Project EPIC

Propagate the Specialized Tweet Syntax!!

Our team and an ever-growing group of collaborators involved in Crisis Camps have developed, evolved, deployed, and technologically leveraged a hashtag-based syntax to help direct Twitter communications for more efficient data extraction for those communicating about the Haiti earthquake disaster. Use requires modifications of Tweet messages to make information pieces that refer to #location, #status, #needs, #damage and several other elements of emergency communications more machine readable.

More Machine Readability Means More Ways to Help

A syntax leverages existing tweet-knowledge with inclusion of emergency-related hashtags. This way, otherwise heterogeneous information can be easier to collect computationally, which should make tweet info more valuable.

NEW!: How to Get Access to the Tweaked Tweet Data

We have been performing searches to capture tweets that appear to be using the TtT syntax. We have collected them in here in two formats.

Human Readable: http://epic.cs.colorado.edu:9090/tweets/parse.html

Machine Readable (Atom): http://epic.cs.colorado.edu:9090/tweets/parse.atom

Other developers are also using other techniques to parse the information:

Simon Twigger's links: http://tweetneed.org/tags/need  and http://tweetneed.org

Other developers: http://dev.haiti-earthquake-information.org/en/need-have-offer

FOLLOW ON TWITTER: http://twitter.com/epiccolorado

WIKI: The WIKI supports immediate syntax improvements. Please also add translations into other languages here.

CONTACT: Kate Starbird (CU Project Lead); tweak-the-tweet@googlegroups.com (All-Hands CrisisCamp Team); Professors Palen & Anderson (Project EPIC Directors)

PRESS: TWEET the TWEAK Campaign in the News

Sample Before & After Tweet Makeovers:

TWEET-BEFORE: roads from PAP to les Cayes are open migration from PAP to rural areas has begun

TWEET-AFTER: #haiti #open roads from #loc PAP to les Cayes are open #info migration from PAP to rural areas has begun

This tells the computer:

what = road
what about it = open
where = at PaP to les Cayes
what else: “open migration from PAP to rural areas has begun”

TWEET-BEFORE: Altagrace Pierre needs help at Delmas 14 House no. 14.

TWEET-AFTER: #haiti #name Altagrace Pierre #need help #loc Delmas 14 House no. 14.

This tells the computer:

what = need help
who = Altagrace Pierre
where = Delmas 14 House no. 14.

More examples of Tweet Before and Afters

HOW TO HELP

0) Instructions for using the Syntax itself are below.

1) Promote syntax through Twitter, Facebook and other channels to get immediate pick-up by volunteers and organizations.

2) Want to help but not sure what to do? Take a "regular" Tweet or other information source where someone is asking for Haiti-related help, and translate it using the syntax. See Before and Afters and the list to the right for examples. Include the source (#source or #src to link it back to the original).

3) Mobilize technically-oriented volunteers to develop applications to process and distribute information. The information produced by the syntax will be available for anyone to search and process. The Sahana 2010 Haiti 2010 Sahana Disaster Response Portal <http://haiti.sahanafoundation.org> is now reading TtT tweets.

In addition, volunteers can write programs, scripts, web apps to process this publicly available information into new information resources, possibly web applications or tweet feeds that re-distribute processed info. Please contact the TtT all-hands crisis camps group to let us know what is happening.

SYNTAX TAGS & INSTRUCTIONS (Version Français)

Here's how to build a Tweaked-Tweet Step-by-Step. (See our NEW INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS and use the TtT Editor for assistance.)

1) All tweets begin with #haiti:

Tweet: #haiti

2) Next choose a Main hashtag. Every Main and Data hashtag needs to be followed with pre-defined keywords or even regular text in your own words for detail. Here, in this example, we #need antibiotics, so we say:

Tweet: #haiti #need antibiotics

3) You then may include other data hashtags in the same tweet followed by pre-defined keywords or your own words to explain. Here we are requesting enough antibiotics for 100 people at location General Hospital in PAP, with a contact phone number:

Tweet: #haiti #need antibiotics #num 100 people #loc General Hospital PAP #contact 1234-12345

Step 1: Begin with #haiti

Begin each tweet with #haiti so that it doesn't get truncated during retweeting.

Step 2: Include a Main Tag

Each Tweet should have only 1 MAIN tag. Follow the hashtag with words to explain the #need, #offering, etc.

#need [explain the needs using the appropriate keywords below]
#offering or #offer or #have [explain what you have using appropriate keywords below]
#warning [explain the warning, such as fire breakouts, water main breaks, gas line breaks]

#ruok [name] <asking ARE YOU OKAY?>
#trapped [name]
#injured [name]
#open [write what is open, a road? a hospital? a store? try to use keywords]
#closed [write what is closed? a road? a shelter? try to use keywords]

(The following are terms that people have used outside the public syntax)

#relativesinhaiti [name]
#victimmissing [name]
#victimlocationhaiti [location name]
#rescuemehaiti [location name]

Step 3: Add Data Tags

Tweets can have many data tags as necessary to create a detailed communication. Add information (using keywords or your own words) after the hashtag to explain the information.

#name [name]
#loc [location] --> Text helps but if you can, provide GPS lat/long coordinates*
#num [amount or capacity]
#contact [email, phone, link, other] or #con
#photo [link to photo]
#source [source of info] or #src
#status [e.g., open, closed, injured, etc.]
#date [date or time]
#info [other information]

*NOTE: For #loc(ation) - if you're Tweet-translating, please try to provide GPS lat/long coordinates by looking up the location and getting coordinates with a site like <http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html>.

Searchable KEYWORDS

(Using keywords will help us classify the types of needs, offers, etc. We will look for these terms but you do not need to put "#" in front of these keywords.)

supplies
food

fire
water or h2o
fuel or diesel
medical of med
hospital
shelter
road
transport
rescue
help
volunteer(s) or vol(s)
translator
security
information or info
communication or comm
open
close

Prescriptive ("How To") Examples:

Yet another way to help is to send out prescriptive ("how-to") examples in your tweet stream, so that people can see "how to" do this by example. Here are some to send out:

• #haiti pls tweet in format: #haiti #ruok [name] #loc [location] #contact [@ or #] #info [more info]
• #haiti pls tweet in format: #haiti #imok [name] #loc [location] #status [status] #contact [@ or #]
• #haiti pls tweet in format: #haiti #need [list needs] #loc [location] #num [num] #info [more info]
• #haiti pls tweet in format: #haiti #offering [list offers] #loc [location] #num [amount] #contact [@ or #]
• #haiti pls tweet in format: #haiti #open [store/hospital/bank/etc] #loc [location] #date [day/time]
• #haiti use 1 main hashtag per twt: #imok, #ruok, #need, #offer or #have, #open [road/store/etc], #close [road/store/hospital/etc]
• #haiti pls consider keywords: supplies, food, water, h2o, fuel, diesel, medical, med
• #haiti pls consider keywords: rescue, help, volunteer(s) or vol(s), hospital, shelter, transport, translator, information
• #haiti pls use these data hashtags: #name [first last] #loc [address/intersection] #num [amount] #contact [@ or #]
• #haiti pls use these data hashtags: #source [more info/comment] #info [more info/comment]

HELPING HAITI: TWEAK the TWEET (TtT) by Project EPIC, University of Colorado is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://epic.cs.colorado.edu/.

This project is based on ideas originally described in Kate Starbird, Jeannie Stamberger, and Leysia Palen (submitted 2010). Tweak the Tweet: Leveraging Microblogging Proliferation with a Prescriptive Grammar to Support Citizen Reporting. Submitted short Paper for Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management Conference, Seattle, WA.