This is

1. The Making of Ushahidi
Bumps, Fumbles and Lessons Learned
Erik Hersman
@whiteafrican

2. red dots on a map

4. A small organization that dislikes hierarchy and
being told what we can't do.
One that questions everything,
embraces innovative thinking,
takes risks boldly,
and sometimes learns the hard way that we're
human after all.

5. Our Guiding Values
openness | innovation | community

6. Ushahidi = Testimony

7. “
Google Earth supposedly shows in great detail where the
damage is being done on the ground. It occurs to me that
it will be useful to keep a record of this, if one is thinking
long-term. For the reconciliation process to occur at the
local level the truth of what happened will first have to
come out. Guys looking to do something - any techies
out there willing to do a mashup of where the violence
and destruction is occurring using Google Maps?

11. Ad hoc and leaderless

12. Stretched Resources
juliana rotich erik hersman ory okolloh daudi were david kobia
All of us wore many hats
All of us had full-time jobs

13. Has it Doesn’t have it
Humanitarian
Experience X
Open Source
Experience X
Had a Lot of Time X
Blogger 

14. Ushahidi Calendar
27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 27
idea, production, launch blogging and media
violence
Dec. 27 - Kenyan Elections Jan. 10 - 75% of Kenyan bloggers write about Ushahidi
Dec. 27 - Dec. 30 - Period of uncertainty Jan. 12 - MSM pickup: BBC, NPR, Guardian, etc...
Dec. 30 - Jan. 1 - Media blackout
Jan. 3 - The idea of Ushahidi
Jan. 5 - Ushahidi discussed
Jan. 6 - Ushahidi prototype
Jan. 9 - Ushahidi launched
Jan.10 - Added functionality (RSS, SMS, etc...)
Jan. 10 - Kenyan SMS shortcode partnership
Jan. 22 - Ushahidi blog added
Jan. 26 - Ushahidi timeline feature

15. Brutal decision making
Release early
Do it yourself
Community = Success
Don’t wait for money

16. Technology is only a tool

17. D
REBUILT
NEW
AN
THE TFO RM!
SHA HIDI
PLA
U

19. A  B
Make Be a response
software organization

20. n’t
work
uhh ,
thi s
did
e
ex pect ed...
as
w

21. Fail spectacularly

25. Hot Stuff!

28. Own your failures.
Listen.
Fix your mistakes.
Think different, but don’t stray from the spirit
of the organization or the community.

29. Thank You