We already use BRCK. The Ushahidi team spends a lot of time on conference calls. It’s what you do when you have a team spread across seven time zones. Every Monday the whole team gets on a call, but today, as is often the case, the net was down in Nairobi.
We thought the call would be a bust. But this week was different: our Nairobi team had a BRCK! We set up a small network in the iHub, and while the rest of the city was disconnected, only able to get access through their mobile devices, our team had Skype running smoothly and was able to plug away at the code to our heart’s content. We have tried to tether our phones, in the past, but the connection is never strong enough. Today we had the whole team linked up to the BRCK, and it was truly remarkable.
This was a landmark moment for us because this is exactly why we built the BRCK. We were sick of not being able to connect.
We want to extend our gratitude to everyone who has supported our project. Thank you for believing in us, and helping us make the BRCK a reality. We are more convinced than ever that this is a game-changing device that is only going to be more important as more of the world begins to engage in the web.
Learn more about BRCK (Google + Hangout)
Join our Product and Technical teams for a deep dive with BRCK. We’re hosting this Google + Hangout to answer questions and show more ‘under the hood’.
We’re hosting the 3rd Community-wide Upgrade Day on the May 30 – 31, 2013, to help those of you running older versions of the platform get upgraded to the latest and most secure version of Ushahidi.
You can have a look at the complete list of features and bug fixes on the changelog.
Don’t be afraid
We know that upgrading on your own can prove to be a daunting task. Have no fear, this is why we have Upgrade Day. Members of the Ushahidi team and community will be available around the clock on to help you out. The auto-upgrade plugin will also go along way in easing some of you upgrade pains.
Do you need help or Can you help?
We’ve set up a schedule to help match deployers in need and developers. Some deployers have become pros when it comes to upgrading your deployment. Help us get your fellow deployers on the latest version (and make them pros too ) Upgrade Day is for two days across multiple timezones.
Sign up, and be sure to add your contact information on the schedule
Your map, your language. It is our mission to localize and translate Ushahidi with our community into your language of choice. We know that having a map in the local language increases accessibility and usage. Maps are story telling devices but better when in your own words.
Translators without Borders facilitates the transfer of knowledge from one
language to another by creating and managing a community of NGOs who need
translations and professional, vetted translators who volunteer their time to help.
The Translation Project
Translate Ushahidi software completely in KiSwahili
In January, our localization for KiSwahili was at approximately 60% for Ushahidi_Web and our mobile apps. We partnered with Translators without Borders for Uchaguzi Kenyan Elections project. The result is that now any Ushahidi community member can use this language set at 100% for their projects. Each organization had a community and toolset to get us there. Translation Without Borders team members used the project to try out a new tool: MemoQ. Ushahidi’s community uses Transifex for our translation community. Leading up the election, you can see the edits for March in our translation dashboard.
Support Real-time translation of SMS messages for Uchaguzi live mapping
(March 1 – 7, 2013)
While having our software in KiSwahili is a priority, the most intensive and exciting parts of this collaboration was the “Real-time translation.” I’ve written previously about how our community has changed us:
“The Translation team is a combination of trained professionals at Translators without Borders and digital participants from Kenya and beyond. The transition to being deeply inside a software deployment had a steep learning curve. But, it was fantastic to see reports quickly translated. Being fast paced on global teams is hard enough, try doing it in a few languages like these folks.”
Rebecca Petras, Translators without Borders, and I had a talk a week ago about the big lessons that we learned in our collaboration. Truly, this applies to the whole project, but especially our mighty translation team.
Real-time global collaboration is a new for most people.
Ushahidi software needs optimization for translation workflow.
We taught our collective communities: new tools, new workflow, and new collaboration methods
The community was in “make” and “edit” mode. This means we mentored and learned from each other.
The Translation team almost had triple the work as they did all of the above in multiple languages.
For the whole project, some of the key barriers and ‘growing joys’ were:
language barriers, cultural norms, digital literacy, different skill-sets, global 24/7 time shifting, new relationships, new partnerships, multiple tools, and, of course, the fast pace of information.
Getting into the flow and incorporating all of these elements some time and tenacity, but the win was in the words and reports. Rebecca advised that Translators without Border’s team strengthened because of their participation. Ushahidi’s team and community (including the Translation without Borders team) were able to provide citizen voice to multi-lingual reporters because of the efforts and quality that our translation communities delivered. Thank you.
