Bulgaria Employs Online Tools to Ensure Safe and Fair Elections
BY Jessica McKenzie | Thursday, May 9 2013
While some activists threaten violence in the run up to Bulgaria’s upcoming election on May 12, others have created online tools to help inform voters and safeguard the electoral process.
Read MoreInternet You Can Actually Stick in a Suitcase
BY Jessica McKenzie | Tuesday, May 7 2013
More than six months after Hurricane Sandy knocked Verizon’s landlines and Internet service out of commission, there are New Yorkers still waiting for their Internet to come back online. While a rarity in the States, unreliable access is not so uncommon in developing countries. A new device from Ushahidi hopes to solve that problem. Read More
Mapping Violence Against Journalists, Social Media Users and Bloggers in Mexico
BY Jessica McKenzie | Friday, May 3 2013
In a country where 87 journalists have been killed and 17 have disappeared since 2000, a new crowdsourced map offers a safe way to report and record attacks against journalists, bloggers, Facebook and Twitter users. A combined effort between Freedom House and the International Center for Journalists, as of May 3 the map already had 48 reports. Reports included physical, judicial, psychological and digital attacks.
Read MoreIn Syria, Can Crowdmapping Technology Help Women Under Siege Find Justice?
BY Anna Therese Day | Tuesday, February 26 2013
Human rights organizers utilize crowdmapping technology for the first time in history to document sexualized violence in Syria’s ongoing war. Read More
Can Technology and "Testimony" Prevent Violence in Kenyan Elections?
BY Sara Jerving | Wednesday, February 6 2013
Community organizers, activists and civil society workers are hoping a mix of technology and on-the-ground organizing can stave off political violence around Kenya's upcoming elections. Read More
For Recovering Liberia, Tech Hub a High-Speed Link to a Digital Future
BY Tamasin Ford | Tuesday, January 22 2013
Struggling to recover from a devastating civil war, few Liberians have access to computers or even electricity. In the capital city of Monrovia, an Ushahidi initiative called iLab Liberia is an oasis where instructors teach courses in everything from basic computer skills to programming languages. Read More
As Prop, Cudgel or Sensor, Digital Maps Have a Future in Global Activism
BY Lisa Goldman | Wednesday, January 16 2013
Over the past five years, mapping has become an indispensable part of our daily lives, whether it is used for commercial purposes or crisis management. While some development workers and community organizers feel it is overhyped as a tool for certain types of crisis management, crisis workers and aid agencies find it indispensable. Read More
In Egypt, Digital Maps Start a Conversation About Harassment that Continues In the Street
BY Lisa Goldman | Friday, November 30 2012
Several months before the Egyptian revolution, a group of Cairo-based volunteers launched Harassmap, an Ushahidi-based interactive map that provides a visualization of reported sexual harassment incidents. Two years later, the organization has grown and secured its funding. But what role has mapping played in their community outreach work? Read More
Crisis Tracker: An Open Source Map that Curates Crowdsourced Information
BY Lisa Goldman | Thursday, November 1 2012
An open source map mines data from Twitter, curates it and presents it with an Ushahidi-like interface. Read More
Ushahidi and the Long Tail of Mapping for Social Change
BY David Eaves | Monday, July 9 2012
A new website called DeadUshahidi launched recently with the express purpose of tracking Ushahidi mapping projects that experienced little use. While the Ushahidi team responded in good form, but it was hard not to see the website as a shot across its bow.
David Eaves explores why there are so many Ushahidi-powered mapping projects that appear to have fallen by the wayside — and why that might actually be a good thing for people who want to use geospatial data for social change.
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