Haiti: Tradui, Translation App for Android and (almost) iPhone

tradui

Crisis Commons and Crisis Mappers have become major technology and data contributors to the Haiti Relief Effort. Many technologists and geohackers are donating hundreds of hours to common projects. This past weekend saw the release of a mapping app for the iPhone (with expedited App Store approval). Now there is a second app waiting for Apple’s app store approval.

Tradui is a free offline dictionary that converts Creole to English and vice-versa. The data came from the HaitiSurf Creole to English Dictionary. It was built by Intridea and came out of Crisis Camp DC. It was released to the Android market on 1/19. It was released the same day to Apple’s App store — hopefully it is approved soon.

I’ve included screenshots after the jump. Intridea has put the code up on Github.



During any crisis there is a debate about how to coordinate volunteers, manage technology projects and keep data sources clean (for example Boingboing just posted about the redundant people finders that are emerging – via jknauer). That debate found its way to the comments of my Haiti mapping app.

No silver bullet will be found to solve these problems — especially not immediately following a disaster. When in need people reach for what they have on hand and know. There is criticism that the iPhone is to expensive and not widely deployed enough to be of use. However, it is one of the most powerful mobile platforms out there. Many relief workers will start to carry them (and Android devices) if the right tools are available. Tardui and HaitiGPS are steps in that direction.

Jeffrey Johnson will be speaking about Crisis Mapping Haiti at Where 2.0 in March.

Tradui’s Translate screen:

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Tradui’s Creole Lookup Screen:

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