“Collective Crisis Intelligence” is a free online course designed to help organizations and institutions improve disaster response.
With this week's eruption in Grindavik, Iceland, earthquake in Gansu, and flooding in Queensland, we are reminded that this holiday season will be a challenging time for so many experiencing acute and proliferating crises.
That is why I wanted to repost the free course we created on Crisis Collective Intelligence.
With more than a dozen modules created by leading global experts with experience responding to major disasters, such as the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011, the Ebola crisis in 2014, the Zika outbreak in 2016, and the coronavirus response in 2020, the course is designed to help those responding to crisis know how to use technology to mobilize communities.
In each mini-lecture, those who have successfully learned how to mobilize groups of people online to improve their ability to manage in a crisis present the basic concepts and tools to learn, analyze and implement a crowdsourced public response to crucial decision-making processes in a context of emergency. Lectures in the course include
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Introduction: Why Collective Intelligence Matters in a Crisis
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Defining Actionable Problems (led by Matt Andrews, Harvard Kennedy School, U.S.)
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Three Day Evidence Review (led by Peter Bragge, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University, Australia)
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Priorities for Collective Intelligence (led by Geoff Mulgan, University College London, United Kingdom)
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Smarter Crowdsourcing (led by Beth Simone Noveck, The Governance Lab , U.S.)
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Crowdfunding (led by Peter Baeck, Nesta, United Kingdom)
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Secondary Fall-Out (led by Azby Brown, Safecast, Japan)
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Crowdsourcing Surveillance (led by Tolbert Nyenswah, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, U.S./Liberia)
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Crowdsourcing Data (led by Angela Oduor Lungati and Juliana Rotich, Ushahidi, Kenya)
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Mobilizing a Network (led by Sean Bonner, Safecast, Japan)
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Crowdsourcing Scientific Expertise (led by Ali Nouri, Federation of American Scientists, U.S.)
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Chatbots and Social Media Strategies for Crisis (led by Nashin Mahtani, PetaBencana.id, Indonesia)
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Who is Most at Risk? Changes to the Organization That Need to be Made Now (Led By Alex Pentland, Mit Connection Science, U.S.)
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Designing Collaborations for Urgent, Courageous Change (led by Panthea Lee and Chelsey Lepage, Reboot, U.S.)
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Data Visualization and Mapping (led by Kyle Pennell, CARTO, U.S.)
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Innovation Challenges (led by Bradley Busetto, UNDP, Singapore)
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Conclusion: Lessons learned
While the course predates the explosion of generative AI tools, it is not a far leap to understand how AI is only making it easier to do the kinds of crowdsourcing, engagement and chatbot projects described here.
The course explores such innovative uses of crowdsourcing as: Safecast’s implementation of citizen science to gather information about local environmental conditions after the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant; Ushahidi, an on online platform begun in Kenya for crowdsourcing data in support of crisis relief, human rights advocacy, transparency and accountability campaigns; and “Ask a Scientist,” an interactive tool where a network of scientists answer citizens’ questions about COVID-19, developed by the GovLab, Federation of American Scientists and the New Jersey Office of Innovation.
