Weekly: Code release testing, LA Times & ICCM

Happy Week! We have some gems from the community from language to "how To's". We're testing the 2.6 code and have an Android update.

Into the Community

Deployment of the Week:

The Deployment of the Week is L.A. Sidewalks. About the project "Los Angeles city leaders have spent months discussing the best strategy for assessing the condition of thousands of miles of broken and buckled sidewalks. With the total cost of repairs expected to reach $1.5 billion, officials warn an exhaustive survey of the damage could take three years to complete and cost more than $10 million. Readers can submit reports to the Times' own database of damaged sidewalks by snapping a picture and uploading it to our online form, sending an email to latimessidewalks@gmail.com with the photo as an attachment, or tweeting a photo with the address using the hashtag #lasidewalks."

Localization and Translation

Ushahidi is now in Gaeltacht (Gaelic). Thanks to Tommy Kavanagh for translating the software. We are always looking for more translation help. Check out our Localization and Translation wiki pages for details on how to get started.

Community Resources

Olga Werby presented on behalf of Ushahidi at the Bridge Summit:

2012 10-05 bridge presentation 02 from OlgaWerby

New Training

We're delighted when folks create How to Videos. Our friends at the Wimax Monitoring project created this "Get Alerts" video.

Into the Code:

Next Community Developer call

We'll be talking about Ushahidi v.3 and more on the next community Developer call. Times: This will be in the Africa/Europe friendly evening timezone. We alternate timezones monthly. How to join Toronto (Canada - Ontario) 2:00:00 PM | EDT London (United Kingdom - England) 7:00:00 PM BST Nairobi (Kenya) 9:00:00 PM EAT Prague (Czech Republic) 8:00:00 PM CEST Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates - Abu Dhabi) 10:00:00 PM GST Accra (Ghana) 6:00:00 PM GMT San Francisco (U.S.A. - California) 11:00:00 AM PDT Tokyo (Japan) Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 3:00:00 AM JST Corresponding UTC (GMT) Monday, October 22, 2012 at 18:00:00

Android Update:

We've made some updates to app. You can download this from Google Play.

Testing 2.6

A quick heads up, there is a code-freeze currently in effect. There is a 2.6b branch on github which is what we are testing in preparation for 2.6 version of Ushahidi Core. Development can still continue but on the develop branch on github. For testing, you can either do one of the following:

Use http://testing.ushahidi.com

Administrator credentials are: Username/email = testing@ushahidi.com, password = admin

B: There are key areas to focus on for this release, notes can be found on the wiki. However, feel free to test other parts or the whole platform.

Download the code and test from your servers. Make sure its the branch 2.6b

The test scenarios and bug tracking plan can be logged here.

Help Wanted:

Ju$txt is a new ICT4D initiative trying to track corruption through SMS and online reports. We are looking for techies with experience in javascript to help change some Ushahidi plugins to fit a slightly modified use case. Specifically we need people with experience working with the new mapping system in Ushahidi 2.5 and the Ushahidi UI. Please contact Ralph at Ralph@justxt.org.

Events:

The big event in DC this week is the International Conference of Crisis Mappers. It is all sold out. Virtual participation is welcome for RHOK @ ICCM. Find us on Twitter via the hashtag #ICCM. We'll try to stream the pitches. Jaroslav Valuch presented Ushahidi in Czech Republic last week: Team Jaya in Indonesia: reintroducing #Ushahidi, location-based crowdsourcing tool revisualized as map with video&pic feat. #HAC2012 David Kobia attended the Gates meeting: "...My main takeaway is the fact that, whereas not as many people participated in social media years ago, everyone is in now, and I guess the main problem now is how do we make it useful, because there is such a deluge of information."

Research:

Call for Papers for ISCRAM2013 is out !!! Deadline for Full Papers is November 15. Details and more details. Ushahidi was mentioned in the Global Civil Society 2012: Ten Years of Critical Reflection. (book)