Evaluation Review Kit

Table of Contents
1. Uchaguzi: A Case Study 2. Case Study: Unsung Peace Heroes / Building Bridges 3. Toolbox #1 Self-Assessment 4. Toolbox #2 Implementation 5. Toolbox #3 Real-time Evaluation 6. Appendix: Evaluation Blog Series

Uchaguzi: A Case Study

Executive Summary
In 2010, Ushahidi collaborated with partners to create the Uchaguzi-Kenya platform (an Ushahidi instance). It provided a channel for Kenyan citizens to communicate openly about the 2010 Kenyan referendum. The project was a success and opened up opportunities for future learning. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Knight Foundation and Ushahidi came together to identify these successes and challenges. The outcomes of this learning and evaluation project aim to help plan for future Uchaguzi instances and share learning to the broader user community. This Uchaguzi case study is presented in a format that follows an evaluation framework of three phases: assessment, implementation and output. It also approaches learning from the perspective of many non-technical efforts that go into a successful project. While the case study will focus on the 2010 Kenyan Referendum Uchaguzi experience it will also reference experiences in Tanzania.

Successes, Challenges & New Ways Forward

The great successes of the UchaguziKenya project were a commitment to a collective approach to problem solving and strong leadership that focused on overall goals. The flexibility and creative minds of the leadership team, volunteer groups and other partners created realtime workarounds that helped achieve the project goals.

Recommended Next Steps

Plan early One resounding challenge was aiming to achieve many objectives in such a short time period. Planning early, from 6-12 months prior to an election/referendum was strongly and widely recommended. Further build effective partnerships Defining and agreeing on roles, responsibilities and expectations will help partners implement a successful project. Develop Strategies (e.g., campaign, feedback to action, security and privacy) Strategies should aim to 1) improve the filtering and verifying large volumes of information 2) strengthen feedback loops and action by building an urgent response team, and 3) provide any necessary security & privacy plans for the project and its users. Use simulation Simulation exercises can help identify obstacles, test new technology, and improve workflows and communication approaches. These activities can better prepare people for an upcoming election/referendum day and provide a wealth of community building and learning opportunities.

Assesssment & Implementation Phase

Project Goal & Objectives Partners complemented one another in ways that could not be achieved by one organization alone. But coming to a common agreement on objectives and expectations was challenging and led to misunderstandings. Future projects should consider having early meetings to work together to define a common set of goals and objectives. Memorandums of Understanding may help facilitate this process.

Partnerships, Roles, & Responsibilities Maintaining coordination and upholding commitments were challenging. Sometimes members did not meet expectations of other partners. A workshop or meeting early in the project can establish a clear set of partner roles. Job descriptions may ensure accountability and place the project and the partners in the best positions for success. During the project there should be opportunities to check in (e.g., meetings) to improve communications and set positive expectations for involved partners. Civic education and media organizations should be considered as new partners. Mapping & Information Visualization Sometimes people were unable to access or actively look at the web maps. This was due not only to lack of high-speed bandwidth or Internet availability but also due to no knowing how to interact (e.g., zoom in/out & move) with the map. During the early planning stage (assessment phase) a group/ task force should assess users access to Internet and bandwidth and ability navigate online maps. This group should also identify opportunities to share paper maps if technology and web access is limited. Information flows & Communication The Uchaguzi platform added new communication pathways (e.g., SMS, twitter, email, web entries, etc.) to provide more efficient and near real-time access to referendum/election information. Future projects should identify and consider integrating existing information flows to avoid duplication. For example, partnering with media organizations, such as radio stations, can have a broad reach with the community. Strongly consider creating a communications strategy (including campaign & feedback loops) at the assessment/planning stage. When using shortcode, consider coordinating with other organizations who may be using similar shortcodes. Consider designing messaging campaigns together to minimize confusion with the public. Consider a simulation exercise to test information flows, communication, technology, and volunteer teams. Campaign Messaging The project successfully used many different methods in their campaign to inform the public about the project. Future efforts should create a campaign strategy and timeline that includes 1) establishing roles among partners responsible for shortcode and advertising 2) designing a message that not only informs the public about the project, but also informs the public about the project limitations. Information, Security, & Privacy Information security, privacy, and risks to people did not appear to be a major issue during this project, but future projects may face these very important risks and challenges.

