Open Source Crowdsourcing Crisis Information, with an African Twist

The BBC profiles Ushandi (“testimony” in Swahili) an open source tool to crowdsource information in times of crisis. It taps in to mapping backends like Google Maps, Virtual Earth or OpenStreetMap and has been used in Kenya after the recent violence after elections and now in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Congo, two people have phones to collect text messages and post information for those who don’t have access. There is also a process whereby NGO confirm events and provide a credibility score. As Lyn Lusi, founder and programme manager of an NGO called HEAL Africa, puts it, ““It is also very important that this information should be verified because this is also an information war.”