This is a fairly short and quick update on video in Mathare and even shorter in Kibera.
One of our ideas at the beginning of the video program in Mathare was that video guys would go on the field with mappers and collect what they are doing. We thought this would be important for several reasons:
it would create harmony between different groups (mappers and video)
this way we would document every step of the process and thus create awareness of the project which could later be used for attracting funders, etc.
with public screenings, we could show the community what we’re up to
We then decided that mappers and video teams together would present too big of a group walking around Mathare and would raise too much attention so we dropped the case. Now that the community is aware of our presence, this is again something we can think about.
From the start we always presented all the programs as one and the same thing – getting the info about Mathare out there, with all means possible. When talking about video and unity, the current situation in Mathare is that we have a group of around 20 video guys, many of them also community bloggers and a part of our mapping program, and who want to be involved with Voice as well, because they see all three programs as one.
How we conduct the trainings in Mathare:
In Mathare we’ve partnered with Nathaniel Canuel who has created a very interesting training program with which he is trying to inspire the group to explore their individual talents. For example, to stir their imagination he created a collage of videos from some of the world’s most famous films (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, etc) – the theme was, “the marriage of picture and sound.” He also showed them several videos which were made in Kenya and some of his own work. After and during they had discussions about different camera angles, sounds, effects, etc.
My understanding from the meetings and trainings is that the participants in the video program want to explore the potential of video. They want to use it to showcase the stories from Mathare, the stories of their friends, relatives, the way of living, etc., and they want to do it in an interesting way.
The trainings usually go on like this:
Nathaniel shocks them with all different artsy stuff
They hold discussions about things they’ve just seen
They discuss different issues in Mathare and how much work a certain issue would need
They pick issues and talk in detail about how they will go about it (Nathaniel is guiding them and asking them a lot of hard questions)
They take footage and edit
To stir their imagination and make video interesting to the participants and the people watching it, we decided (together with the participants) to do a game or a competition, where very abstract titles will be chosen and then the group will make videos to go along with those titles (this will be a fun addition to the “serious” work they are doing). The videos will be presented at public screenings where the community will decide the winner. We figured people will want to see these videos, and it’s also a way to have some fun. If I quote Jeff: “People here are tired of all the bad and depressing stories, it’s about time we do something different!”
These are just some of the quick updates on how things are going. You can see the first videos from Mathare here and also Kibera News Network is back on track with new videos here.
Oh… The first story which came out of “let’s have some fun†is: Welcome to a Dog’s World by Joe Gatecha from Kibera News Network.
We have completed the ground truthing of a test area of Mathare 10, Mashimoni, Mabatini and Thayu. The whole exercise took us two days. It took us one day to prepare – determine how to go about it, go out in the field to see how it works, what needs improving and to create proper forms which make sense. Then we divided the area into 11 smaller areas of focus for which we created detailed forms for data collection. By detailed forms I mean an A4 paper with a picture on top. Remember! It’s the execution that counts, he he…
Test area divided into smaller areas
We held a brief meeting on Wednesday, 16.2.2011, with all the Mathare mappers where we talked about the theories behind satellite imagery, building extraction, the importance of collecting such information and explained how the exercise will run in detail.
It took 5 groups 3 hours on Thursday, 17.2.2011, to check all the buildings in the test area, fix incorrect shapes of buildings, write down the types of buildings, and classify them. In other words, it took them 3 hours to ground truth 0.21 square kilometers which represents 7% of the whole Mathare area.
Some of the Data collected
Through the exercise, we’ve encountered some problems which we need to address to AAAS for further clarification and advice. For example, how do we ground truth a big stone building which has tin houses on top of it? Is it one building or many (picture below in a circle)?
Tin buildings on top of a brick building
The next step is to digitize the data collected, send it back to the AAAS, and then wait.
The American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) donated us a WorldView-2 image (read more) with 6% cloud cover, taken on 30th of June 2010. It covers the areas of Mathare Valley, Korogocho, Kariobangi, Baba Dogo, as well as part of Kasarani, Dandora, and some surrounding areas. Altogether, the imagery is of a broader eastern part of Nairobi, containing the areas with the highest concentration of people in the city.
Satellite image of Mathare
The image is of course useful in numerous ways, but the first thing we want to use the image for is to create a building extract for the whole area of Mathare! The AAAS showed a great interest in helping us with this issue and is indeed helping us now. The deal was that we set out a test region to begin with so one of their analysts could analyze that area. We would then take a look at it and go to the field to ground check their mapping. If that worked out satisfactorily, they would expand the extraction further to do the whole area.
As said, we first set out the test region for them to analyze. Our focus was on Mathare 10, Thayu, Mabatini, and Mashimoni. We picked the area because it is situated very centrally in Mathare, has different variety of buildings (tin and brick) and is also an interest area of our partners, Plan Kenya and CCS. A day after the area was set we got the first results – the first automated building extract of the area.
Building extraction on a test area
A quick look already revealed some of the faultinesses of the automated process like overlaying shapes, crooked shapes of objects, shattered uniform objects and merged diverse objects, digitized/mapped non-existing objects, etc.
Some of the faultinesses of the automated process
Our next “jobâ€, which is currently under way, is ground truth-ing the results. This basically means checking every object in the field and comparing it to the created extracts, than confirming or rejecting certain objects, classifying them, repairing the shape files, digitizing collected (repaired) information and sending it back so they can reset their algorithms.
Ground Truthing
The biggest challenge is how do we do that practically with limited equipment and resources? We knew from the start that we’ll get the best results if the people who come from the area are the ones ground truth-ing their own area. This is also important because this kind of work basically takes you into the compounds and backyards of houses and you obviously don’t want strangers walking on other people’s backyards.
For the purpose of data collection I created forms, printed them out, bought some pencils, sharpeners and erasers and called Francis and Jackson from Mashimoni to take me around their neighborhoods and give me the feedback – they are two of the mappers who will be the ones leading the project on the ground later, which is why their opinion is crucial.
Francis and Jackson in action
During the exercise we focused on specifics like:
We numbered each house in the test area, classified them and added different types of buildings (tin, brick, etc.)
We repaired shapes of the buildings extracted
We deleted redundant shape files
We wrote down names of all known landmarks
The guys also gave me feedback regarding the forms:
Prepare a bigger map of the whole test area and outline the smaller area on it for better recognition of the area
Add names of the roads to the forms for better recognition of the area
Make darker outlines of extracted buildings on the forms
Add names of landmarks for better recognition of the area
After the ground truth-ing of the area the AAAS will (hopefully) expand the extraction to the whole of Mathare. And then the fun really begins!