A people, organization, data and system risk assessment should be performed for all projects, and a group strategy should be created. There is a quickly growing body of resources and working groups that can provide feedback, guidance and support for these activities. Partners should keep an open dialogue with one another about changing perceptions of risks during the project. Create contingency plans that aim to minimize threats to the public, project, partners and system. Technology & Instance Development One of the greatest strengths of the technical portion of this project was that the technical team was part of the Ushahidi organization and intimately familiar with the Ushahidi platform. Projects that are less familiar with Ushahidi/Crowdmap and/or the project location should strongly consider a technology assessment before beginning a project. Consider planning more time for technical development, prioritization of customizations, and a freeze point where new customizations are stopped in order to fix bugs. Volunteer Recruitment & Training Volunteers provided invaluable support. Training both CRECO monitors and volunteers improved the quality and the speed of information flows. Determining what constitutes an actionable or high priority message for the volunteers, and also defining the communication pathways to responders will set the stage for training volunteers on how to manage these incoming messages. One great resource available to future Uchaguzi projects is the lesson learned and training structure of the Standby Task Force. Consider having a simulation event as a way to train monitors and volunteers months before the referendum/election day. Contingency Plans The project did not appear to have a contingency plan and when interviewing project members almost all expressed interest in having such a plan in the future. The goals of these plans should be to 1. Maintain basic infrastructure 2. Maintain communication between lead members 3. Provide a backup network of information processing for highly actionable information. Creating a contingency plan can include plans for back up servers, volunteer groups, communication channels for coordinators, and connections to responders. Resources, Funding & Planning The most common recommendation was to plan earlier at least 6 months to 1 year prior to the event. Creating a project plan and timeline will help organizations determine what key parts of the project should be monitored over time. Aim to identify resources (funding and human resources) for campaign messaging, media volunteers, coordinators, and analysts (to identify hot spots and trends) as early as possible.

Output Phase
Information Flows 550 CRECO election monitors, Uwiano, and the public contributed over 2,500 messages, which resulted in over 1500 reports. 149 reports resulted in actions taken primarily through the CRECO network. Improvements in both the technology and people micro-tasking to filter incoming messages (e.g., color coding reports) would improve information processing, help identify priority messages, and facilitate communications to enable action. The project should position supernodes (individuals trusted among many groups who are action oriented) where they can troubleshoot unanticipated challenges, and open up communication channels to allow timely action. Prioritization, Actionable Messages & Feedback Loops There was strong communication between the Uchaguzi-Kenya project manager, Ushahidi staff, CRECO and SODNET. This helped strengthen the multiple feedback loops for urgent and high priority messages. CRECO played a very important role in communicating with the IIEC. 149 reports resulted in actions taken but there was confusion around what constituted an actionable message and how best to prioritize messages as they flowed in. During the implementation phase, partners should set criteria for action-oriented messages, and define priority levels so volunteers can appropriately and efficiently categorize reports. Consider creating an urgent response team. The role of this team would be to focus on validating messages and tracking priority reports. They would also be responsible for monitoring levels of tension and conflict and communicating important information to partner organizations in positions to respond.

Conclusion
Overall the Uchaguzi-Kenya project was a success. The collective action of all those involved provided a communication channel for Kenyans to share information about the referendum. It also enabled some organizations to take immediate action based upon the information on the platform. The project was not without its challenges. This case study aims to help bring light to some of them and share the creative solutions of dedicated and passionate participants. But more importantly it aims to help future users learn from the past, to spark fruitful conversations among future Uchaguzi/Ushahidi/Crowdmap deployers and to help others plan future projects.

