Ushahidi

Announcements

• New Version of FrontlineSMS – upgrade from 2.5 to 2.6
• Wearables in Aid and Development
• This week, 3/30 – Vision Documents due today
• This week, 3/30 – Ushahidi overview
• Next week (4/6-4/10) – Present Vision Documents to Partner Organizations
• Next week, 4/6 – Freedom Fone overview

Vision Documents

Let’s take a few minutes to share a few of your Vision Documents.

Ushahidi

Ushahidi means “testimony” or “witness” in Swahili.

What is it?

Ushahdi is a Company.

Ushahidi is a platform.

Ushahidi is open source software for information collection, visualization & interactive mapping.

Who uses it?

Types of Maps

A Quick Demo

Here’s an example Ushahidi instance we can try out.

Main UI

• The Map
• The Timeline
• Reports

Admin UI

• Dashboard
• Reports
• Messages
• Stats
• Addons
• Settings
• Manage
• Users
• Help

The Apps

• Android
• iPhone

Challenge

• Break up into your groups.
• Download the appropriate app onto each team member’s phone.
• Configure your app by inputing the ushahidi.smithandthompson.net map address
• Optionally configure your app by inputting your contact information to be included in your reports
• Have every team member submit at least one report, try sending a picture or video with your report
• Try submitting a report online through the form on ushahidi.smithandthompson.net
• Try submitting a report by sending an email to ushahidi@smithandthompson.net
• Try submitting a report through SMS by texting to 267-536-3902 (Twilio number) or 856-571-9434 (Huawei dongle)

Assignment

Vision Document

• Revise your Vision Document based upon the feedback given in class or through email
• Get together with your group and create a ‘master’ Vision Document to serve as a Design Brief/roadmap for your project concept
• Email me a link to your master Vision Document and I’ll post it to your partner organization’s Parter Page on the class blog.
• Prepare to present your Vision Document to your Partner Organization next week (the week of April 6th)

Design Notebook

• Create a new Design Notebook page and label it “Regional SMS Providers for “, the country name of your partner organization and today’s date.
• Create a list of cellphone companies that service your partner’s region – these are the companies from which you may need to secure sim cards.
• Create another list of Twilio alternatives for your team to consider using for your project that will give you access to local phone numbers.
• Keep in mind alternatives can be “cloud” service providers like Clickatell, 3/4g GSM modems like the Huawei e173, or a cell phone with a local sim card using FronlineSync or SMSsync
• Each team should identify one (or more) computer(s) upon which to install FrontlineSMS, and acquire one or more 3/4g GSM modems. Double check the FrontlineSMS device compatibility database to make sure you get devices that are known to work with FrontlineSMS.

*Assignments are due before class begins on Mondays. Be prepared to present your work in class for discussion.