IBM is taking an active role in the Ebola humanitarian crisis that is occurring in West Africa currently. They are bringing their big data tools to help collect, organize, and analyze metrics with the hopes of helping to contain and combat the virus in West Africa.
They are collaborating with Sierra Leon’s Open Government Initiative to help citizens report Ebola related issues via SMS and voice calls. More important that just reporting the data, they are then creating actionable reports from them — enabling officials to understand which areas need supplies more urgently, or even anticipate areas that will need help.
They are using text messaging and voice data that is location specific to create heat maps, correlating public sentiment to location information, as shown below:
This is just one part of a larger humanitarian strategy by IBM in West Africa that is detailed in their press release: IBM press release
