Ushahidi

Ushahidi is a non-profit tech company that specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. We build tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories. We're a disruptive organization that is willing to take risks in the pursuit of changing the traditional way that information flows. "Ushahidi", which means "testimony" in Swahili, was a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Our roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. This website had 45,000 users in Kenya, and was the catalyst for us realizing there was a need for a platform based on it, which could be use by others around the world. Since early 2008 we have grown from an ad hoc group of volunteers to a focused organization. The team is comprised of individuals with a wide span of experience ranging from human rights work to software development. The Ushahidi platform is a collaborative project created by volunteers and managed by a core team. Most of the development team comes from different countries in Africa, including Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and Malawi. We also have contributors in the US and Europe. The core team is made up of Ory Okolloh, Erik Hersman, David Kobia and Juliana Rotich who originally started Ushahidi in Kenya in their free time, and have since moved to work on the platform full-time. Ushahidi specifically helps organizations, companies and individuals needing information collection tools and channels for encouraging participation.