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Open Source Tech Used To Monitor Afghan Election

Posted by samzenpus on from the free-as-in-voting dept.

chrb writes "BBC News is reporting on how the Alive in Afghanistan project is helping to oversee the Afghan elections using open-source technologies. The site was set up by Brian Conley, who is also responsible for 'Alive in Baghdad', 'Alive in Mexico', and who was arrested for filming protests in China last year. The Afghan site uses FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi to process and visualize SMS texts from Afghani citizens, allowing reports from all over the country to be rapidly collated and re-distributed globally."

8 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. hope it works by thexdane · · Score: 1, Insightful

    i hope it works, tho somehow i doubt it will do anything even if there is a lot of corruption

    1. Re:hope it works by causality · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bin Laden will never be captured or killed. He's one hellava resourceful SOB. That, and he has prophet-like status among his twisted followers that will die for him.

      He makes a fine Emmanuel Goldstein.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    2. Re:hope it works by Admiral+Ag · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The election is a farce, as is the Afghan government, which relies on the support of a federation of armed tribal gangs. Another fake election just like the South Vietnamese ones, held mostly to make our moron governments look good. The BBC in particular is pushing this line of bullshit, for which its members deserve to be abandoned in Afghanistan for the amusement of the locals.

      Osama and his friends are long gone to Pakistan, it seems, and so the "coalition of the idiots" is now stuck in a country where every single attempt at military imposition of a government has failed, and where the largest ethnic group is more or less excluded from power (apart from Karzai, who is a puppet). The Afghans should be left to their own uncivilized devices, but that would be to admit failure (which is inevitable).

      The story is that stabilizing Afghanistan is supposed to stop the terrorists from attacking us. What a pity they've all fucked off to a completely different country then. But since that's the only excuse our glorious leaders have got, we'll just have to keep hearing the same old crap, and it will go on and on until the coalition is forced to withdraw and the terrorists will have achieved their aim of doing to the West what they did to the Soviets.

      --
      "by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
    3. Re:hope it works by KTheorem · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Bin Laden will never be captured or killed. He's one hellava resourceful SOB. That, and he has prophet-like status among his twisted followers that will die for him.

      He makes a fine Emmanuel Goldstein.

      My first thought upon reading that was a pleasant "Wow. That's pretty insightful." Then I was revolted upon reviewing it and coming to the same conclusion once again. Well done (and screw you for bringing me down ;-) )

    4. Re:hope it works by commodoresloat · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Wait a minute - bin Laden's Jewish?

    5. Re:hope it works by tsa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You may have been modded Flamebait but I agree with you completely. The whole Afghanistan elections are a waste of time and effort. We should never have gone there.

      --

      -- Cheers!

  2. Re:hilarious by Jurily · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How hilarious would it be if Afghanistan ended up with a more verifiable vote than the U.S. because they used open source technology to track the election?

    It doesn't matter as long as people think a) two candidates are enough, and b) they can let the ruling elite choose those candidates.

  3. Results or election results? by lsdi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I wonder if walls can protect castles of cards.