title give a description select a category and localize the report with both the marker on the map and by refining the location name You also have the option of adding links to news sources videos and images in the bottom right corner When you have finished creating the report select either Save Report or Save and Close in the bottom left corner If you choose to submit a report on the public website bvilleloop com select Keep Us in the Loop on the top menu or Submit a Report in the upper right corner You will be directed to a page very similar to the admin Create Report page When you have filled out all necessary
26. prove is green the report has already been approved If it is blue it has yet to be approved If you click on a green Approve you will unapprove the report Reports unlike messages are already geolocated by the reporter on the map The reporter has already completed the form asking for title description category and location information so you do not need to fill out the Create a Report form necessary for messages You can edit this information though by clicking on the report title in the list This will bring you to the Create a Report form and you will then be able to make changes just as you did for the messages 4 Deleting Unapproving report comments Comments are automatically approved when posted online If there are any comments you want to delete you can do so from the admin page The Brownsville Loop Manage Your Publice Listing Dashboard Reports Messages Stats Addons View Reports Create Report Comments Download Reports Upload Reports Show al Nupur 2011 12 02 Approved Spam Select Reports from the top heading and Comments from the subheading All comments will be listed To view the comment and the report that it is in reference to you can click on each individual report By selecting Unapprove or Delete the comment will be removed from the site 5 Submitting reports You can submit your own reports to the map either from the admin page bvillelo
27. rs Unfortunately Al Sharpton was in Brooklyn at the time the focus group was scheduled and therefore we were unable to get a testing group for the site Subsequent attempts to organize a focus group were unsuccessful and we therefore began prepopulating the map to provide examples of the type of information that can be shared on the Loop Testing the Loop within our group we found that the bvilleloop gmail com address we created is not compatible with Ushahidi The new email address loop bvilleloop com was then linked and now the emails are able to go directly to the site The BP staff has slowly started to text and we hope to see an increase in the overall number of reports on the site Figure 3 Data Collected from bvilleloop com GB What s Going On 0 Reports Reports Categories Me Streetlights out Mm Unsafe street E Not looking so hot Wa Unsafe E Safe me Places to Check Out NM u NAUA 22 Lessons Learned What We Would Do Differently As previously discussed there was limited feedback from the BP and community members which was challenging for us as we developed the Loop Although we were persistent in our attempts to meet with the community to gain insight and input we ultimately were unable to do so Through our interactions with the BP we now know that we could have taken alternative routes to receiving feedback and testing the Loop If presented with the opportunity to start this projec
28. s of the utmost concern The BP presented a vision for a tool that would be a website used to track incidents of crime in Brownsville The organization felt that official crime statistics recorded by the police were much lower than the true unreported or undocumented numbers An additional desire BP expressed for the community was access to public health opportunities such as safe walking paths and fresh farmer s markets As a crowd sourcing class they envisioned an application that could gather information from individuals about where they felt the safest or the most unsafe and get community suggestions on how to create healthier public places where people could gather Project Goals Through numerous conversations with the client we determined that a sort of crisis map devoted solely to the collection of crime information had the potential to be detrimental to the Brownsville community psyche and image We then shifted our focus to creating an online community space where people could share information about what s happening in Brownsville The focus would be on information sharing similar to how Facebook encourages people to keep friends informed of what s happening in each other s lives In Brownsville this would include information such as the best restaurants in town planned community events places where public safety is a concern as well as crime reports We would not publish all submitted information but guard the more sen
29. sitive ones i e crime reports for BP to use for statistics gathering Thinking to the future the public safety information they receive would equip them with a way to formalize what people are already telling them so they could more successfully advocate on the community s behalf when speaking to City and State agencies The more immediate purpose though would be to keep the BP informed about news in the neighborhood and encourage a new form of community interaction While developing the website there were a number of considerations Some of the information BP sought to gather 1s very sensitive so it was imperative that the language of the site encourages people to share information and not snitch on others in the community Therefore anonymous input and control over site content were major factors stressed by the client Although many residents in the community have blackberries and other smart phones one requirement of the site was to provide multiple ways in which one could share information such as directly on the site or via email Finally since the website would be promoted as an information sharing tool it was also important to the client that there was room for feedback and comments or suggestions from the community on others reporting or other general information shared on the site With limited resources within the BP organization it was also important that the site was low maintenance requiring little to no money t
30. t over we would have performed outreach to youth groups and other community members earlier Rather than relying on the BP as a link to the community we believe that we could have taken more initiative in researching and identifying stakeholders and reaching out to different groups Successes The Loop 1s a low maintenance low cost tool for the BP to crowdsource community information particularly crime information This allows the organization to formalize Brownsville community grievances in order to better advocate on their behalf Through the development of the Loop we learned how to utilize and adapt the Ushahidi platform as well FrontlineSMS to set up a text message database It was helpful for us to identify and integrate different methods of contacting the Loop email BP Twitter text website iPhone app These different methods are helpful for the community because they help the Loop reach different community members based on their preferred method of use Future Steps We are providing the BP with a detailed user manual which will allow staff members to update and maintain the website and the associated accounts BP Twitter Loop email Ushahidi account etc The maintenance requirements are explicitly stated as are the costs for upkeep We have also included instructions for the management of site statistics which can be used for advocacy The BP can feasibly implement and integrate the Loop into existing programming and use
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