Can Ushahidi be used for business?

Ushahidi
Nov 1, 2010

Ushahidi platform is probably Kenya's biggest export since 2008; I can not think of any other product that has attracted interest from such a cross section of media like Ushahidi has. If the the ministry of tourism was paying for adverts, they would have paid lots of money for the airtime received. For many people, Ushahidi is mainly a humanitarian tool but that notion is slowly changing. Ushahidi can also be used to generate income, provided of course you do not sell it; its open source :) What would be a better way to explore ways a developer can benefit from Ushahidi, than a talk with Mark Kaigwa at the October Community meeting. He is a guru is social business! During the session, Mark identifies ways a developer can earn income by using Ushahidi. Here are some of the tips:

Charging for API access

Consultancy services- e.g when an organization doesn't want to hire a new person, they can outsource the business to you. Charges will relate to implementation and training.

Creating products on top of ushahidi platform

A developer can develop something for the community and charge premium rate for the service or get a sponsor. Someone cave an example of mapping a popular product and getting a company to sponsor.

So, if you are wondering whether you can use Ushahidi, pop in at ihub.co.ke for the November session tomorrow (Tuesday Nov. 2nd) at 5.30 pm for further discussions and networking.