Mapping Conflict in Syria using Data Mining and Crowd Sourcing

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There are so many news articles about companies using and organize their data to better their processes and get better results. However, data can also be used in a political context. This article, http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-03/how-technology-and-data..., talks about how data mining was used to track and analyze the conflict in Syria. It's a case of how technology can make a political impact since it moves away from using only traditional media sources and moves to a system that combines data from traditional sources and adds a social layer that comes from crowdsourcing citizen journalism. It illustrates how an effective organizing system can help for future tracking and measurement of impact in a crisis situation. It also relates to our class discussion about how an efficient system could lead to improving a business process. In this case, it improved the quality of journalism and helped increase awareness of a political issue.

The problem with looking at traditional media sources to best get an idea of the death toll in Syria while the conflict was happening was that the case relied on hear-say and there was human input from conflicting organizations, with conflicting ideologies. This meant that there was no real way of knowing if the numbers being reported by the media were accurate. 

The article talks about Syria Tracker (https://syriatracker.crowdmap.com/main) an objective reporting resource that eventually was the best representation of events during the conflict. This system used a two fold approach - the first was using a custom designed algorithm that is a modified version of a system that scours online reports to track disease. This version instead tracked news articles from around the world to get an estimate of reports of civilian and military deaths. The second method used the principle of crowd sourcing - volunteers were asked to file reports either through using the Twitter hashtag #basharcrimes or by filing online reports on YouTube. The combined approach gave a new perspective and provided a more accurate perspective on the impact of the event. SyriaTracker currently reports 28185 killings, a feat that would not have been possible without this combined approach.

This system helped in ensuring that the various sources of data were organized into a single system that analyzed and created the best depiction of actual events. It also added a human layer that was open and therefore ensured that it was more unbiased that a single media source. Systems like this are going to be the future of the media industry.