Ushahdi was the original website that implemented maps in its framework to identify the reports of violence in Kenya following the post-election fallout f 2008. Ushahidi means testimony in Swahili. The site began for Kenyans to inform the public on the incidents that are happening in the world around them.
Ushahidi is a non-profit tech company that specializes in developing free software for visualization, information collection and interactive mapping. Since then, Ushahidi has come to represent the collaboration of student journalists, as well as the platform that has developed what is now called Crowdmap. The Ushahidi group has gained international attention for calling online volunteers to get involved in mapping out the disasters that occur throughout time, and the tool helps upload information more quickly and more effective than the government.
Crowdmap is a digital tool aimed for citizens to map incidents of violence, disasters or crisis reliefs. According to Patrick Meier, Director of Crisis Mapping says, “ crowdmapping refers to the action many people coming together over the Internet to create a map that is as up-to-date as possible.”
Crowdmap first launched in 2008. As a journalist, accuracy and the sequencing of events are very crucial. Crowdmapping is beneficial during a disaster situation for all journalists. It could inform the public on the happenings around them and urge everyone to be involved. Despite the fact that it could inform the public on the happenings around them, it can also provide further information of the victims of the disaster, and offer specific locations of the disasters for the press and public.
Besides its user-friendly access and software, Crowdmap is an important tool because it is accessible to anyone and deployable worldwide. It manages to keep residents and citizens current on vital information of a disaster. It gives voice to the voiceless and allows everyone the opportunity to be a journalist and report the news as it is happening around them. Most recently, it has been used to track disasters in Haiti and the Philippines. It also manages to give quality data of the people in the field.
For Crowdmap, place, location and time matter, and you are able to gather information from anywhere in the world in real-time. Before Crowdmap, posting disaster through text messages and twitter were not used as widely to see the severity of the disasters. Director Patrick Meier says “The more information about the disaster you can make public- either through posts to the Internet or text messages- the better chance that the information will make its way to someone who can help.”
The former Ushahidi, now called Crowdmap was not originally conceived as user-friendly. It has since been changed to facilitate every user with the web application. If you are ever in a violent protest, you can post it to your tab and attach news reports, videos and photos.
Some barriers that the application faces include: deployments are geographically limited for certain natural disasters such as oil spills and earthquakes. Also, users need to know the address of a specific deployment in order to submit reports and it’s challenging to reach a certain level of rapidity.
Thus, alerts can be captured via cell phone, laptop or smart device. Once information is collected at the scene, volunteers collaborate on the Internet and post it to the map. It can contribute to locate people with the most critical needs.
The apps are reported in real time and the tool’s goal is to improve the community’s needs.