Methods & Analysis

The Uchaguzi Case study is presented in a format created to evaluate Ushahidi and Crowdmap projects and approaches evaluation from the perspective of the non-technical efforts that go into a successful project. This case study will focus on the 2010 Kenyan Referendum Uchaguzi experience, but it will also reference parts of the 2010 Uchaguzi Tanzanian election experience. Both projects used Ushahidi technology for citizens and election monitors to report incidents. Sections of this evaluation focus on topics such as partnerships, campaign messaging, and feedback loops.

Interest Phase Assessment

Implementation Phase Process Analysis

Output Phase Outcome Analysis

Project goals/objectives/outcomes Visualization & mapping Partnership & audience Information & communication Campaign & messaging strategy Privacy & security Technology Resources & funding Planning & project timeline

Choosing Ushahidi vs. Crowdmap Roles & responsibilities Planning information flows Communication channels Planning categories Confirmation & verification Feedback loops Choosing the right map Your campaign & messaging: managing expectations Admin & volunteer teams Training

Evaluating goals/objectives Real-time evaluations Retrospective evaluations Checklists: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Partnerships Technology Campaign/messaging Information flows Action/feedback Communications Maps/visualization Information security Volunteers/teams

10. Other Action plans/implementation

See Toolbox #1 Self-Assessment

See Toolbox #2 Implementation

See Toolbox #3 Information collection, and analysis, decision-making

The interest phase discusses Uchaguzi project goals and objectives, partnerships, mapping and visualization. Experience from the perspective of roles and responsibilities, campaign messaging, and volunteer training are described in the implementation phase. Lastly, the output phase describes the information processing experience using the Ushahidi platform, and how this information was prioritized and translated into feedback and action. This case study is an example of an evaluation that can be achieved using Toolbox 3.

Assessment Phase
Uchaguzi Project Goals, Objectives, and Expected Outcomes I think what an organization really first needs to think is, OK were using Ushahidi, but why? And what are we going to get from it? What does it improve or speed up for us compared to what we were doing before? I think really approaching this from a program design perspective would be helpful. For CRECO for instance, our goal is to prevent or to resolve electoral issues so it doesnt lead to an outbreak of violence. And kind of take that back and say, what are our underlying assumptions about theories of change, and so, how do these particular actions lead toward that. The goal of Uchaguzi-Kenya was to provide a channel for Kenyan citizens to communicate openly about the 2010 Kenyan referendum using the Ushahidi platform. Although there was no unifying set of objectives, partners described the following: To provide a space for information sharing and collaboration To amplifying citizen voices To increase the efficiency of existing election monitoring system To create a mechanism through which citizens could actively monitor and report incidences related to the election process. Organizations involved in Uchaguzi-Kenya collaborated and complemented each other. This led to a successful collaboration, but organizations often had different objectives contributing to challenges during the project. Uchaguzi was a new endeavor, not only in technology, but also in partnerships and information flows. Document reviews and interviews show that a set of agreed upon project outcomes was lacking and this was likely due to the fact that each organization was learning how to integrate their missions into the overall project. I think Ushahidi (for election monitoring) works well if you have a broad selection of organizations supporting you But getting organizations to work together (with) mutual trust between them ...it takes time. Partnerships Before the referendum Uchaguzi partners met in Nairobi. Attendees included CRECO, SODNET, Ushahidi, Uraia, and HIVOS. Each group had unique assets and complementary strengths. For example CRECO had previous election monitoring experiences and consists of a large trusted network of monitors. Ushahidi served as the core technical partner for the project, providing developers and convening volunteers. The collective action among all five organizations was a success. Despite many challenges and areas for future improvements a single organization would not have succeeded alone because no one group had all the necessary skills and resources. According to interviewees, maintaining coordination and partner commitments was challenging and some people felt that the commitments of others did not meet their expectations. One thing I took away from the experience was understanding that there needs to be better communication. Recognizing the different languages that tech and nontech people speak, and that we cant always take for granted what is common knowledge and what is not. Communication between partners was essential during the project. Initial partnership meetings allowed groups to learn about each others aspirations. One lesson learned by project manager Jessica Heinzelman was understanding that different groups communicate in different ways.
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Interviewees and evaluation reports recommend establishing a clear set of roles and responsibilities early in the project. Moderated discussions should seek to have organizations understand the perceived risks and benefits of partnerships throughout the entire project. Documents that reflect these discussions should be created and could also outline partner roles and responsibilities. Some participants recommended using memoranda of understanding (MOUs) as a way to improve partnership buy-in and commitment throughout the project cycle. Specifically, some believe that MOUs can provide clarity on expectations and improve communications. An MoU with all involved partners at the beginning will help to better map out what the objectives are in using Uchaguzi, reduce moments of friction during the process and enable better tracking of whether their capacity to effectively use the platform is indeed enhanced. This includes defining what the information will be used for by different organizations, what the platform can and cannot do for them, and what their own commitments need to be to the platform and other stakeholders. Many interviewees recommended partnerships with civic education and media organizations. They believe that these organizations and consortia have the potential to broadly disseminate campaign messaging and could improve the implementation and outcomes of a future Uchaguzi deployment. Future Uchaguzi deployments should bring partners together in a workshop or meeting during the assessment phase. New partners can be a part of this initial meeting to learn and decide if a partnership is possible. The meeting should aim to first expose any differing perspectives followed by a collegial process to agree on common goals and objectives. This process will improve collaboration and coordination because partners will approach challenges from common set of goals and objectives. The project should consider using MOUs to strengthen partnerships. Toolbox 1, slides 8-9 can be used as a guide for this activity.