احب الخريطة…J’aime les cartes…Maps are Love…ramani ni upendo
Updates to user navigation menus – including admin dashboard access from the app
Support for Google maps v2 for Android.
Ushahidi Java SDK
We have removed the verbose code in interacting with the Ushahidi API to a stand alone Java library which we are calling Ushahidi Java SDK. This will enable Java developers to easily work with the Ushahidi API in their Java projects. We have gone ahead and integrated the SDK into the Ushahidi Android app Core library in the spirit of eating our own dog food. What this means for developers is that, they can easily extend the core features of the Core library. You can head over to our github repository for documentation on the public APIs exposed by the SDK.
Google Maps v2 for Android
Additionally, we have-added Google Maps V2 For Android and removed support for the old Google maps for android. This allows us to take advantage of the new APIs. We now have support for OSM and Mapbox tiles. If you go to the settings screen, you should be able to set which map tile to use. By default Google is selected.
User navigation menu updates
We have also added Menu Drawer support to provide quick and easy navigation to other areas of the app, regardless of which screen you are on. To access the menu drawer, swipe from the left side of the screen or simply tap the Ushahidi icon on the action bar — top left.
You can access your deployment Admin Dashboard from the Menu Drawer. This makes it easier to administer your Ushahidi deployment on the Go.
There’s more…
As always, there has been a ton of bug fixes. See the changelog for the complete list.
Thank you
Big shout out to the folks at geothings.tw for their immense contribution in the development of the Ushahidi Java SDK and many thanks to the Ushahidi community for their constant feedback and bug reports.
Interested in contributing?
Both the Ushahidi Android and Ushahidi Java SDK are open source projects. Check out their respective github repo to access the code. Your contributions are welcome.
Go on,grab this version of the app and take it for a spin.
Reminder:Have Ushahidi developer chops? Please be sure to let us know if you’d like to do some contract work. We are often contacted by community folks who need a hand. We’d be happy to connect you. Drop me a line with some basic details (Hleson at ushahidi dot com). I have two pending requests on this.
Also, hats off to Trashwag, a previous Deployment of the Week, for ongoing efforts to build their local community network in Toronto: make junk into art!
Imagination abounds – Ushahidi is being used for BIKE OPERA!
Upgrade day for v2.7 is May 30 and 31, 2013. Join the community and team to lend a hand to upgrading. We’ll be sharing more details on this event on Monday.
Community Updates
We love it when our community shines. Ajay Kumar and Svend Jonas Schelhorn have been at ISCRAM (Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management) this week participating in simulation workshop and being Ushahidi mapstars!
Joao Porto de Albuquerquem, Ajay Kumar and Svend Jonas Schelhorn
Are you interested in research about open source, commons and open internet. There is still time to share your knowledge at the Creative Commons Global Summit 2013 (due May 24, 2013). or participate in Citizen Lab’s Connaught Summer Institute (due June 1, 2013). Keep us posted if you’d like to write about Ushahidi. We’d love to support your research efforts.
With work on the new UI almost done, team swift is working on integration of CrowdmapID into the system for purposes of authentication. Data migration from the old version to the new version should also be done in the coming weeks. Watch out for fresh documentation on the wiki, with code samples on the way .
Mobile
We are all geared up for the release of v3.1.6 of the Android App on May 16, 2013. See the issues tackled in the upcoming release on the github issues page.
BRCK
It has been an incredible first week, we are truly thankful for all of you that have supported us and helped to spread the word. We are about 66% of the way to our goal with 20 days to go.That’s with 582 backers and $86,555 raised – thank you!! Here is a visual representation of how we envision the BRCK as an onramp for the Internet of Things.
The team has made more strides towards having V3 API work done, including OAuth integration and Sets (to be merged in after review). Our docs are on the wiki and our github repository. Contact us via via the dev mailing list, skype chat or even personal email to dive into the code.
Crowdmap
Bug squashing is ongoing, so keep sending in your feedback to the team, as it will go a long way in helping make your experience on Crowdmap even better. You can also file bug reports and feature requests on our github issues page. Work on the API is also ongoing, and we’re aiming for documentation in the coming weeks.
