Grassroots Relief Using Ushahidi

[babylonsister]

Grassroots Relief

by Kristen Saloomey


University students have always been known for their activism, but I just met a group at Columbia University's School of Public Administration (SIPA) who are using technology to take it to a new level.

They are volunteers who have been holed up in the basement of the school's library, despite their exams, ever since an earthquake struck Chile.

They work in shifts from a tiny room without windows, amid half-eaten snacks and potato-chip wrappers, but they are able to have a direct impact on how aid is delivered to the people in Chile - thanks to an amazing new tool available right on their laptops.

They are using an open source - meaning anyone can use it - software program called Ushahidi. Ushahidi allows them to take information provided by text messages, email, and twitter and create a "crisis map" of where help is needed.

It gives people on the ground the ability to communicate directly with aid organisations, who are in turn using Ushahidi to co-ordinate their relief efforts. The concept is known as "crowd sourcing".

"It's an incredible tool," Jaclyn Carlsen, a student organiser, told me. "Our whole goal is to match resources with needs and we do this almost in real time."

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/17-4

[Brickbat]

1. I read about this in the Sunday NYT. Fascinating.

[mstinamotorcity]

2. Very interesting

+ 1:hi: