ushahidi @ mobile tech for social change

What is Ushahidi?

Open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping.

We build tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers

for individuals to share their stories.

Platform Community Movement

ushahidi.com

History"Ushahidi", which means "testimony" in Swahili,

was a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya

after post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008.

legacy.ushahidi.com

Deployments

ServicesUshahidi

Crowdmap

Plugins

SMSSync (Android)

iPhone/iPad

Checkins (CI)

Election Monitoring

May 2009 - 202 reports, 20,000 viewsAllow citizen reporting during election

August 2010 - 1525 reports, 20,000 viewsMonitor Kenya referendum election

votereport.in uchaguzi.co.ke

Citizen Journalism

April 2011 - a lot reportsEngaging citizens to help design a better city

December 2010 - 319 reports, 156,859 viewsHelp bring awareness to sexual harassment in Egypt

harassmap.com bit.ly/ushahidi_pps

Disaster Response

March 2011 - 8,000+ reports, 144,974 viewsMonitor fallout of tsunami and nuclear crisis

January 2011 - 99,772 reports, 469,744 viewsMonitor the flooding in Australia

sinsai.info/ushahidi queenslandfloods.crowdmap.com

Project 4636

bit.ly/ushahidi_haiti

Post Haiti

“The 2010 Haiti earthquake response will be remembered as the moment when the level of access to mobile and online communication enabled a kind of collective intelligence to

emerge.”

- Disaster Relief 2.0, the United Nations

“Haiti showed everyone that it is going to be crucial to adopt and use these technologies to make humanitarian work

better, faster and more efficient.”

- Adele Waugaman, senior director of technology for United Nations and Vodafone

bit.ly/disaster_20

CrowdmapCrowdmap allows you to set up your own

deployment of Ushahidi ‘in the cloud’ without having to install it on your own web server.

crowdmap.com

Plugins

apps.ushahidi.com

Flexible plugin architecture allowing custom functionality to be developed independently from the core application.

SMSSyncSMSSync is a simple SMS to HTTP sync utility, that turns any Android phone into a local SMS gateway that sends incoming

messages to any Ushahidi deployment.

smssync.ushahidi.com

Checkins (CI)Quick location update which can include an optional

photo and description, sharing “I am here”.

bit.ly/checkins_purpose

iPhone / iPadUshahidi mobile application for the iPhone and iPad

bit.ly/ushahidi_ios_app

A map is not a process or a movement alone. The people who create, curate, communicate and

nurture the content make it possible.

(George Chamales, paraphrased)

Stand-By Task Force (SBTF)“We are the people who map for three hours at

night instead of watching TV. We are the people who wake up early before work, log into Skype and add a few reports to the map. We are the people who may drop everything to map for four days. We are

communications and friends.”- Heather Leson, SBTF volunteer

standbytaskforce.com

Libya Crisis

libyacrisismap.net

The Libya Crisis Map deployed by request of UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Prairie Floods

skfloods.ca mbfloods.ca

SKFloods.ca244 reports

Power Cuts - India

Ajay Kumar: Inspired development

Power Cuts NOKIA Mobile App by Hazel Media

Demo

Frank Lemire - beyondsight.ca

Quote

“We are undergoing a major technology paradigm shift.

Citizens that were once only passive recipients of information, are now contributors to the story.

In the case of crisis mapping, it's the people on the ground that best know the local situation.

Enabling a two-way conversation between affected communities and support groups can allow a faster, more effective response.

The key point is that affected groups have a voice, we only need to listen.”

-Dale Zak, Ushahidi mobile developer

Questions?

ushahidi.com crowdmap.com