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Crowdempowering to solve environmental problems
How can communities leverage crowdsourcing to empower each other and to achieve goals collectively?
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Threatened: Haze from land burning emanates from forests in Kalimantan. (Kompas.com/File)
O
ne day in 2015, Saripah, a 22-year-old young girl, said softly, “Mother, I’m having a hard time breathing.” Saripah’s mother, Siti, immediately took her to a hospital, but unfortunately her daughter soon died of lung failure. Her respiratory organs looked dark although Saripah never smoked. Siti said the smoke from peatland fires killed her daughter.
The story of Saripah and the other villagers can be found on the Ranu Welum Foundation’s website, established by a young person from the Dayak community, Emmanuela Shinta, to promote the dangers of and bring an end to forest and land fires especially in Central Kalimantan.
Sharing stories is considered a new and powerful strategy to bring facts and events on the ground to light for those individuals who wish to act together to make a difference.
With the advancement of communication and information technology, crowd movements have grown by utilizing such technology. The term crowdsourcing was introduced in 2006 by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson to describe a web-based business model that gathers solutions proposed by a network of individuals.
The concept of crowdsourcing has been applied in various forms, ranging from crowdfunding sites like Kitabisa where individuals donate funds to support a project or cause, to platforms that allow individuals to verify satellite imagery to help environmental campaigns and humanitarian activities like Tomnod.
Thanks to ever increased connectivity, it is now possible for individuals to collectively contribute to a particular project or cause in the form of ideas, time, expertise or funds.
However, connectivity should also be accompanied by equal empowerment among individuals who take part in such a system. The internet and crowdsourcing should be used not only to capture and deliver aspirations of communities, but also to achieve equal empowerment.
