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