Entry Name: “PKU-Liu-MC3”

VAST Challenge 2014
Mini-Challenge 3

Team Members:

Zipeng Liu, Peking University, winnieliupku@gmail.com PRIMARY

Zhenhuang Wang, Peking University, wangzhenhuang@pku.edu.cn

Siming Chen, Peking University, csm@pku.edu.cn

Zuchao Wang, Peking University, zuchao.wang@pku.edu.cn

Zhengjie Miao, Peking University, j.miao92@gmail.com

Xiaoru Yuan, Peking University, xiaoru.yuan@pku.edu.cn

Student Team: YES

Team Number: 31

Streaming User ID: winnieliupku@gmail.com

Analytic Tools Used:

PKU Streaming Inspector. It was developed by Zipeng Liu and Zhenghuang Wang, who are students of the Visualization and Visual Analytics Group, Peking University, Beijing, China. Its front end was built upon HTML5 technology, and the backend nodejs.

Stanford NLP Tools. http://www-nlp.stanford.edu/

Approximately how many hours were spent working on this submission in total?

200 hours

May we post your submission in the Visual Analytics Benchmark Repository after VAST Challenge 2014 is complete? YES

Video:

http://vis.pku.edu.cn/vast2014/mc3/vast2014mc3video.wmv

VAST2014mc3video

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Questions

Please note - this challenge contains a question that is time-dependent. Within 3 hours of starting the final data stream, send an email to VASTChal2014MC3@vacommunity.org containing your answer to question MC3.1. Please include a copy of your answer to MC3.1 in your final answer form also. Your answers to MC3.2 and MC3.3, along with your video, are due July 8.

The responses to these questions should be incrementally built, as you (the contestant) acquire information from each streaming data segment you receive.  Your submission will answer these questions in consideration of all of the streaming data segments.

MC3.1 - Within 3 hours after start the final data stream, send an email to VASTChal2014MC3@vacommunity.org containing:

a. An image showing the streaming data in your visual analytics tool. In this image, identify an event of interest that you intend to investigate further.

b. The content of the final message in the data stream

a. See the image above.

We developed two tools for this challenge: one is the keyword analyzer, the other is a streaming message inspector. The keyword analyzer illustrates the trend of keywords, while the streaming message inspector filters, tags, and locates the messages.

We divided the main event into 3 phrases in segment 3 streaming data.

1. Police and SWAT were negotiated with the shooters (guys in the black van).

2. Two guys in the van fighted. with each other.

3. Two hostages were rescued and the two van guys were arrested.

 b. The content of the last message:

{"type":"mbdata","body":[ {"date":"20140123213200", "author":"gardener4958", "message":"RT @KronosStar There has been an explosion from inside the apartment building.  Several people are down. #KronosStar #DancingDolphinFire #AFDHeroes" } ]}

MC 3.2 - Describe the timeline of up to five major events that you discover in the streaming data. This timeline should include information from all three segments of the data stream if needed.    Use specific microblog records and call center data to support your description, but do not simply mimic back the data stream.  Provide a concise description of important participants, locations and durations.  Focus your response on the events themselves, rather than on the individuals reporting the events. Please limit your answer to no more than ten images and 1500 words.

Answer to MC 3.2:

.redibl﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽ were rescued. ttoring.redibl﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽ were rescued. ttoring

We used our tools to identify valuable events from the given data. As shown in Fig. 1, the keyword analyzer shows the development of several events. At the beginning, the POK rally was held. The rally lasted until around 19:15. The keyword “fire” indicated two possible events: one was the fire happened at Dancing Dolphin and the other was the shooting fire. Around 19:20, “hit” was suddenly popular, which referred to the event of a black van hitting a bike. Around 19:40, the van guys started shooting to police. They had got two hostages and cops and terrorists were confronted with each other in a standoff. Finally, after negotiations, the two kidnappers gave up and arrested, and two hostages were rescued. Next, we will illustrate these events in detail.

