Image via WikipediaThe load shedding and power cuts in India are becoming a hectic daily routine, as it now encompasses entire country from the small villages to the capital. However, since most of the power outages are unannounced, the statistical information on the degree of the problem is largely unreliable. Recently a volunteer group in India has begun a project along with the cooperation of the Indian community of Twitter users, to create an infographic statistics based on the information received from Twitter users. These tweets are than compiled and analyzed, sourced from the various parts of the country, consequently the reports of power failures all over the country are used to support this idea.
According to the founder of the project, Shefaly Yogendra, who’s an Indian working as an investment consultant in U.K, this public-generated infographic statists can also prove as a very useful weapon against the politicians and government to get them to discover cheaper solution of such deep-seated problem. Moreover, she added that as the project becomes more authentic gradually, it can also be used by the officials for reference when working for a solution or deploying new investments in electricity generation and transmission. Yogendra stated that "Every time it is summer, I usually have a lot of friends from India complaining on Twitter about power cuts."
The official website of the group has the map based on the data collected by the Twitter users, updated timely on various reports received from all over the country regarding their power outages. The website has received almost 10.19 daily reports on average, just a week after its release, reported Ajay Kumar, also one of the co-founder of the website. Whereas the group now expects that by the time, it will receive a much greater response from its viewers.
Moreover, it was also announced that soon the feature to report a power failure with a single text message via mobile phones will be made available too. Yougendra said "This will increase the reach, as not all people in India are on Twitter." It will also be a wise addition to include an e-mail method for reporting as well.
Currently, the volunteers have to update the website manually compiling all the tweets received, speaking about which Yogendra claimed that "Crowd-sourcing is based on trust, but we have to be careful." She declared that once the group grows gradually it will be updated in real time too.
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