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Welcome to Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, where we are building a platform that crowdsources crisis information. Allowing anyone to submit crisis information through text messaging using a mobile phone, email or web form.

Join up!

Ushahidi is a free and open source project with developers hailing from Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Malawi, Netherlands and the USA working on it. There are some significant technological challenges and we are always looking for help.

What it does?

The Ushahidi Engine is a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Our goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response.

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Deployments

  • Ushahidi deployed in the DRC Congo

    DRC Congo
    Deployment to the DRC Congo happened on Nov 7, 2008 - the week after our initial release of the alpha version of the new Ushahidi Engine software.

  • Ushahidi in Kenya

    Kenya
    The original deployment of Ushahidi was born during the post-election violence in Kenya in early January 2008. See the first iteration of the engine here.

  • More deployments here

People are talking about Ushahidi

Technology Review
They have formed a nonprofit company and are finalizing funding with a large foundation to turn Ushahidi into a platform that can be deployed easily and rapidly in areas of crisis.
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The World (BBC) (podcast)
"Post-election unrest in Kenya has been widespread and hard to monitor in real time. 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."
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Forbes Magazine
A Kenyan blogger found a way to get information from the crowd. Now she wants to take the idea to other parts of the world in trouble..
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Knight-Batten Award Finalist
Ushahidi is up for a chance to win $10,000 for further development. From the Judges: "This site is a perfect example of just how far-reaching and important citizen journalism can be."
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Upcoming Events

  • Ushahidi at TED 2009

    TED
    February 3-7, 2009
    Long Beach, California

  • Ushahidi invited to the web4dev conference at UNICEF

    web4dev
    February 11-13, 2009
    New York, NY

  • Ushahidi speaking at SXSW Interactive 2009

    SXSW 2009
    March 13-17, 2009
    Austin, Texas

  • Ushahidi at Pop!Tech

    Pop!Tech '08
    October 23-25, 2008
    Camden, Maine