Article,
Ushahidi or ‘testimony’: Web 2.0 tools for crowdsourcing crisis information
Participatory Learning and Action, (2009)
Abstract
This article reflects on the development of the Ushahidi
website. The idea behind the website was to harness the
benefits of crowdsourcing information (using a large group
of people to report on a story) and facilitate the sharing of
information in an environment where rumours and uncer-
tainty were dominant.
At the height of the post-election violence in Kenya in
late December 2007 and early January 2008, my personal
blog become one of the main sources of information about
the flawed electoral process and the violence that broke out
thereafter.1
There was a government ban on live media and a wave
of self-censorship within mainstream media, which created
an information vacuum. The government argued false or
biased reporting would result in even more ethnic-based
violence, and that it wanted the opportunity to review media
reports before they went ‘live’. In response to the ban I asked
people to send me information via comments on my blog
and emails – about incidents of violence that they were
witnessing or hearing about throughout the country, and
that were not being reported by the media.