Figure 1. The overview of events in data

Event 1: POK rally

POK rally was held on Abila City Park. About 2000 people gathered there and heavy police was disposed. At the begining, POK leader Sylvia Marek opened with a speech and introduced the guests, Dr. Audrey McConnell Newman, Professor Lorenzo Di Stefano and Lucio Jakab. The m.redibl﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽ were rescued. ttoringusic was povided by Abila's hometown favorite Viktor-E. Lucio Jakab is the co-founder of Save O.redibl﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽ were rescued. ttoringur Wildlands. At 17:16, he took the podium and started his speech. He told that they had a symbiotic relationship with the earth, wildlands are their legacy for the children. If you do one thing today, make a difference. After the speech of Jakab, Viktor-E came to the stage to play the new song "River Soldiers", which is inspired by the work POK did for the town of Elodis. At 17:49, Professor Lorenzo Di Stefano made the talk about corporate social responsibility. He tought environmental science at the University of Abila. In his talk, he mentioned that they had a right to demand good corporate citizenship from businesses in Kronos and they must hold businesses responsible for engagement and sustainability. The next talk was delivered by McConnell Newman, who was an internationally renown environmental scientist. She won the Rachel Carson Award in 2004 and the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1998, and she is also the author of "Song of the Otters" which won the 2001 Natural World Book Prize. She got PhD from the United States in ecological economics. In her speech, she was inspired by American Saul Alinsky-author of "Rules for Radicals" and said radicalism was to change the world to what it should be, education is the key to being an effective leader and community organizer. The speech ended at 18:45. Sylvia Marek thanked Dr. Newman and welcame Viktor-E back on stage to sing their hit "Stand Up Speak Up". The rally closed around 19:05.

As seem the Fig. 2, we monitored several key persons shown up in the rally: Sylvia Marek, Dr. Audrey McConnell Newman, Professor Lorenzo Di Stefano, Lucio Jakab and Viktor-E. From the keyword analyzer, it is easy to find out the time of their on stage.

Figure 2. The process of POK rally

Event 2: Fire in Dancing Dolphin

Figure 3. The fire at Dancing Dolphin.

The fire was at Dancing Dolphin. At the earliest time (around 18:25), @GreyCatCollectibles reported some precursor of the fire firstly. He posted in microblog that "Smell something funny upstairs - wish this renovation work would get finished!". Latter he reported "electrical smell is getting worse" at 18:30 and "really smells like smoke now" at 18:35. Around 18:40, the first at Achilleos & Madeg was reported @Officia1AbilaPost reported and the fire garnered much attention, see Fig. 3(a). It was worth noting that @OffcialAbilaPost posted that "#AFD breaking scandal: setting fires in rundown neighborhoods for training exercises, accidental urban renewal." at 18:34. We are not sure whether this information is credible. The call center reported that there was possible fire at 18:40, and called for fire trucks at 18:42. Two units then was dispatched to Dancing Dolphin apartment, the burning building. Around 18:45, fire trucks arrived at the dancing dolphin. Police also came to help manage the scene and started evacuation in Dancing Dolphin and nearby buildings, see Fig. 3(b). At 18:59, a resident trapped on upper floor was rescued. However, the fire continued and officials expanded evacuation area at 19:25:00. At 20:05, @CentralBulletin reported that an injured firefighter rescued from the fire, see Fig. 3(c). Around 20:25 officials stated fire was under control, but after 10 minutes AFD requested additional trucks. The fire kept spreading and AFD shifted focus to protecting surrounding buildings from the spread of fire, reported by @AbilaPOst at 20:52. Several miniutes later, the top floor of dancing dolphin collapsed. At 21:15, @KronosStart, @HomelandIlluminations and @AbilaFireDept issued conflicting reports. According to @KronosStart and @HomelandIlluminations, AFD stated that the fire was nearly under control, but @AbilaFireDept said the fire had not been controlled. At 21:30, AFD reported an explosion at the Dancing Dolphin.

Figure 4. The fire at Dancing Dolphin.

Event 3: Hit-and-run accident

At 19:19, Abila Police Department reported a car hit on Souliou street, and @ hennyhenhendrix reported a black van hit his car. Many tweets also said a black van hit a bicyclist, such as the user @hngohebo_ABILAPOST posted at 19:21:01, "A bicyclist has been hit on the 500 block of Schaber near Katerina's Cafe and @Brew'veBeenServed #AbilaPost". Call center also reported “HIT & RUN-IN PROGRESS-WITH INJURY” and “SUSPICIOUS OCCUPIED VEHICLE-BLACK VAN”. The black van was with partial license L829 (reported by @AbilaPoliceDepartment at 19:23). However, it is magical that the bicyclist was uninjured (reported by @KronosStar at 19:35:07). The van hit and then escaped, police pursued it. Fig. 5 shows related microblog and call center records as well as the site of hit.

