Lessons learned from deploying crowdsourced technology for disaster relief during Kerala floods
Ramesh Guntha, Sethuraman N Rao, Avinash Shivdas
Abstract
Crowdsourced technology has been proven as effective communication mechanism in various disaster relief efforts worldwide. It often results in generating actionable and timely information regarding disaster situation, shelters, requirement for and availability of essential supplies such as food, clothing etc. But crowdsourcing has its downsides such as providing potentially inaccurate, incomplete and unverifiable information. We have developed and deployed a crowdsourced disaster relief mobile and web platform during 2018 and 2019 Kerala floods and provided relief to victims in the areas of rescue, medical help, supplies and services. During the deployment we experienced firsthand, both the positive and the negative aspects of crowdsourced approach. In this paper we detail our experiences and analysis and highlight some potential measures to mitigate the challenges in deploying crowdsourced technology.