Written by: Brian Herbert
When violence broke out in Kenya a few months ago, there were scattered rumors and reports of all sorts of atrocities happening in the country. Churches were burned, reports of police brutality surfaced and riots broke out across the country. It was virtually impossible to keep track of everything that was going on in the areas were I had been stationed only less than a year before.
Rather than incite violence with cell phones in Kenya, Ushahidi made an effort to consolidate all of this information into one convenient mashup. Aside from speaking with my colleagues on the ground in Kenya through Skype and Google Talk, Ushahidi became one of the most valuable resources on the Internet during this time. The concept was simple, take the Google Maps API and add markers over the places where there were reports of violence. Users were able to contribute by reporting violence themselves, bypassing traditional media. This gave people a “faster-than-CNN” look at what was happening on the ground.
What now? The post-election violence in Kenya has died down and there isn’t a need to consistently check a map charting the crisis. Due to the popularity of the mashup and an award of $25,000, Ushahidi has undergone a makeover. The new and improved Ushahidi will open the platform to allow anybody to create their own mashups. These will either be hosted buy Ushahidi or downloaded and installed on an independent server. This is great because the applications for this tool reach far beyond rioting and violent outbreaks in African countries. I can see this being applied to epidemics, natural disasters and any other number of situations where people need up to the minute, geographical information about an event that’s happening.
Not only African countries will find the new Ushahidi useful. I can see this working in Europe and North America as well. Having a tool like this would be useful right now in the Caribbean and the United States with hurricane season in full swing. Most importantly is seeing a project in Africa make an impact on the world as a whole.
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