I’ve been tough on Newsweek.com the last few weeks, so I’v actually found a great article on a technology project that originated in Kenya, and has found significant usage across the the globe in all types of crisis situations — Ushahidi.com.

Ushahidi.com

Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, is a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008

While the Newsweek article is a bit awkward for numerous reasons — it doesn’t focus on the development of the open source project, the grants that sustain it or much else really. However, the article does give the project much needed coverage in the United States, coverage that will help the developers gain both monetary support and more importantly usage and developers. So, here’s a brief bit of the article — and I think the whole article deserves a read, if only to show how technology developed in Africa can affect the world.

The Ushahidi program provides a way for volunteers to collect information from sources like text messages, blog posts, videos, phone calls, and pictures, which are then mapped in near real time. It can be used to plot everything from disasters to wars. And unlike older forms of crisis-mapping software, Ushahidi is advanced enough to paint an accurate portrait of events while remaining incredibly user friendly and easy to build on.

Newsweek.com

While the Newseek.com article spoke briefly about KenyanPundit.com (Ory Okolloh) and the origination of the project, it would have also been quite favorable if the article would have mentioned Erik Hersman who blogs at whiteafrican.com. Mr Hersman, as his blog implies is a white American who grew up in Kenya and the Sudan and who has an absolutely amazing blog that features business commentary in African countries — particularly mobile and mobile Internet services.

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