during the post election violence 3 years ago. The government denied how widespread the violence was. International organizations that had a mandate to monitor the elections were refusing to share information. The mainstream media couldn’t be everywhere at the same time and could not report on all the killing and massive human rights abuses. But the crowd is always there.
So 4 Kenyan friends launched Ushahidi—which means witness in Swahili-- to crowdsource the reporting of human rights abuses across Kenya. They set up a dedicated SMS number so that Kenyans could text in reports on human rights violations. By doing so, the crowd was able to document human rights violations that would otherwise have gone completely undocumented. Ushahidi means witness in Swahili So Ory, Erik, David and Juliana launched Ushahidi within a matter of days. Ushahidi means witness in Swahili and the platform allowed individual Kenyans to send in reports of human rights abuses via SMS. By crowdsourcing crisis information,
Within a couple days, the number of reports on Haiti surged across the information ecosystem and we simply couldn’t keep up with all the information coming in.
Ushahidi is a free and open source platform from Africa which allows individuals to collaborate in producing live maps of the world around them. We’ve designed Ushahidi so that there is no one single point of failure when reporting to the map. Users can use SMS, voicemail, email, Twitter, dedicated smart phone apps, web-based forms, pictures, video footage and soon Facebook and Skype as well to submit information to the map.
So 4 Kenyan friends launched Ushahidi—which means witness in Swahili-- to crowdsource the reporting of human rights abuses across Kenya. They set up a dedicated SMS number so that Kenyans could text in reports on human rights violations. By doing so, the crowd was able to document human rights violations that would otherwise have gone completely undocumented. Ushahidi means witness in Swahili So Ory, Erik, David and Juliana launched Ushahidi within a matter of days. Ushahidi means witness in Swahili and the platform allowed individual Kenyans to send in reports of human rights abuses via SMS. By crowdsourcing crisis information,
Ushahidi is a free and open source platform from Africa which allows individuals to collaborate in producing live maps of the world around them. We’ve designed Ushahidi so that there is no one single point of failure when reporting to the map. Users can use SMS, voicemail, email, Twitter, dedicated smart phone apps, web-based forms, pictures, video footage and soon Facebook and Skype as well to submit information to the map.
Ushahidi is a free and open source platform from Africa which allows individuals to collaborate in producing live maps of the world around them. We’ve designed Ushahidi so that there is no one single point of failure when reporting to the map. Users can use SMS, voicemail, email, Twitter, dedicated smart phone apps, web-based forms, pictures, video footage and soon Facebook and Skype as well to submit information to the map.
Ushahidi is a free and open source platform from Africa which allows individuals to collaborate in producing live maps of the world around them. We’ve designed Ushahidi so that there is no one single point of failure when reporting to the map. Users can use SMS, voicemail, email, Twitter, dedicated smart phone apps, web-based forms, pictures, video footage and soon Facebook and Skype as well to submit information to the map.
Between them, these volunteers mapped over 3,500 individual reports from hundreds of sources and you can see just how densely populated the map was. Not only that, but the map was being updated every 10-15 minutes with dozens of new dots, this map was truly alive.
Ten days later, Craig Fugate, the head of FEMA noted in a public statement or Tweet that the map was the most comprehensive and up-to-date map available. Lets think about that for a minute. This map was not launched by professional first-responders or humanitarian experts or search and rescue teams on the ground. It was launched and maintained by hundreds of student volunteers some 1,500 miles away from the disaster using a platform from Africa. None of them ever set foot in Haiti. We are entering a more multi-polar system of humanitarian response where students and universities stand to become a more important actors in crisis response regardless of geography.