Scientific Animations Without Borders and Crowd-sourced Emerg ...

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Abstract

Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) is a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign-based program focused on the development and deployment of educational content that can be rapidly translated and voice overlaid into new languages and deployed through cell phones and other video-capable devices. SAWBO relies on volunteers for translation and deployment of content both online and offline. On August 11 of 2012, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck East Azerbaijan province of Iran. SAWBO was contacted by, and worked with, Iranian expatriates from Vancouver, Canada, interested in gaining knowledge, about how to treat water to prevent cholera, into the zone hardest hit by the earthquake. In this case study, we outlined the challenges of deployment of educational content into a country where the authorities restrict the flow of knowledge to their own populations (i.e. a minority language group). We also discuss certain ethical dilemmas related to tracking content and user activities.