Mobilizing Ushahidi-Haiti

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly noted the unprecedented role of mobile technology in the disaster response when she highlighted how interactive maps and text messages were used to save lives in Haiti. This presentation will describe how Ushahidi’s interactive Crisis Map of Haiti was combined with crowdsourcing and text messaging to enable unprecedented and near real-time, two-way communication with disaster affected communities. The talk will include real examples to explain how emergency responders used Ushahidi-Haiti in their relief efforts. In closing, the presentation will outline how the Ushahidi platform and mobile technology will be used by Haitians themselves as a transparency and accountability tool in the coming months. For the first time ever, a disaster affected population will have the ability to use crowdsourcing and mobile technology to hold the development community fully accountable for the way their country is rebuilt. Secretary Clinton has described this as the new nervous system of our planet.