Mobilize your community with
Heather Leson
@heatherleson
hleson@ushahidi.com

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

Communication
(Photos of the Kenyan Railway Museum)

Crowdmap
Crowdmap 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

Collecting Information
Types of Reports:
Web-based Form
Email
SMS
Mobile App
Twitter
Facebook
(...and more)

iPhone / iPad
Ushahidi mobile application for the iPhone and iPad
bit.ly/ushahidi_ios_app

SMSSync
SMSSync 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

Election Monitoring
May 2009 - 202 reports, 20,000 views August 2010 - 1525 reports, 20,000 views
Allow citizen reporting during election Monitor Kenya referendum election
votereport.in uchaguzi.co.ke

Citizen Journalism
December 2010 - 319 reports, 156,859 views April 2011 - a lot reports
Help bring awareness to sexual harassment in Egypt Engaging citizens to help design a better city
harassmap.com bit.ly/ushahidi_pps

Disaster Response
March 2011 - 8,000+ reports, 144,974 views January 2011 - 99,772 reports, 469,744 views
Monitor fallout of tsunami and nuclear crisis Monitor the flooding in Australia
sinsai.info/ushahidi queenslandfloods.crowdmap.com

Community + Plan
(Photo by Jon Schuler)

Key steps to an Integrated Plan
Start
What is the reason to map?
Who owns it?
What are the goals?
Partners/Community?
Which Technology/Technologies?
Feasible?
Budget/Fundraising
Which resources do you need?
Information flow: Inbound/Outbound
Implementation Plan
Marketing/Communications
Verification and Analysis
Review
Revise
Research and Iterate
End
(Diagram by Chris Blow)

Building Bridges: 6000 SMS messages

http://www.buildingbridges.co.ke/joomla/

E
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http://www.fixyourstreet.ie/

A
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http://powercuts.in/

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http://eq.org.nz/

S
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http://www.miradorelectoralguatemala.org/ushahidi-new/

N
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http://vtirene.crowdmap.com/

A
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http://lagostraffic.crowdmap.com/

Questions?
ushahidi.com crowdmap.com