Weekly: Crowdmap Teaser, Omidyar Report on Entrepreneurship in Africa

In the weekly, we've got Crowdmap teasers, a water stewardship Deployment of the Week and are featuring the Omidyar Report on Accelerating Entrepreneurship in Africa. Upcoming events: This coming week we have a number of Google Hangouts on Research and Software (Crowdmap). Hope you'll join us.

Into the Code

Crowdmap's Public beta release is days away. The community, team and beta testers have been adding content and kicking the tires. While I'm fairly bias, Crowdmap is looking beautiful! Here's a peak at the Photo View: We can't wait to share it you. If you are a Crowdmap Classic, have no fear as both services will run simultaneously. See our wiki article comparing the two Crowdmaps. On May 6th, Join our Team Crowdmap Google + Hangout on Air to get a demo and ask questions. **** Reminder that tomorrow is the 2.7 release for the Ushahidi platform. Bugs stomped and more.

From the Community

We always say that a map project is better with local community meetups and programming around it. Well, Great Lake Commons is on the case. Last weekend they held a workshop at the Council for Canadians' Great Lake Commons Water Forum. Paul Baines and his team have programming plans for the summer to connect water stewardship from the lakes to the map.

Congratulations Great Lake Commons - you are Deployment of the Week

The Map mission: "To protect and sustain these waters, first we need to strengthen the bonds between the citizens and organizations who care deeply about them. By sharing our care, worry, and wisdom we can multiply our big ambitions. Our relationship with the Great Lakes needs a fundamental shift. The current approach is comfortable diluting pollution, managing risks, marketing resources, and building exclusive playgrounds and vistas. So our second task is to define and practice a Commons ethic. The waters are a shared Commons and should be respected as a gift. The Great Lakes give us life, identity, and a shared duty to revitalize them. Rather than responding, a Commons ethic leads us toward a new vision based in relationships, belonging, and collaboration." Great Lake Commons was featured in April's On the Commons newsletter Other articles: Reclaiming Great Lake Commons New Website Maps what we share around the Great Lakes (See more Deployments of the Week.)

Research

First up an Event reminder: Our friends from Ihub Research are joining us for an Umati Google Hangout on Tuesday, May 7th. *** There have been some great articles and research items posted this week. Omidyar released a new report: Accelerating Entrepreneurship in Africa: Understanding Africa’s Challenges to Creating Opportunity-driven Entrepreneurship. "We are happy to report that a culture of entrepreneurship is growing in Sub-Saharan Africa, with indicators related to entrepreneurial motivations at least on par with or higher than global peers. However, despite these positive signs, the business landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa provides a number of challenges that prospective entrepreneurs must transcend. This report outlines the opportunities and challenges for Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the key recommendations that we believe will spur the continent forward." Ushahidi and our community is fortunate to have support from Omidyar. There are many entrepreneurs working at the ihub in Nairobi and across the continent. It is exciting to see them learn and grow! *** A few weeks ago the Guardian hosted an online chat about Making ICTs work for Social Justice and Development. Read up on the best bits: "A tool is only as good as the wider project: Successful projects need a mandate, a plan, a target audience and set metrics before any tool is applied. When people come to me asking about using Ushahidi to map their data, I ask them to prove to me why they need a map, and ask what their offline and online programme is outside of the technology." *** Poynter cites Ushahidi as one of the 10 Digital Tools Journalists can use to improve their online storytelling. *** Imagine our delight to find Dr. Jason Vanhorne has created an online course "Crowdsource Mapping with Ushahidi: Twitter and Social Media" to help you get started on your Ushahidi project. While we were not involved in the project, we hope that it helps you on your journey! *** George Chamales wrote this brief on Crowdsourcing in partnership with the Wilson Center. http://www.scribd.com/doc/138508756/Towards-Trustworthy-Social-Media-and-Crowdsourcing *** Happy Mapping!