Figure 5. A black van hit a bike and escaped.

Event 4: Shooting and standoff

This event was an extension of the event 3. At 19:35, police pursued suspected vehicle. At 19:40, Abila Police reported gun fire at Gelato Galore near the City Park. The shooters were in the black van, see Fig. 6(a). Then cops blocked the van and cornered the drivers in a parking lot near the intersection of Alexandrias and Ithakis. In the shooting fire, a cop was gunned down. @HomelandIlluminations and @NewsOnlineToday reported that witnesses said the gunmen have hostages, see Fig. 6(c). At 19:43, ambulance arrived at scene of standoff for the wounded officer. At 19:55, APD SWAT arrived at the scene (Fig. 6(d)). During the standoff, crap guy was threating to kill a hostage if cops don't let him go. At 20:07, police started to evacuate businesses nearby the standoff. Around 20:11, negotiations between shooter and police began, as shown in Fig. 6(e). Around 20:22, @megaMan posted, "think someone in the van just showed a hostage! Looked like a girl". The standoff continues until about 21:00. And then the two van guys fighted with each other, see Fig. 6(f). At 21:13, the two kidnappers dropped the gun and gave up. Two hostages were saved and two terrorists were arrested, as shown in Fig.6(g). The terrorists were both a man and a woman, and the hostages were possibly both women. However, APD haven't released names of suspects arrested at the standoff.

There were two major figures behaved actively in microblogs during this event, they are @truccotrucco and @megaMan. @truccotrucco were attending POK rally at first. But he felt hungry and wanted for some gelato at 18:15. Therefore, after the POK rally he went to Gelato Galore. He was then trapped in Gelato Galore during the stand off. See Fig. 7(b). Another active figure @megaMan was on scene. He reported a lot of important progress of stand off timely.

We also found @roger_roger and @prettyRain may be the two hostages. @roger_roger posted “they told us to stay down- we're all on the floor. I'm ok”. She also reported “we decided to stay put. couple of us are gonna block the doors so no one can get inside.” @prettyRain said “someone sais to get on the floor please send help”. Their microblog records can be seen in Fig. 7(a). These information helped us confirm that they were the hostages. Further, @roger_roger posted “guess there were more hostages than just us”. This information is valuable, we need to further think about whether the published report was correct.

Figure 6. The progress of event 4.

Figure 7. (a) Microblog recored of two hostages @roger_roger and @prettyRain, (b) Microblog recored of the witness @truccotrucco.

MC 3.3 – Select one of your five major events from question MC 3.2 that you consider to be most likely to provide additional clues to the investigation of the GASTech disappearances.   Describe the roles of the participants.  Describe how other events you identified in MC3.2 may have influenced your selected event. Provide a hypothesis and evidence as to whom you suspect as being directly involved in the GAStech disappearances, either as perpetrators or victims.  Please limit your response to no more than five images and 500 words.

Answer to MC 3.3:

After observing all these events, we believed that the last one (negotiation with the kidnappers, or van guys) in MC3.2 is an important clue for the GASTech disappearances.

Roles of participants:

1. van guys: kidnappers

2. “roger_roger” and “prettyRain”: the two hostages

3. “megaMan” and “truccotrucco”: the closest witnesses, reporters of the scene

4. police: negotiator. They arrested the two van guys after they surrendered.

This event is actually linked with other events:

The black van hit the cyclist at the red mark shown in the next image:

And then the van guys ran from the crime scene, with cops pursuing all the way throughout Egeou Ave. Finally the van stopped at GelatoGalore, a icecream shop.

And then the van guys and police shoot each other. One policeman was gunned down.

The van guys kidnapped two people in the shop – “roger_roger” and “prettyRain”. The following image shows the substream monitoring the two hostages’ messages.

We think the hostages were happened to be there. They were just customers at that time.

The two witnesses, “megaMan” and “truccotrucco”, provided lots of information about what’s going on. They came from the POK Rally at Abila Park to buy something to eat.

We draw the events on the map: (Note that the red route is only a rough one. It’s not the real car trace.)

We think there were more than two hostages. Although “roger_roger” and “prettyRain” , there relationships with GASTech were uncertained, but they claimed that there might be more hostages there. The van guys did not happen to be in GaletoGalore, because we thought they had missions there. There might be hostages of GASTech or POK organization hidden in this area.