Making Ushahidi - Tech4Africa talk

The Making of UshahidiBumps, Fumbles and Lessons Learned

Erik Hersman@whiteafrican

red dots on a map

A small organization that dislikes hierarchy and being told what we can't do.

One that questions everything,

embraces innovative thinking,

takes risks boldly,

and sometimes learns the hard way that we're human after all. 

openness | innovation | communityOur Guiding Values

Ushahidi = Testimony

”“Google Earth supposedly shows in great detail where the damage is being done on the ground. It occurs to me that it will be useful to keep a record of this, if one is thinking long-term. For the reconciliation process to occur at the local level the truth of what happened will first have to come out. Guys looking to do something - any techies out there willing to do a mashup of where the violence and destruction is occurring using Google Maps?

Ad hoc and leaderless

Stretched Resources

david kobiadaudi wereory okolloherik hersmanjuliana rotich

All of us wore many hatsAll of us had full-time jobs

Humanitarian Experience X

Open Source Experience X

Had a Lot of Time X

Blogger

Has it Doesn’t have it

27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 27

Ushahidi Calendar

Jan. 10 - 75% of Kenyan bloggers write about Ushahidi

Jan. 12 - MSM pickup: BBC, NPR, Guardian, etc...

violence

idea, production, launch blogging and media

Jan. 3 - The idea of Ushahidi

Jan. 5 - Ushahidi discussed

Jan. 9 - Ushahidi launched

Jan.10 - Added functionality (RSS, SMS, etc...)

Jan. 6 - Ushahidi prototype

Jan. 22 - Ushahidi blog addedJan. 26 - Ushahidi timeline feature

Jan. 10 - Kenyan SMS shortcode partnership

Dec. 27 - Kenyan ElectionsDec. 27 - Dec. 30 - Period of uncertaintyDec. 30 - Jan. 1 - Media blackout

Brutal decision making

Release earlyDo it yourself

Community = SuccessDon’t wait for money

Technology is only a tool

THE  NEW  AND  REBUIL

T  

USHAHIDI  PLATFORM

!

Make software

Be a response organization

A B

uhh,  this  didn’t  work  

as  we  expected...

Fail spectacularly

Hot Stuff!

Own your failures.

Listen.

Fix your mistakes.

Think different, but don’t stray from the spirit of the organization or the community.

Thank You