SwiftRiver Aggregates and Verifies Crowdsourced Info

As anyone who uses social media networks (like Twitter and Facebook) knows, sometimes the data can be overwhelming. It streams in with thousands of updates a day, inundating the user with information. The importance of ensuring the information is accurate is of utmost importance when it applies to rescue workers and aid workers during a natural disaster, like the earthquake that struck Haiti in January of this year. Workers there used Ushahidi,  (a term that means “testimony” in Swahili) – a platform that was developed in 2008 to gather crowdsourced info via email, SMS, and Twitter/Facebook posts during a crisis or other major event.  There is now a startup news service called Swift Riverthat picks through and filters all that information from multiple sources and can help verify the data, so the user doesn’t have to.   It was designed to work with Ushahidi, but has uses beyond that.

SwiftRiver is a platform consisting of a number of unique products and technologies. The goal is to aggregate information from multiple media channels (SMS, Twitter, Email, RSS feeds from the web) and to add context: The ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘where’ of that which is being discussed in each message. So, who the message is about, what it’s about, and where the message originated from. Swift then uses these details to help predict the relevancy of the information coming to the user. This allows us to promote content the user cares about while suppressing content they are less likely to (spam, inaccuracies, falsehoods, and crosstalk)
SwiftRiver blog

The beta version of SwiftRiver was launched August 30th with an app called “Sweeper App.”  It’s built on the SwiftRiver platform and the user interface uses Kohana MVC. Basically, Sweeper App was built for ease of use with large, bright buttons, a basic, clean layout, and was “specifically designed to optimize the workflow of Ushahidi users.” Eventually the use will expand beyond crisis workers, and developers hope that every day users of social media platforms will use it to tailor the information they receive.