Mapping & Visualization

The Uchaguzi project mapped individual reports onto the platform to show the report type and location on a country map during the referendum period. The opportunity to share information on a map with a broader community was a common interest among the partners. Some partners believed that the map would have the ability to deter specific actions, but it was unclear which groups (e.g., media, local communities, election organizations) were the primary target of the web-based maps and how viewing it would achieve some of the projects objectives. Many partners also assumed that all citizens were able to access maps from the web, but soon realized that this was not always true. Some communities were unable to access the web and others were able to see the Uchaguzi website but were not familiar with how to navigate the maps to see reports. Toolbox 1, slide 10, can be used in the future to assess mapping needs. ... from digital mapping, it was very easy for us and for Uchaguzi to liberalize the electoral process. These issues would be easily uploaded and then seen, not only here, but across the world.

And one of the things that I appreciated...was the fact that it ... was a deterrence, people could not do things because it would be discovered.

Information / Communication
The Uchaguzi-Kenya project planned to collect referendum information from CRECO election monitors and the crowd or public. Crowdsourced information was unstructured and information from CRECO monitors was structured using checklists and a code card. The plan was to use election-monitoring information to verify crowd reports. The Uchaguzi platform added new communication pathways (e.g., SMS, twitter, email, web entries, etc.) to provide more efficient and near real-time access to election information improving situational awareness. SMS was the major communication pathway for incoming information. Campaign planners used radio, television advertisements, tweets, and word of mouth to inform the public about the Uchaguzi project. Plans on how to communicate near real-time information back to the crowd and other stakeholders are less clear from this evaluation and the review of other evaluation reports. At the assessment phase, groups should think about what information already exists and how it is already being communicated. Existing information can flow through new communication pathways or new information may be best communicated along traditional communication lines. Partners should determine not only what new or existing information is needed to enter into the Ushahidi platform, but also discuss communication strategies. Partnering with media organizations, such as radio stations, can have a broad reach with the community. These strategies can include campaigns that inform communities about the project purpose, how it will happen, and open up discussions about how information can best be shared with the public, media and other interested groups. (Toolbox 1, slides 13-14) Uchaguzi-Tanzania participants recommend transforming the web-based map into paper maps. This would help local partners share the information with communities that are unable to access the map in its online format. Sharing maps in a newspaper immediately after the election would also broaden the reach of Uchaguzi efforts.

