Ushahidi: social media shall bear witness

A group of Kenyan bloggers has put together a Google Maps mash-up called Ushahidi, which means witness in Swahili. Anyone can report the incident that he or she have seen, and it will appear on a Google map for others to see. Those reports are then relayed to local Kenyan NGO’s to get more information and to verify each incident.

This tool was put together in about a week by Erik Hersman (White African), Ory Okolloh (Kenyan Pundit), and David Koboya. The tool is only accessible via web or by SMS. Ushahidi can also be used to highlight the good things that Kenyans are doing for each other during this crisis so if you are tired of all the negative reporting and you have something you would like to share, here is your chance.

Ushahidi is all about Kenya, but I expect a lot of others to pop up over the next few months. All over Africa there are places that can use a tool of this kind. Somalia, Sudan, Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Zimbabwe...the list is long. What Hersman and his team have accomplished demonstrates that a strong online community can make a difference in a time of crisis. The tools are all readily available: open source software make the development cheap; social media makes it possible to broadcast the information; and an engaged public provides the information. With more elections on the way on the continent, Ushahidi might be a model to copy. The next presidential election on the continent is in Zimbabwe.

Picture this: Kenya Post Election pictures on Flickr

There is a Flickr group with over 160 images of the post election violence on Flickr. The images are under copyright and therefore cannot be used freely by anyone, but I am hoping that the owners will move to a Creative Commons model and allow others who do not have access to photographs to make use of these. After all, a photograph says so much more.