[This blog series will focus on anti-corruption and transparency mapping. We’ll post about best practices and feature some of the strategies to connect policy and action with online savvy. Resources and Research will live on the: Wiki pages dedicated to Anti-Corruption and Transparency. Today's post is from Tarik Nesh-Nesh, Transparency International Morocco. (Cross-posted from the Transparency International blog). ]
There was a general feeling of excitement and optimism about the new role of technology to promote transparency and accountability at the Transparency International SpeakUp! event which I attended in March 2013. There was quite a buzz about online denunciation tools in particular, and different Transparency International chapters are looking into ways to embrace new tools or improve existing ones to encourage citizens to report corruption cases.
Tarik Nesh-Nash
In February 2012, Transparency Morocco launched the online platform Mamdawrinch.com (which means “We will not bribe”). The aim was to provide a tool for anonymous denunciation to encourage people to speak up and discuss corruption in public. Today, corruption is becoming a mainstream topic and even the government claims to be ramping up the fight against corruption. We are considering moving Mamdawrinch’s mission beyond anonymous reporting to enable interaction with legal advice centres and educate the public on empirical cases and practical tools to fight corruption.
This blog post shares some of the thoughts exchanged on Transparency Morocco’s online reporting tool.
Technology cannot fight corruption. People can.
An online site is not a solution. It is merely a tool. One cannot iterate this statement enough. Technology can empower citizens, raise awareness and pressure authorities. Yet, technology cannot fight corruption; it cannot change cultures, detect problems, propose solutions or amend laws. People can. As we are building online tools, we should remember their raison d’être: they should be part of a broader strategy of engagement and participation.
The author as he explains the idea behind mamdawrinch.com at a global meeting of over 70 representatives of Transparency International’s legal advice centres around the world.
Measuring success
Closely related to the first point, it is important to set clear objectives to measure the platform’s success. In my opinion, objectives should move beyond statistics on the number of site visits to more functional goals. For example, one could look at the number of online visitors who meet with a legal advisor working with one of Transparency Morocco’s legal advice centres in person, the number of online visitors who pursue legal actions – or even better – the number of successes such as a cancellation of a corrupt tender or the dismissal of a police officer who solicited a bribe.
Responding to corruption – feedback and user interaction
Having a feedback loop is crucial. When citizens report corruption cases, they expect at least a reaction, if not a solution to their problem. This is one of the most difficult challenges to tackle when building a reporting tool. In the case of Mamdawrinch, citizen reports are currently published on the site, pinned on a map and shared on Facebook and Twitter. We are realising that this is not sufficient. Users often ask for guidance or label their experience incorrectly as corruption. The site should also provide documentation and interact with users.
A dedicated team
Technology has a cost. In addition to the cost of technical development, the cost of human resources should not be underestimated. Although there is a plethora of free open source software, a successful online experience requires technical work and it certainly requires human support and follow-up to keep analysing and reacting to the reports. Unlike other timely crowdsourcing efforts like crisis mapping or election monitoring where volunteers contribute their time and skills, fighting corruption is a long-term fight. The energy and the excitement tend to wind down with time. In my opinion, it is important to have professionals who keep building the community, bringing the topic to the spotlight and reacting continuously to current affairs. A high quality follow up requires professional dedication from legal advice centres’ staff.
In the case of Mamdawrinch, we learned the hard way that the site could not function without a dedicated team who provides daily support. Today, Transparency Morocco has a full-time person that manages its online presence, and a dedicated legal advice centre team which receives requests through its hotline and offices in Rabat, Fes and Nador. We are now looking into coupling the work of the legal advice centre and Mamdawrinch so that the internet will be another two-way communication channel for legal advice centres.
Decide on strategy before choosing technology
Cool technology is not necessarily the best. A common mishap is to pick the technology before deciding on the online strategy. Engineers are naturally inclined to prefer cool new technologies but this may not be the right fit for what is needed. Here are two examples of cool technologies that were debated when setting up Mamdawrinch: Geomapping and SMS.
Geomapping has become a buzz word and Ushahidi proved to be a powerful, accessible and mature platform. Yet we realised that geomapping hotspots may not be the best way to visualise corruption. It may even be counterproductive: the use of exact geo-location information can be defamatory and unless it is sustained with solid proof, it could lead to legal action. Also, the lack of incidents reported in a geographic area may be interpreted incorrectly as lack of corruption in that area. We are currently considering adding new visualisations to identify hot sectors and trends.
