USHAHIDI IN THE NEWS

Ushahidi in the News

Forbes Magazine - Citizen Voices
"Ushahidi is the latest effort to "crowd-source" newsgathering on unfolding crises in remote areas via e-mail and mobile phones. The idea is to get immediate attention and relief to strife zones, and fill the gap left by news organizations that have slashed their foreign bureaus."

International Journalists' Network - Online tool allows citizens in crisis to bear witness, report the news
"Okolloh agrees it is time for journalists working within censored media environments to shed their reliance on traditional and print media and seek new and innovative outlets to spread news, such as through citizen journalism and participatory reporting."

PBS - Kenyan Bloggers Innovate to Heal Country
"As depressing as the post-election violence has been for Kenyans and for all who had greater hopes for Kenya's democracy, the crisis has also proved to be an important case study in how online technologies and a passionate core group of citizen media activists can make an important offline diference with their online activities. Ushahidi.com is an amazing step forward in combining SMS text messaging with an innovative Google Maps mashup to offer real time reporting of crisis events. It is a platform that should be studied and replicated as future crises inevitably erupt around the world."

The World (BBC) - Kenya bloggers monitor unrest [podcast]
"Post-election unrest in Kenya has been widespread and hard to monitor in real time. Some concerned bloggers are trying to help. They've set up a website where Kenyans can report on what they see in their own communities. The result: a real-time, web-based map that shows what's happening all across Kenya."

Christian Science Monitor - Cellphone and Internet access helps – and hinders – accurate reporting in Kenya
"An online mapping project depicts violence reported by ordinary Africans. But inaccurate or biased reports can serve to inflame tensions."

UN Dispatch - 'There's been war since this morning.' Reporting Acts of Violence in Kenya
"this new website allows witnesses of violence in Kenya to report on it in real time. The site uses Google Maps to identify the precise location within Kenya where a specific act of violence has occurred, with the acts of violence searchable by category (e.g. death, looting, rape, etc.) For a specific act to appear on the map, the incident must be verified."

Globe & Mail - Geist lauds Net as activist tool
"Social media and the Internet are the newest and most powerful weapons in the activists' arsenal. Protesters in Europe now use Twitter to communicate in real time with fellow supporters, while sites such as Ushahidi.com utilize Google Maps and Google Earth to catalogue violent incidents in Kenya that the local governments don't want recorded or shown to the rest of the world."

Technology Review - Ten Web Startups to Watch
"Now anyone with a mobile phone can become a node on the network. 'Whenever a crisis breaks out and you want distributed data gathering and visualization, our goal is to make it a lot easier to do.'"

Christianity Today - WebWatch: A Witness in Kenya
"Believing that the casualties and violence in Kenya were being grossly underreported, the Kenyan blogging community put together Ushahidi.com. Ushahidi means “witness” in Swahili. The website is mapping out occurrences of violence throughout Kenya, asking witnesses to submit incidents on a detailed form on a computer or by SMS. Kenyan NGOs verify the reports before they are shown on the map."

Guardian - Annan to Mediate in Kenya Election Dispute
"Kenya bloggers have launched an online initiative to track the violence. Ory Okolloh, one of the organisers, said: 'We believe the number of deaths being reported by the government, police, and media is grossly underreported. Reports that all have us have heard from family and friends in affected areas suggests that things are much worse than what we have heard in the media.'"

Global Voices - Kenya: Moving Images of Unrest and Hope "In Ushahidi.com, a report of house burning in Kapsoya near Eldoret is accompanied with a video interview, uploaded on youtube by afromusing, whose accounts of the events pre and post election are quite thorough and terribly moving."

Ethan Zuckerman - Digital Activist Find Ways to Help Kenya
"...it’s a powerful and well-designed tool that will allow citizens to report on the tragic events currently unfolding in the country. The designers promise that SMS support, allowing people to enter reports from mobile phones, is coming soon. Ory, Daudi and others are working with Kenyan NGOs who are monitoring these events to ensure that their reports are included on the map and amplified to a domestic and global audience."

TED Blog - Ushahidi map tool WINS Mashup Challenge!