UshahidiUshahidi

Innovations, Initiatives
& Products

Programs, Products and Collaborations

In addition to our flagship Platform, Ushahidi plays a pivotal role in advancing technology tools and access in East Africa and beyond. We have built other technology products, collaborated with organizations and foundations on innovation programs and played an active role in championing inclusivity and social justice initiatives.

Crowdmap

Crowdmap, was launched in 2010 as the only map-making tool that enabled simply and collaboratively tracking of any event on a map using social media, SMS, email, or the web.

  • Crowdmap was initially built as the cloud version of Ushahidi and pivoted to a tool for easy collaboration.
  • Shut down in January 2021 in favor of ​​a more robust and efficient version of the platform, with an improved user experience.
Crowdmap

SwiftRiver

Built in 2009, this platform was an open source toolkit of semantic processing technologies to help manage large streams of real-time content crucial for many emergency response activities.

  • First, it gathered as many possible streams of data about a particular crisis event as possible.
  • Second, using a two-part filter, that stream of data was filtered through both machine based algorithms and humans to better understand the veracity and level of importance of any piece of information.
  • Shut down in January 2015 with its code remaining open-sourced and publicly available via Wiki.
SwiftRiver

SMSSync

Launched in 2010, this is a free and open source SMS gateway for Android - a simple, yet powerful SMS to HTTP sync utility that turns any Android phone into a local SMS gateway by sending incoming messages (SMS) to a configured URL (web service).

  • SMSsync, as of now, has been completely translated into 5 languages.
  • One can participate in building the gateway in many forms from writing documentation for the project to translating the app into other languages.
  • If you are a developer and want to help write code for the project, start here.
SMSSync

TenFour

Built in 2018, it was a team check-in app that helps reach your people on any device, confirm they are OK, and get in touch. This tool was built so teams could be prepared and reach each other everyday and in a crisis.

  • It employed multiple channels to contact team members - in-app, email, slack, voice and of course SMS.
TenFour

CrisisNet

Launched in 2014, it was a platform that found, formatted and exposed crisis data in a simple, intuitive structure that was accessible anywhere. Developers, journalists, analysts and other makers had fast, easy access to critical government, business, humanitarian, and crowdsourced information, skipping days of tedious data processing with only a few lines of code.

  • Was shut down as of 2018.
CrisisNet

Resilience Network Initiative (RNI)

The Resilience Network Initiative (RNI) launched in 2014, connects city governments and citizens by providing technology that lower barriers to exchanging information between individuals, community based organizations, and government about what is happening where.

  • It was strongly influenced by the increasing desire for open data: to promote transparency, to drive innovation, to facilitate participatory governance; and to improve coordination.
  • RNI was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation to support the 100 Resilient Cities Challenge.
Resilience Network Initiative (RNI)

DREAMS

Launched in 2016, the DREAMS Innovation Challenge was a programme where innovative solutions were implemented in 10 Sub-Saharan countries over two years to empower adolescent girls and young women to live HIV-free.

  • The programme committed to achieving a 40 percent reduction in HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women in the highest-burden areas of DREAMS countries by 2017.
  • Our project was focused on using the Ushahidi platform to help the HIV prevention community collect feedback data from the young women and girls that they are trying to serve.
  • Our project aims to make the act of data collection more human, helpful, and real-time so that the industry as a whole can listen and improve their work on a continual process.
DREAMS

Making All Voices Count

Launched in 2013 and running till 2017, MAVC was a programme that supported the development and spread of innovative approaches to fostering accountable, responsive governance – many of them using tools and platforms based on mobile phone and digital technologies.

  • The programme was implemented in partnership between Ushahidi, HIVOS and Institute for Development Studies.
  • It aims to leave a legacy of learning that helps to ensure that future governance programmes that seek to capitalise on the transformative potential of innovation and technology are more informed, inclusive and impactful.
Making All Voices Count

Standby Taskforce

Launched at the crisis Mappers Conference in 2010 as an online community for live crisis mapping.

  • SBTF constituted over 150 skilled volunteers with dedicated experience in online crisis mapping from 70 different countries.
  • They only worked with open, non-proprietary data.
  • The volunteer crisis mapping community responded to the demand of the traditional humanitarian responders who seek ways to more effectively incorporate community generated data into their standard operating procedures.
Standby Taskforce

BRCK

BRCK makes accessing the internet simple and reliable wherever you are. It’s a rugged, cloud managed, full-featured modem/router with built-in fail-overs and programmable GPIO expansion.

  • Since 2013, the company has created the original BRCK v1, the Kio Kit for education, the SupaBRCK for enterprise connectivity, computation, and storage, and the PicoBRCK for rugged IoT needs.
  • The solutions fit local infrastructure needs where electricity and internet connections are problematic in both urban and rural areas, and is on the cutting edge of frontier market technology needs for connectivity. In 2019, BRCK acquired Surf, another internet provider, becoming the largest public WiFi network in sub-Saharan Africa.
BRCK

iHub

An innovation center dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity.

  • They nurture a generation of business owners, business leaders, and business builders.
  • 450+ startups trace their roots to iHub, worked with 40k+ individuals and raised 40M+ in investment by iHub portfolio companies
iHub