The team behind Ushahidi (Ory, David, Juliana and myself) have all been quite busy over the last couple weeks. Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve been up to.

• Juliana, David and myself met about a week ago to discuss what an Ushahidi 2.0 might look like. We’re exploring creating a free, open source version, rebuilt from the ground up that anyone will be able to use around the world.
• Ushahidi is a finalist in the NetSquared Challenge, a competition amongst mashup applications to win some money for further development. David and I will be going to San Francisco in just over a week to represent Ushahidi. Thank you all for helping us get this far!
• I gave a talk yesterday at the Where 2.0 conference where I gave some of the history behind what we did, and explained why tools like Ushahidi are needed.
• Ory and I have been working to create Ushahidi as an organization so that we can start to receive funding and do more work on the project. We’re looking for more developer/programmer types who would like to pitch in on this too!

We’ll keep you posted on any other news, and there’s some big news coming…

We’re proud to announce that Ushahidi has been voted in as one of the 21 finalists for a chance at the NetSquared Mashup Challenge $100,000 prize money for further development. Thank you to everyone who voted and has made this a reality!

Next Steps
We need you to leave comments on our blog (here) or project profile with your thoughts, opinions and offers to help. If you want to be involved in growing this African-led project to the world, get in touch with us and we’ll make you part of our extended development team. We need all the help we can get!

Again, thank you so much for your support. We truly wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you going through the (lengthy) voting process. Personally, I hope that we get a number of you on board as part of the Ushahidi team.

The clip below gives a glimpse into the Nancy’s ardous life at an IDP camp near Mathare. It is very difficult for her, being pregnant and trying to survive in an unsanitary environment, where food, water and cooking fuel is scarce.

The clip was filmed by Slum-tv reporters, who had been reporting on life in Mathare through the eyes of the residents themselves. Slum-tv continued to document the disruption of communities due to post election violence, by featuring first hand reports from Mathare slums in Nairobi. You can find more videos, information and blogposts on the Slum-tv site.

Today is January 27th 2008. On this day last month, Kenyans voted in large numbers, with long queues in many voting stations. Late into the night on the 27th and early morning on the 28th, the votes were counted and the country waited for an announcement of their leaders. On the 29th, the parliamentary results trickled in amidst tension, little to no information from the Electoral Commission of Kenya; many political old guards being defeated in the polls and rising anxiety as most people started to feel like something was not right. On the 30th it was clear something was that something was definitely wrong. ‘What have they done?‘. The day wears on and Kibaki is announced as the winner of the elections. It is a sad day for Kenya. People are killed in various parts of the country, houses are torched in Eldoret, on the 30th and even more people are killed on the 31st (some by the military). January 1st, an attack at a church in Eldoret. A Kenyan Jurist contemplates the election petitions.

Kenya is not the Kenya we knew anymore.

Reuters has a chronology of events from January 1st to the 19th, including the mediation attempts of President John Kufuor of Ghana, and continued violence in the country.

Continuing from the above chronology, using reports on Ushahidi and bloggers in Kenya:
Jan 20th - continued violence with houses burned in Nandi Hills, Economic boycott announced by ODM

Jan 23rd - Kofi Annan begins talks with Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki. A handshake and a press conference. Verbal attacks between the protagonists continue.

Jan 24th - Aspirant in Cherangany seeking information that was supposed to have been given to him and others 48 hrs from Dec 28 by ECK, told to ‘Go to the Headquarters’

Jan 25th - Violence in Nakuru. A haven of Peace no more. The Kenyan Army deployed there to quell the violence, a curfew from 7pm-6am imposed on the town.

Jan 26th - Update from Nakuru - more violence, fears of more militia arriving in Nakuru.

**Continued thanks to the many contributors to Ushahidi.com. We value your reports and the entries continue to give witness to what is happening to Kenya. Many thanks too to the peace efforts, humanitarian assistance, donation drives and the countless bloggers around the world.

If you would like to send an incident report to Ushahidi, just enter it into an SMS message and text that to 6007. Make sure you make note of your location.

It’s a little funny that the team behind Ushahidi consists of a number of bloggers, yet we didn’t think of adding a blog to Ushahidi until about a week into it.  The good thing is that it’s now here.

We plan to use this as our main area for updating users on changes, additions and news on Ushahidi.  You’ll likely see some embedded videos from time-to-time as well.  If you have any news, images, video or information that you think would be relevant to readers, use the contact form to get in touch with us.

If you’d like to be in touch with us personally, you can visit our individual blogs at:

Kenyan Pundit

White African

Afromusing

Mentalacrobatics