A new search engine developed by a Qatar Foundation entity, makes it easier to get official statements of all member states of the United Nations (UN) instantly.
Diplomaticpulse.org developed by the Social Computing Group at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) allows users to quickly search for official statements and press releases from all member states of the UN.
Based on a close partnership with the UN, the work was led by Dr Ingmar Weber, research director of the Social Computing Group at QCRI, part of QF’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, according to an article on the QF website.
Dr Weber said: “We were participating in a workshop on how to use new technologies for conflict prevention and peacemaking, and that is when the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (UNDPPA) expressed their struggle with the lack of a database that consolidates official statements made by UN member states on a specific topic. The only way to do it then was to go to each country’s official website and find it which was a tedious and time-consuming process.”
Dr Weber is a German data scientist who has been based in Qatar for the past nine years. His interdisciplinary research looks at what online user-generated data can tell us about the offline world and society at large.
“If you wanted to see official statements made by different UN member state countries at COP26, you would have to go to each country’s website and find it there. It works but it isn’t efficient at all,” explained, Dr Weber.
“Together with UNDPPA, the Social Computing team at QCRI then gave it some thought to see what we could do from a practical point of view. The solution was straightforward – a customised search engine,” continued, Dr Weber.
The Diplomatic Pulse differs from traditional search engines like Google as “it only uses specific official sources, rather than the internet at large.”
To create the search engine, the first thing needed was the official list of websites for each UN member state, which was provided by the UNDPPA.
“We then worked on teaching the tool how to identify the relevant elements on each website and each article,” noted, Dr Weber.
“With 193 UN member states, and several different website layouts and styles, it was not an easy task. And what made it harder was that some countries that don’t type up their official statements, but upload scanned copies,” remarked, the expert.
“The biggest challenge was dealing with each website’s different layout and then the different structures of articles. Because we were teaching the tool to fetch information, we had to tell it where exactly to look in an article for relevant information which needed to be indexed,’ he highlighted.
The web tool offers the option to search by keyword as well as country, and the ability to filter by date. Speaking on how often the tool updates or refreshes with new information, Dr Weber said, “Every 15 minutes. For this sort of work, that is almost real-time.”
Dr Martin Waehlisch from the UNDPPA Innovation Cell, said: “Using new technologies to mine information quickly allows us to better understand positions of global state actors and see where consensus is lacking or emerging. And this is just the beginning, the collected data will help us in the long-run to analyse trends and patterns in foreign affairs.”
“We want to improve the tool so it can be more than a search engine that operates based on keywords. We are aiming to add advanced analytics to it which would allow it to decode diplomatic language to a certain degree. This will revolutionise diplomacy in the future thanks to new technologies that are co-developed by the UN and QCRI for the common good of peace,” added, Dr Weber.
Diplomaticpulse.org developed by the Social Computing Group at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) allows users to quickly search for official statements and press releases from all member states of the UN.
Based on a close partnership with the UN, the work was led by Dr Ingmar Weber, research director of the Social Computing Group at QCRI, part of QF’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, according to an article on the QF website.
Dr Weber said: “We were participating in a workshop on how to use new technologies for conflict prevention and peacemaking, and that is when the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (UNDPPA) expressed their struggle with the lack of a database that consolidates official statements made by UN member states on a specific topic. The only way to do it then was to go to each country’s official website and find it which was a tedious and time-consuming process.”
Dr Weber is a German data scientist who has been based in Qatar for the past nine years. His interdisciplinary research looks at what online user-generated data can tell us about the offline world and society at large.
“If you wanted to see official statements made by different UN member state countries at COP26, you would have to go to each country’s website and find it there. It works but it isn’t efficient at all,” explained, Dr Weber.
“Together with UNDPPA, the Social Computing team at QCRI then gave it some thought to see what we could do from a practical point of view. The solution was straightforward – a customised search engine,” continued, Dr Weber.
The Diplomatic Pulse differs from traditional search engines like Google as “it only uses specific official sources, rather than the internet at large.”
To create the search engine, the first thing needed was the official list of websites for each UN member state, which was provided by the UNDPPA.
“We then worked on teaching the tool how to identify the relevant elements on each website and each article,” noted, Dr Weber.
“With 193 UN member states, and several different website layouts and styles, it was not an easy task. And what made it harder was that some countries that don’t type up their official statements, but upload scanned copies,” remarked, the expert.
“The biggest challenge was dealing with each website’s different layout and then the different structures of articles. Because we were teaching the tool to fetch information, we had to tell it where exactly to look in an article for relevant information which needed to be indexed,’ he highlighted.
The web tool offers the option to search by keyword as well as country, and the ability to filter by date. Speaking on how often the tool updates or refreshes with new information, Dr Weber said, “Every 15 minutes. For this sort of work, that is almost real-time.”
Dr Martin Waehlisch from the UNDPPA Innovation Cell, said: “Using new technologies to mine information quickly allows us to better understand positions of global state actors and see where consensus is lacking or emerging. And this is just the beginning, the collected data will help us in the long-run to analyse trends and patterns in foreign affairs.”
“We want to improve the tool so it can be more than a search engine that operates based on keywords. We are aiming to add advanced analytics to it which would allow it to decode diplomatic language to a certain degree. This will revolutionise diplomacy in the future thanks to new technologies that are co-developed by the UN and QCRI for the common good of peace,” added, Dr Weber.
