Newer
Older
# Internews Humanitarian Information Dashboard
The *Humanitarian Information Dashboard (HID)* tracks and analyzes community views and humanitarian related data during emergencies. The platform aggregates feedback from affected communities to give humanitarian responders unprecedented insight into community information needs and make informed decisions that save lives.
In order to analyze feedback from affected communities, local media partners typically track multiple incoming information flows manually. Journalists must monitor, collate, and categorize information from various sources, then structure the feedback in a way that is usable for the design of information programs that can answer expressed needs. This is incredibly resource-intensive, and simply managing and maintaining this process typically precludes any systematic learning of trends, gaps, or insights that reveal themselves throughout the program life cycle.
The Dashboard works with outreach workers from local partner organizations, as well as local journalists, who are trained and mentored by Internews to report rumors and community concerns through an SMS hotline. The Dashboard then aids in the categorization of these information needs by location and topic and the development of verified responses including key members of the government and humanitarian agencies who can assist with further information.
All the information coming into the platform, once categorized and tagged, is then viewable in chart format. The visual aids help identify trends, such as changing information needs, by location and time. The charts can be compiled into reports and sent to local media, response agencies and all relevant organizations that can use this information for the design of more targeted programs.
**The Humanitarian Information Dashboard is in the early stages of development and is released here for the purposes of testing, contribution and review. This current version of the software is not recommended for deployment particularly in a humanitarian crisis or emergency or if the users, content and analysis could be deemed sensitive in any way.**
Are you interested in this project? We are looking for partners, technology companies, NGOs, coders, that are interested in working with us on this exciting project, so let us know.
For more information contact [Ben Grubb](mailto:bgrubb@internews.org) or [Anahi Ayala Iacucci](mailto:ayala@internews.org).
The Humanitarian Information Dashboard is a project of [Internews](https://www.internews.org/).
{
"body": "blah",
"timestamp": "..."
}
- create an item. Should return the object, including its unique ID and the
system allocated creation time.
#### Create item with tags and categories
{
"timestamp": "...",
"metadata": [
{ "slug": "<taxonomy-slug>", // slug OR: name
"name": "<taxonomy name>"
"tems": [
"<tem-name>", // multiple values for tags
"<tem-name>",
"<tem-name>",
]
}
{ "slug": "<taxonomy-slug>", // slug OR: name
"name": "<taxonomy name>"
"tems": ["<tem-name>"] // single for category
}
]
}
We need either the `slug` or the `name` (from which the slug can be derived),
and a list of relevant terms. If the name and slug don't match, obviously there
should be an exception.
"body": "...",
"created": ...
"timestamp": ...
},
{ ... },
...
]
- When we do categories it should return those the same way as post above,
e.g.:
"body": "...",
"created": ...
"timestamp": ...
"metadata": [
{"name": ... },
]
},
{ ... },
...
]
#### Filter items by taxonomy
'/items?terms=<taxonomy-slug>:<term-name>' GET
- returns a list of Items tagged (or categorized) with the term <term-name> from the taxonomy <taxonomy-slug>
'terms' can be specified multiple times, to return items that are associated with *all* specified terms. eg:
'/items?terms=taxo1:term1&terms=taxo1:term2&terms=taxo2:term3
- returns a list of Items tagged (or categorized) with terms term1 of taxo1 *and* term2 of taxo2 *and* term3 of taxo2.
## Categories and Tags (Taxonomies)
They need their own list and details urls, and we should include them in
the expanded `Item` JSON somehow too.
- Return list of taxonomies
[
{ "name": "Ebola Question Type",
"slug": "ebola-question-type",
"cardinality": "optional",
"vocabulary": "closed",
"terms": [
"long name": ...
},
...
]
},
...
},
...
]
Here `long name` is shorter than the `name` because I'm thinking that
long name is the one that gets used as a column heading, whereas `name`
is the unique name for making the unique slug.
NOTE: It is the slug not the name that has has to be unique. What do we do
when someone tries to create "Ebola Questions" and "ebola-questions" as
taxonomies? Do they map onto the same slug? How do we handle that since
the unique field is derived from the given one?
### Add a new Taxonomy
'/taxonomies/' POST
{ "name": "Ebola Question Type",
"slug": "ebola-question-type", // do we supply this or is it calculated?
"cardinality": "optional",
"vocabulary": "closed",
"terms": [
"long name": ...
},
...
]
},
Adds a taxonomy (optionally including terms). The slug is calculated it should
be returned by the call.
{ "name": "Ebola Question Type",
"slug": "ebola-question-type", // calculated from name
"cardinality": "optional",
"vocabulary": "closed",
"terms": [
"long name": ...
},
...
]
},
e.g. `/taxonomies/ebola-questions/`
- Taxonomy details URL should use the taxonomy's sluggified name
{
"long_name": "Question Type",
"cardinality": "optional",
"vocabulary": "closed",
},
- Use the slug as unique id (i.e. don't deal with the internal numeric id)
`/taxonomies/ebola-questions/terms/` POST { 'name': 'vaccine' }
`/terms/` POST { 'name': 'vaccine', 'taxonomy': 'ebola-questions' }
### Get count of items per term for a taxonomy
`/taxonomies/<taxonomy-slug>/itemcount?start_time=<start-time>&end_time=<end_time>
Returns a list of terms:
[ { "name": "Vaccine",
"long_name": "Vaccine Trial",
"count": 2
},
{
"name": "Measures",
"long_name": "What measures could end Ebola?",
"count": 1
},
{
"name": "Symptoms",
"long_name": "Symptoms/Medical",
"count": 0
},
...
]
Get list of all terms (from all taxonomies).
Could add query params to limit to a certain Taxonomy
'/terms/?taxonomy=ebola-questions&item=416' GET
[ { "name": "Ebola Real?",
"long_name": "Is Ebola Real?",
"taxonomy": "ebola-questions",
},
{ "name": "Timescale",
"long_name": "When will Liberia be free of Ebola?"
"taxonomy": "ebola-questions",
},
...
]
These categories and tags will be used to store all the variable metadata
for the `Item`s. So when we get items, we want to also get their metadata.
And also to allow Item POST requests to add metadata terms.
See above Create Items with tags and categories
'/items/2314/taxonomies/ebola-questions/' GET
- Return list of ebola questions for item 2314
OR
'/items/2314/taxonomies/terms/' GET
- list all terms for 2314.
- Add qyery parameters to select for a given taxonomy
'/items/2314/taxonomies/terms/?taxonomy=ebola-questions' GET
- To delete a single term
'/items/2314/taxonomies/terms/<term-slug>/' DELETE
- Where term slug is the unique slug for the term.
e.g.
'/items/2314/taxonomies/terms/ebola-questions-
In which case you can add a term to an object like this
'/items/2314/ebola-questions/' POST { 'name': 'Duration' }
'/items/2314/ebola-questions/duration' DELETE
## Dependencies
To run all the tests, you need [phantomjs](http://phantomjs.org/) installed.
With node/npm
npm install -g phantomjs
Or, on ubuntu
apt-get install phantomjs