At the Civicus World Assembly (http://www.civicusassembly.org/), I joined a panel to talk on Integrating Mobile into Civil Society Technology projects September 11, 2011 Montreal, QC The integration of mobile phones/applications and Internet technologies into formats that are easy to access and use creates further inclusionary platforms that require little technical skills, relatively little time investment and information flows in multiple directions that encourage discussion. This culminates in the growing availability of locally and globally relevant content to facilitate knowledge-building, community building and speedy mobilisation of groups to transform their world, in addition to giving civil society advocates a timely and speedy voice in global decision making processes.

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. Communication
(Photos of the Kenyan Railway Museum)

5. 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

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

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

8. 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

9. Checkins (CI)
Quick location update which can include an optional photo and
description, sharing “I am here”.
bit.ly/checkins_purpose

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

14. Community + Plan
(Photo by Jon Schuler)

15. 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)

16. Building Bridges: 6000 SMS messages

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

20. E
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E
http://www.fixyourstreet.ie/

21. A
S
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http://powercuts.in/

22. O
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A
N
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http://eq.org.nz/

23. S
O
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T
H
A
M
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R
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http://www.miradorelectoralguatemala.org/ushahidi-new/

24. N
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H
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M
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R
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http://vtirene.crowdmap.com/

25. A
F
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A
http://lagostraffic.crowdmap.com/

26. Questions?
ushahidi.com crowdmap.com