Ushahidi

Ushahidi (Swahili for "testimony" or "witness") is a global non-profit technology company that develops open-source tools for information collection, visualization, and interactive mapping. It was founded in 2008 by a group of Kenyan bloggers and techies to map reports of violence following the country's disputed 2007 presidential election. The Ushahidi platform allows users to submit reports via SMS, email, web, and social media, which are then aggregated and displayed on a geographic map. This "activist mapping" model was revolutionary in the field of crisis informatics, enabling real-time situational awareness during emergencies. Over the years, Ushahidi has been deployed more than 125,000 times in over 160 countries for projects ranging from disaster response (Haiti earthquake, 2010) to human rights monitoring and election tracking. The organization has recently integrated AI features, such as AI for Form Assignment, which uses natural language processing to identify themes and urgency in reports, and AI for Geolocation to refine location data. Ushahidi’s mission is to empower marginalized communities by giving them the tools to gather data and create insights that help them tackle local problems.