Ushahidi in Nigeria...
There are two Ushahidi implementations in Nigeria currently in beta here and here. It seems to me the challenge with Ushahidi is not the tech (implementations are easy-ish), its with the uptake. How best to embed Ushahidi within communities of interest? Your thoughts, o crowd..
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This is the first time I'm hearing about it. Uptake may be difficult but I remember Bolaji Aluka doing a similar citizen report kind f thing with the Ekiti elections via twitter. I think some publicity maybe all that is necessary.
I think there are two problems. One taking the technology as the focus rather the content. Two [a common failing by bloggers / websites] not maintaining consistency and having the necessary structures in place to keep the site up to date - basically forgetting it exists!
I am familiar with NigerDeltaWatch [a good friend of mine is the Director at Stakeholders] which has been up and running for about 9 months now but with a paucity of information. Same old story but I hope both sites will learn and improve by the time the election campaigning starts in earnest.
Surely the answer is integration with radio?
Its the Google Maps part of it. Thats the core of the system and no one outside of the US and Europe has the bandwidth to watch those properly. Take them out and then maybe you get somewhere, but then Ushahidi just becomes another mashup of other peoples informations which pretty much it is anyways.
The uptake will be good if the word can be spread. We are implementing a new version on revampnigeria.com and look to use social media to get the word out...
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