Ushahidi (“testimony” in Swahili) is an experimental web platform that crowdsources crisis information. People can submit reports via text messaging using a mobile phone, email, or the web. Looks like it can be deployed (sorry, geek speak) for a specific crisis. It was most recently use to track events in Gaza and was also used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Users can submit or track by category: riot, looting, sexual assault… (reads like humanity’s list of shame). The results are aggregated onto a map. They can also upload photos and post links to videos and news stories.
The project is free and open source, with developers from Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Malawi, Netherlands, and the United States. If you’re a developer and would like to participate you can join here.
And on top of everything, the design of their site rocks ;)
Related: Blogging for Good Governance
March 19th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Ushahidi is now running on Windows Mobile devices. See http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2009/03/19/ushahidi-on-windows-mobile-devices/.