Another cool technology is the use of SMS. While the technical platform is available and mature, its implementation in Morocco would require a continuous payment to the telecom company and another non-trivial cost from the citizen. High costs from both the development and user side can hinder the widespread use of SMS, but with a 120 per cent phone-to-citizen ratio, it is definitely worth exploring.
Working with online leaders
Use social media and build online leaders. If we take Morocco as an example, many young people spend hours per day on social media sites. In this space, we are witnessing the emergence of new types of leaders: online leaders. People who believe in the cause and voluntarily promote the fight. Kudos to people like Layla Barrit, Rachid Adil and Selma Sabaa who are spontaneously raising awareness about transparency using social media and setting examples for other young people. This is an area that deserves more innovation. In 2011, social media users organised popular protests against corruption. This powerful energy should be supported to continue the struggle for transparency and accountability. Continuous improvement. There is no magic solution that can be successfully replicated. If we knew how to efficiently fight corruption, we would have already done so. We should promote innovation and risk-taking to come up with new alternatives. In the software development industry, the ‘Agile Software Development’ methodology is often recommended for problems with changing requirements. Corruption is a perfect example of a shifting field where as soon as we find an antivirus, the virus evolves and a new antivirus needs to be invented to fight it.
I am hopeful that technology will result in systemic change and strengthen transparency and accountability. With the growing use of IT by the government and all sectors, transparency measures will become embedded in the system.
First off, a HUGE thank you to everyone who has tweeted, Facebooked and written about our BRCK project. An even bigger thank you to those who have supported us through some contribution to making the Kickstarter campaign a success. As I write this, we have just topped 500 backers, cleared $75,000 and are at 60% of our goal.
Yes, we still need your help to get to 100%, and appreciate you sharing the Kickstarter link widely.
It’s been a big week at Ushahidi, with the launch of the New Crowdmap, along with the BRCK Kickstarter and the announcement of the MAVC partnership. Everyone on the team is taking a welcome respite from the blitz over the weekend, as we gear up for next week’s follow-up.
During these times of added attention, it brings other voices and eyes to your organization. Sometimes it takes other people looking at what you do, and then talking about it, to better understand yourself. That happened this week with a brilliant post by Nat Bullard titled, “Backup / On ramp / Good enough” where he crystalized what really makes us tick with this:
“We use technology to define the function. Ushahidi uses function to drive the technology.”
The BRCK as backup generator
This idea of a seemingly simple problem of internet connectivity in the parts of the world which have shaky power and net infrastructure is what led us to question the solutions put before us: routers and modems made for the more developed parts of the world. That’s the first part of the story of the BRCK, and it’s the thing that drives us to make it real, as we feel this pain every day ourselves.
The BRCK as glue
The second part of the story on the BRCK leverages that idea of simple connectivity and pushes us to use our core competency, which is web development. It’s where we see that the BRCK is really the glue between the cloud and the internet of things, where you can connect your devices and sensors in the real physical world, and control them from anywhere.
In the Media
There have been some fantastic media pieces this last week, where it seems like the BRCK has struck a chord with people around the world. There will be a few more newsworthy items over the coming weeks before the BRCK campaign ends as well.
MIT’s Technology Review started the week off by digging into how this simple technology makes sense to come from Ushahidi, with our background in crisis/disaster.
Quartz really understood the value of third-party applications and hardware connectivity.
Forbes gets into the details about being offline when the power goes out, and why that doesn’t need to be true.
Since I was in Germany to speak at re:publica, it was great to have coverage by Spiegel.
Matt Berg wrote up a good post, on what excites him about the BRCK, and questions he has for the team.
What a Week! The whole team wants to fall over with all the product delivery. In this week’s report, more about BRCK and Crowdmap Public Beta. Plus, we’ve got a Deployment of the Week from Pakistan and a google hangout all about monitoring Dangerous Speech with the Umati Research.
We’ve started to host more Google Hangouts to better support our busy, global community. Please share widely and keep the questions coming!
Deployment of the Week
The Pakistan elections are tomorrow, May 11th. We recognize Jaag Pakistan as Deployment of the Week.
Jaag Pakistan is a crowd-sourced citizen journalism effort to make a free and fair election a possibility in Pakistan by reporting each and every rigging incident in the country using an online platform. The rigging incidents reports, sent by PTI ground teams and general public, are plotted live on the map on the website by our team of dozens of GIS/Mapping volunteers.