Security & Privacy

The ability to create questionnaires gets people to start thinking about the security that I think needs to be a standard set of questions that people ask for in any installation at all. While the issues of information security, privacy and the possibility of retribution for sharing information was not a major issue in the Uchaguzi-Kenya project; it may play a very large role in other election monitoring projects that use Ushahidi or Crowdmap. Risks to people systems and organizations are constantly evolving approaches to security privacy will need to be regularly evaluated. A security and privacy review should begin with: A discussion of potential risks to the crowd and organizations if they use the platform

Plans on how to keep technology hardware (e.g., servers) safe and secure Plans for how volunteers and others should be trained to keep information private and secure, if necessary A contingency plan for security and privacy related events.

Two resources to help think about and plan a data protection, security and privacy strategy are particularly notable. Securing Crisis Maps, created by Rob Baker and George Chamales is a helpful infographic that shows different areas of information, security and privacy risks. A blogpost by Anahi Ayala Iacucci, Crisis Mapping and Cybersecurity describes one approach to addressing these issues. Questions from Toolbox 1, Slide 16 ICT, Privacy& Security can also be used as a guide to think about these issues in election monitoring projects.

Technology
Ushahidi developed the platform and first used it during the 2007 Kenyan post-election violence. Ushahidi staff and much of their volunteer community had prior experience with developing software, creating customizations and mapping information onto the platform. In 2010, 62% of the Kenyans were mobile service subscribers, texting approximately 10 times per month. Although voice and SMS may be widely used, the Communication Commission of Kenya statistical report does not describe the geospatial distribution of mobile use throughout the country. The geographical distribution of SMS and mobile phone use may influence how election information flows throughout the country during an election or referendum. As of late 2010, only 10.2 % of the population had access to the Internet. This statistic neither provides insight into how often users have access to the internet nor the degree of bandwidth that is reliably available, both elements that provide real-time, access to view Uchaguzi maps and report information. It is recommended that future Uchaguzi projects in other regions consider a technology assessment (Toolbox 1, slide 17) before beginning a project to understand and determine the internal technology needs and the capacity of their partners and public. This is also strongly recommended to organizations that seek to use a similar model.

Resources, Funding, Planning, and Project Timeline

It can be challenging to anticipate the resources and necessary funding to launch a project with new partners, technology and information flows. HIVOS and Twaweza supported the Uchaguzi-Kenya project along with a large community of volunteers. Many people felt that more resources would help future Uchaguzi projects and recommended identifying these needs earlier in the project cycle. Resources for campaign messaging, media volunteers, coordinators, and analysts (to identify hot spots and trends) were some suggestions. One of the most common recommendations regarding resources by those interviewed was more time for planning and training. Almost all interviewees recommend beginning the planning phase anywhere from 6 months to 1 year prior to the referendum. Creating a project plan and timeline will help organizations determine what key parts of the project should be monitored over time. Interviewees mentioned the need to plan interval partner meetings, campaign and messaging timelines, technology and customization plans, volunteer or data team training timelines and plans to establish new or traditional feedback loops to communities. A review of project timelines of the other election monitoring experiences using the Ushahidi platform (Zambia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, etc.) will also inform future projects and help set the stage for the implementation phase.

Implementation Phase
Roles & Responsibilities
Implementation Phase Process Analysis

Choosing Ushahidi vs. Crowdmap Roles & responsibilities Planning information flows Communication channels Planning categories Confirmation & verification Feedback loops Choosing the right map Your campaign & messaging: managing expectations Admin & volunteer teams Training

The project included campaigns, a SMS shortcode, election monitors, and observers and multi-site information processing centers. During the implementation phase individuals and partners took on roles and responsibilities that resulted in a successful collection of information during the referendum period. Partners created campaigns, which provided different communication channels to spread the word. Overall, people wished for more defined roles and responsibilities at the partner and individual level. Another evaluation report referenced the need to, Establish partner organization roles and responsibilities and integrate them into an overarching project plan. Jessica Heinzelman described some of the challenges that she faced as project manager and from her experiences recommends a more structured way to communicate roles and responsibilities for future Uchaguzi deployments. Job descriptions would help ensure accountability and place the project and the partners in the best positions for success. If people were more aware of roles and responsibilities they would be able to reach out to one another for assistance and collaboration.

