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Ushahidi Helps Track Everything From Election Violence to Oil Spills (Video)
Wikipedia says,
"Ushahidi, Inc. is a non-profit software company that develops free and open-source software (LGPL) for information collection, visualization, and interactive mapping. Ushahidi (Swahili for 'testimony' or 'witness') created a website in the aftermath of Kenya's disputed 2007 presidential election (see 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis) that collected eyewitness reports of violence reported by email and text message and placed them on a Google Maps map." Ushahidi has also been used to map some of the BP oil spill damage in Louisiana and many other events both positive and negative around the globe. This is a mature project, headquarted in Kenya, that recently spun out the BRCK, a "go anywhere, do anything, self-powered, mobile WiFi device," which looks like it would be useful in bringing Internet connectivity to places where the electricity supply is unreliable. || According to Ushahidi, today's interviewee, Rob Baker, "is responsible for overseeing company deliverables and is a lead on communications strategies. Previously, with a 10-year background in software development and with his field experience for aid programs, Rob was a lead for Ushahidi deployments around the world, primarily working in East Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. He’s spoken at the United Nations, World Bank, government, hackathons, and at technical conferences." (Alternate Video Link)
The judge is powerless on the world stage and beholden to the defendants.
I don't know, but it sounds alien and terroristey to me! Are you sure it won't blow up in my hands?
Ezekiel 23:20
On another note, a nice cool breeze is now moving slowly off the coast of Africa
I wonder if there's a map of the devastation to structures in Gaza? The news makes it look pretty extensive, but is it really? I wonder...
Can I declare buzzword bingo?
AND NOBODY CARES.
The BRCK seems to be the real story here.
At $200 a pop it is fairly expensive, though considering what it is capable of it's still pretty impressive.
Considering how many connections this could handle it seems like a village could pool resources to buy one or two, connect it to a regional cell tower, and provide reasonable connectivity to all.
Very cool and proven open source project - had been looking into this for emergency preparedness applications here in the U.S. Used since by journalists, rescue operations, NGOs, and general citizenry for gathering and managing crisis/resource data in Haiti, Syria, Gaza, Afghanistan - wherever it's needed. Currently being used to track the ebola epidemic in West Africa. http://blog.crisis.net/syrian-... http://firsttosee.org/
Wow - a Swahili word. They almost seem to be trying to convince people that AFRICANS are capable of designing and building computers, and programming them...
Its not that complicated, its not rocket science...
If an open-source project can't seem to get a name from the many other languages in the world and has to stick with the good-o' Swahili, it exhibits the lack of vision for those in charge - and indirectly it also tells the world that the package will be sub-standard - not because of Swahili per se, but the inability of those involved to expand their vision / skillset
If one really has to stick with an African language, there _are_ other African languages to choose from. Why then only stick with Swahili ?