Also, see the Haalaat map, which includes some election reports. This team has a wider mandate. Shan has been working hard on his deployment alongside our Ushahidi Developer community.
The next Ushahidi Community Developer call is scheduled for May 20th, 2013. It is scheduled to be Europe and Africa timezone friendly. Join us!
Upgrade day is scheduled for May 30 -31, 2013. Need help upgrading your deployment to v2.7 of Ushahidi? Join the community and team to lend a hand to upgrading. We’ll share more details as we move closer to the date!
Umati – Monitoring Dangerous Speech
The Umati team presented their ongoing results monitoring Dangerous Speech in Kenya. It is the largest project monitoring Hate Speech in Kenya. Their dataset is massive. Angela Crandall and Kagonya Awori shared results and answered questions in this Google Hangout to air:
With the new version of Crowdmap, it’s easy to predict that mobile users worldwide will collectively breathe a sigh of relief. Personally, I’ve always had a difficult time accessing and efficiently using Crowdmap while on my mobile phone. When I logged into the “New Version” for the first time I was ecstatic to see the improvement when I got to the beta page.
Have questions about new Crowdmap? See our wiki docs and drop us a line at support at crowdmap.com.
Introducing the BRCK!
We recently launched a kickstarter campaign for one of our newest products, BRCK. It will be the easiest, most reliable way to connect to the Internet, anywhere in the world. We’ve crossed the 50% mark in just two days, and are excited to see where this will take us. Thanks you profusely for all your support. We are already rolling up our “delivery” sleeves.
Take a listen to our Hangout for more details:
Ushahidi Core
The team is hard at work crushing bugs in preparation for v2.8, scheduled for release towards the end of June. The Usahidi 3.0 work continues. We promise to have some things to show in the next week. See the code in progress on github.
SwiftRiver
Team swift is looking into Launching the new UI, probably in the coming week. This week they hosted a large project event with a client. We’re looking forward to sharing more about this. The big headline is: A group has built an app on top of the new SwiftRiver API.
Mobile
Henry’s been working on a lot of UI changes for the Ushahidi Android app, including adding admin support into it. He’s also managed to fully integrated the Java SDK into the app, and is hoping to release the next version of the app in the coming week.
MAVC brings together Sweden, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Omidyar Network (ON) to create a $45 million fund to support innovation, scaling-up, and research that will deepen existing innovations and help harness new technologies to enable citizen engagement and government responsiveness.
At Ushahidi we focus on creating technology tools that have both depth and reach. We understand that that to be able to create those tools we need to develop ecosystems that encourage innovation; that allow us to build quality products while maintaining the nimbleness and speed necessary to be able to lead in our industry. With our partners in MAVC we have the opportunity to create, support and grow the technology ecosystem in 12 countries. We will work to support organisations and individuals in those countries to create and execute strategies and tools to positively impact each other and their governments. We will work to develop, strengthen and implement strategies for governments to become more efficient in how they connect with the citizens, for example through opening government data in meaningful ways.
The first Ushahidi map was created in just 6 days to address a problem that needed an immediate solution. Some very successful Ushahidi maps have been running for over 3 years (and counting). From this we learn that each Ushahidi deployment is unique. The problem a Ushahidi map addresses, the opportunity a Ushahidi map seizes are unique to the circumstances in the country and community the deployment is covering. We also learn that each Ushahidi deployment is the same, making voices count for impact. We appreciate that each of the 12 countries that MAVC will work in is unique. By bringing the unique experiences and lessons from all 12 countries together we will discover what we have in common as we learn from each other on how to amplify the voices in our communities.
Ushahidi is a team of programmers and mappers who are constantly on the move. From cafes in San Francisco, to the iHub in Nairobi, to working in crisis situations like the Haiti earthquake. The same goes for our community, a global network of activists, organizers, NGO workers, government personnel, and so many more dealing with these same problems.
Being constantly handicapped with spotty internet access has led us to realize that the way the entire world is connecting to the web is changing. We no longer only get online via desktops in our office. We have multiple, mobile devices which have, for many of us, become the primary means of connecting.
So Ushahidi set out to redesign the modem for the changing way we all connect to the web. We thought it was about time the modem got a makeover.
) Upgrade Day is for two days across multiple timezones.
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