See Toolbox #2 Implementation

Implementation Toolbox 2, Understanding Roles and Responsibilities and Planning Roles and Responsibilities, can be used in future Uchaguzi projects. The first thing I would do differently is start planning much earlier. If we had had an extra month of optimizations, trials, and advanced training, I think we would have been much more prepared.

Information & Communications Flows

Approximately 550 CRECO monitors planned to send information into the platform and an unknown number of crowd messages from the public were expected to come into the platform as well. The campaign asked them to send in information through the shortcode 3018.The monitors were trained to use a how-to code card with 48 predefined report types to be sent via SMS to Uchaguzi. The numerical codes would then be translated into the corresponding text before the report was posted on the site. There was another platform called, Uwiano, which also used shortcode (6397) to allow citizens to report violent incidents or tension around the referendum period. The Uwiano platform was a collaboration between PeaceNet, UNDP and IIEC. PeaceNet eventually contributed a large flow of information during the referendum period but were less involved in the implementation phases. Similar shortcodes caused some confusion among the public. One way to mitigate confusion would be to work with other organizations with similar shortcodes to frame campaign messaging. In addition, if identified early, a more formal partnership could be created potentially using one shortcode, but is not without its challenges.

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People thought that our shortcode was the same as theirs (3018)... and they were talking about similar things ... our publicity started like 2 or 3 days before the referendum. Theirs was also free, and ours was five Shillings to submit. .... there was a bit of (public) confusion. Once the information arrived into the Uchaguzi platform, different volunteer teams and coordinators at the iHub and CRECO offices categorized and mapped the information onto the public website. The plan was to have two separate flows of information: one from the crowd and another from the monitors. It was hoped that the crowd information would be verified by monitors, if necessary. Meeting during the implementation phase with all key partners may help identify obstacles and work through challenges. During these sessions, partners could create an information flow diagram that looks at all stages of communication and information flows. (see Toolbox 2, slides 10-13) Another opportunity for future Uchaguzi projects is to carry out a simulation of the election or referendum period. With existing datasets from prior projects, a simulation exercise could help a project work out bugs and unrecognized problems in workflows and communications. While the time and resources needed to integrate a simulation experience into the project requires planning at an early stage, this learning and adaptive exercise will likely expose many glitches that can be addressed prior to the actual election or referendum period.

Uchaguzi Instance Development

It was easy to handle all the parts because you have a large developer community here. Technology development for the Uchazugi-Kenya project began in mid-July. One of the greatest strengths of the technical portion of this project was that the technical team was part of the Ushahidi organization and intimately familiar with the Ushahidi platform. The servers were located in the iHub where many Ushahidi staff and volunteers work. There is also a large technology development community in Kenya. The iHub provided a very valuable innovation space for hackathons and meetups where developers could meet and work on the technical needs of the Uchaguzi-Kenya project. The lead technical coordinator Linda Kamau had previous experience using the Ushahidi platform for election monitoring in Burundi and brought her own lessons learned to the Uchaguzi-Kenya project. One of the major challenges from the technical team was the plan to use Huduma, which was a platform in development. During the implementation phase, project plans stemmed from the assumption that the Huduma platform would be complete and functional before the referendum period. With this in mind, volunteer training and many other project activities hinged on this stage of technical development. The decision to not proceed with Huduma occurred three weeks before the referendum. Learning from the Uchaguzi-Kenya teams challenges with trying to create a new platform in a short time frame, many have recommended to consider planning more time for technical development, prioritization of customizations, and a freeze point where new customization are stopped in order to fix bugs.

Choosing the Maps

For the Uchaguzi project, the full screen map feature was integrated into the platform. Due to the limitations of this evaluation, CRECO monitors, and the general public were not interviewed and their experiences using the website, and utility of the maps from their perspectives are not known.

