Crowdsourcing During a Crisis Has its Drawbacks

By: Joanna Plucinska | Poynter

With all the talk of database journalism and mapping data, one would think crowdmapping would be taking off. But, it’s unclear how useful the practice is for journalists, especially with data collected in dangerous humanitarian crises, like the one in Syria. There are success stories.

Crowdmapping software Ushahidi immediately comes to mind. It gained popularity in 2008 when the software was used to map the fallout of the post-election violence in Kenya.