Ushahidi or ‘testimony’: Web 2.0 tools for crowdsourcing crisis information

Abstract

This article reflects on the development of the Ushahidiwebsite. The idea behind the website was to harness thebenefits of crowdsourcing information (using a large groupof people to report on a story) and facilitate the sharing ofinformation in an environment where rumours and uncer-tainty were dominant.At the height of the post-election violence in Kenya inlate December 2007 and early January 2008, my personalblog become one of the main sources of information aboutthe flawed electoral process and the violence that broke outthereafter.1There was a government ban on live media and a waveof self-censorship within mainstream media, which createdan information vacuum. The government argued false orbiased reporting would result in even more ethnic-basedviolence, and that it wanted the opportunity to review mediareports before they went ‘live’. In response to the ban I askedpeople to send me information via comments on my blogand emails – about incidents of violence that they werewitnessing or hearing about throughout the country, andthat were not being reported by the media.