ushahidi at netsquared (loop)

crowdsourcing crisis information

The Ushahidi Story

Ushahidi (v1)rapid development and deployment of

a crowdsourcing mashup

Kenya Elections 2007

Getting from here

To here

In January of 2008 there was a disputed election in Kenya. The incumbent claimed a win and, due to gross irregularities, the opposition refused to accept the results.

What started out as a political fracas quickly devolved down ethnic lines. Government forces and civilians battled it out in the urban slums and rural Kenya.

A media blackout was created and only non-traditional media was in operation...

and cell phones.

Ory Okollohkenyanpundit.com

Our Goals

• Create a way for everyday Kenyans to report incidents of violence that they saw

• Create an archive of news and reports around those same events

• Show where the majority of the violence was happening

Ushahidi Calendar

27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 27

Jan. 10 - 75% of Kenyan bloggers write about Ushahidi

Jan. 12 - MSM pickup: BBC, NPR, Guardian, etc...

violence

idea, production, launch blogging and media

Jan. 3 - The idea of Ushahidi

Jan. 5 - Ushahidi discussed

Jan. 9 - Ushahidi launched

Jan.10 - Added functionality (RSS, SMS, etc...)

Jan. 6 - Ushahidi prototype

Jan. 22 - Ushahidi blog addedJan. 26 - Ushahidi timeline feature

Jan. 10 - Kenyan SMS shortcode partnership

Dec. 27 - Kenyan ElectionsDec. 27 - Dec. 30 - Period of uncertaintyDec. 30 - Jan. 1 - Media blackout

Kenya, January 2008

Rapid Development2 days

Rapid Deployment6 days

Media Hits

100blog posts in week #1

350blog posts by week #3

Ingredients Needed

• Connector

• Champion

• Passionate developers

• Collaboration

• Technical Expertise

• Volunteers

(to get it up in record time)

To Really Get Cooking

• Data gathering - on the ground

• Fear of contradicting government statistics

• Wrestling with verification

• Ability to answer the “why?” question

• Stretched resources - we all wear other hats

(we still need)

Data Gathering

Ushahidi Engine v1:

Kenya (post-election violence)www.ushahidi.com

South Africa (xenophobia attacks)www.UnitedforAfrica.com

Ushahidi engine (v1) being used to map reports of Xenophobia in South Africa

What’s Next?

a free and open source crowdsourcing and visualization tool

Ushahidi Engine (v2)

Ushahidi (v2)Using what we’ve learned to fulfill our primary goals:

1. Create a free, open source and easy tool to get crowdsourced crisis information

2. Help non-profits gather data and visualize that data in multiple ways

News Media

Citizen Generated

NGO data

Government

Public APIsFlickr

YouTubeTwitter

Ushahidi Crisis Mapping

Engine

Map

Timeline

SMS Alerts

RSS

Email

Data Types Input Methods Output Methods

SMSEmail

Web formAPIRSSMMS

• SMS alerts

• Time visualization

• Mapping infrastucture

• Missing persons index

• Bandwidth issues

• ... and many more fun challenges!

from PHP experts to mapping gurus,we need YOUR help with:

The Ushahidi Team

ory okolloherik hersmanjuliana rotich david kobia

www.ushahidi.com

Ory Okolloh (ory@ushahidi.com)NGO relationships, media interviews, verification, blogging

Erik Hersman (erik@ushahidi.com)Website development, media interviews, blogger relationships, blogging

Juliana Rotich (juliana@ushahidi.com)Local citizen outreach, media interest, blogging

David Kobia (david@ushahidi.com)Website development, programming, feature updates