CampusAlert / AlertaCampus Crowdsourced Real-Time Risk Management for the University Community.

This project is a web-based social platform designed to democratize safety and operational information within a university campus. Functioning similarly to a "Waze for pedestrians" or a specialized Reddit, it allows students, faculty, and staff to post, verify, and view real-time risk announcements. The platform solves the problem of information asymmetry during emergencies, strikes, or safety hazards by aggregating scattered reports into a single, cohesive, and geolocated feed.

The Problem:

In the current ecosystem of Chilean universities, critical information regarding campus risks—such as protests (tomas/paros), security incidents, or infrastructure failures—is fragmented. Information currently travels through:

Informal WhatsApp Groups: Limited reach and unverifiable sources.

Instagram "Confession" Pages: High latency (admins must manually repost) and cluttered with non-relevant content.

Word of Mouth: Slow and often inaccurate ("Phone game" effect).

This fragmentation leads to students unknowingly walking into blocked areas, unsafe zones, or buildings with failing infrastructure.

The Solution (Key Features)

The application functions as a niche social network focused exclusively on situational awareness.

The "Risk Feed" (Social Core): The main interface is a chronological, scrollable feed of user-generated reports. Users can post text, photos, and urgent tags.

Community Verification (Upvote/Downvote): To combat misinformation, the community acts as a filter. Users can "confirm" a risk (upvote) or "dispute" it (downvote). Highly confirmed reports rise to the top; disputed ones are flagged or hidden.

Categorized Alerts: Posts are tagged by specific risk types relevant to the local context:

Security: Robberies or suspicious activity in the perimeter.

Public Order: Active protests, barricades, or police presence (Carabineros).

Infrastructure: Broken elevators, power outages, or water leaks.

Academics: Sudden class cancellations or room changes.

Technical Relevance (Why this matters)

By replacing static newsletters with dynamic, user-generated content, the project leverages Collective Intelligence. It shifts the paradigm of campus security from a "top-down" approach (authorities notifying students) to a "bottom-up" network (students protecting each other).