Noy Watch launched to track election anomalies

Just got a heads-up that Noynoy.ph, the official website of presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino, has launched Noy Watch - an interactive platform to help interested parties track election anomalies as they unfold in and around the Philippines. It is a collaborative citizen-driven monitoring for the Philippine 2010 election. The map is meant to give a general idea of where the incidents are occuring.

It uses the Ushahidi Engine - a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. The goal of the application is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response.



I first heard about the engine when I saw the above video last year that co-founder Erik Hersman presented. Impressive on how the platform was also used in Vote Report India that not only covers anomalies but also what went well.

What I like (plus) about the Noy Watch effort are as follows:

• Allow supporters to have a control center for reporting anomalies found in the elections during the campaign period, election day, and vote counting.
• Creates a spirit of transparency and watchfulness as supporters are empowered with this platform.

What I find to be challenging (minus) are:

• The non-verified reports not having the appropriate legend. I think it should have a category of its own. Otherwise, the initiative can be accused of rumor mongering if it won't have proper classification for unverified reports.
  
• Who will perform the verification? What is the standard process of verification?

What I find to be interesting are:

• If the site will receive a report citing a Noynoy camp anomaly, will it be published?
• If site can also be used to reflect election precints in the country where supporters lodge their observations or findings directly.
  

I'm sure that there will be more efforts like this in the future. Moreso 3rd party similar sites, perhaps own by a news or monitoring network, to encourage reporting from everyone interested about the elections.

(P.S. If you have time, I hope you can join the Map Your Election Precint Contest)

Supporting the Yahoo! Purple Thumb Campaign

Janette Toral
Originally uploaded by Earthlingorgeous

One of the election advocacies I supported recently is the Yahoo! #YourPurpleThumb campaign. This is where opinions of the Yahoo! Philippines users community are encouraged to be shared and let their voices be heard.

Last February, in the Yahoo! Philippines Purple Thumb launch, I also talked about the significance of social media in the coming elections.

This is part of Yahoo! Purple Thumb efforts in reporting election developments in the community by tapping the users also in contributing content.

There are many ways that you can participate and this is all done through Yahoo! Meme. This includes:

• Share why you are voting this coming elections. Add the #YourPurpleThumb to make your opinion be part of those who shared their perspective.
  
• If you found interesting news item, video, and audio clips in relation to the elections, share them. Make sure to add the #PurpleThumb hash tag at the end of your Yahoo! Meme post to make it visible to everyone monitoring election related content shared in the site.

You might wonder why Yahoo! Meme. The site is designed for content sharing without risking alteration of the original post. It also allows you to follow other people and build your own following as well. (related post: Make Yahoo! Meme work for you)

See you in the community! Let me know your Yahoo! Meme url and will follow you there.