Chapter 7: Adding the Computer Crowd to the Human Crowd Patrick Meier (Ph.D.) is an internationally recognized thought leader on the application of new technologies for humanitarian responses. He presently serves as director of social innovation at the Qatar Foundation’s Computing Research Institute (QCRI) where he prototypes Next Generation Humanitarian Technologies1. Prior to QCRI, Patrick co-founded and co-directed HHI’s Program on Crisis Mapping & Early Warning and served as director of crisis mapping at Ushahidi. His influential blog iRevolution2 has received well over 1 million hits. Patrick tweets at:@patrickmeier3. Investigative journalists and human rights practitioners have for decades used a mix of strategies to verify information in emergency and breaking news situations. This expertise is even more in demand with the growth of user-generated content. But many are increasingly looking to “advanced computing” to accelerate and possibly automate the process of verification. As with any other technique, using advanced computing to verify social media content in near real time has promises and pitfalls. Advanced computing consists of two elements: machine computing and human computing. The former uses techniques from natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML), while the latter draws on crowdsourcing and microtasking methods. The application of advanced computing to verify user-generated content is limited right now because the field of research is still new; the verification platforms and techniques described below are still being developed and tested. As a result, exactly how much value they will add to the verification process remains to be seen, but advancements in technology are likely to continue to bring new ways to help automate elements of the verification process. This is an important moment in the application of advanced computing to verify user-generated content: Three new projects in this field are being developed. This chapter provides an overview of them, along with background on how human and machine computing are being used (and combined) in the verification process. As we dive in, let me add a disclaimer: I spearheaded the digital humanitarian response efforts described below - for Haiti, the Philippines and Pakistan. In addition, I’m also engaged in the Verily project and with the creation of the Twitter Credibility Plugin, both of which are also mentioned. 78