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Uchaguzi Tanzania Choosing the Map Not all individuals had adequate bandwidth to easily upload the maps and there were also anecdotes about individuals who sent information into the Uchaguzi-Tanzania instance who did not know how to drag, magnify, or perform other Google map functions on the Uchaguzi-Tanzania map. There was frustration and an initial perception that information was not being posted on the site. From these experiences, some have recommended finding a way to create a light version to enable low bandwidth users access to the information and map. It would be very interesting if Ushahidi could design a light version...[for some] it takes 5 minutes to upload and the dots come 3 minutes later. And if you dont know the dots are coming, youre not going to wait for them.

Campaign & Messaging

The campaign informed communities about the Uchaguzi project and how to send in messages via the 3081 shortcode. It was publicized two months before the referendum day, and partners also launched individual campaigns. There were also advertisements in the Daily Nation, The Standard, Facebook messages, television messages, and radio interviews. Despite the many different modalities used to communicate the Uchaguzi project to the public, partners felt that the popularization took longer than they had expected. One contributing factor was the cost of establishing the shortcode. Earlier communications could also help establish expectations about the benefits and limitation of the platform. Working with the public and civil society organization to use traditional communications pathways could also get the word out. I remembered technical aspects in Burundi and those are some of the things used during the Uchaguzi brainstorming session to come up with the successful plug-ins. Split up the different screen views for monitor & crowd reports was one of things that came up which we actually implemented for Uchaguzi. Our message did not tell people what we were going to do with the information. The call was made to abandon Huduma because it wouldnt be ready on time and focus on customizing the existing platform. And I think that was a place where we could have made a different decision and had a really big impact. With a growing body of Uchaguzi and other election monitoring experiences using the Ushahidi and Crowdmap platforms, creating a campaign strategy and timeline would benefit future projects. Setting expectations among partners responsible for establishing shortcode while mobilizing different campaign options (e.g., radio, television, advertisements) should be planned early in the implementation phase. Workshop sessions could also help partners create and test campaign messages. This should include messages about what information to send in via shortcode, but also messages on what the public can expect the project to do for them and their communities. For future projects in insecure environments, more time should be planned to work closely with partners on crafting messages to the public in order to ensure safety and privacy. Toolbox 2, Slides 20-23, can help the campaign design and messaging process.

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Volunteer Recruitment & Training

The recruitment and training of volunteers and election monitors was a success. Linda Kamau, the project technical lead, anticipated the need for a large number of developers and helped recruit volunteers from the Nairobi development community. Sisi ni Amani, a NGO was also asked to help recruit and train information processing and mapping volunteers. CRECO election monitors were trained on how to use the code cards, which enable a more structured way of sending in information. Those interviewed in this evaluation brought up the following challenges: Determining the number of needed volunteers Training people with novice computer skills Anticipating translation needs

The Uchaguzi-Tanzania team had some difficulties estimating the number of necessary volunteers. During the election, the number of messages exceeded the volunteer capacity. One of the contributing factors was the time it took for people to translate messages from different dialects, and their ease in interfacing with computers. For future Uchaguzi projects the implementation phase should also try to anticipate SMS messages in different languages or dialects. If this exists, more planning may be necessary to recruit, organize and coordinate volunteers with different language capabilities. In addition, during the technology assessment phase, if the volunteer community has introductory computer and web skills, more training time and exercises will be necessary to prepare volunteers for large volumes of information processing. There must always be a back up and expectations of users need to be clearly adapted to this reality. This will not only help avoid tension between partners, but also reduce the risk of activities coming to a standstill without ICT.

Training around the identification and actions for high priority messages.

An information flow diagram could also inform volunteers of their micro-tasking roles within the larger project. Using a diagram, volunteer teams may find it easier to communicate needs and questions to the appropriate coordinators. Also, coming to an agreement among the team members of what constitutes an actionable message for the volunteers, and also defining the communication pathways to responders will set the stage for training volunteers on how to manage these types of incoming messages. One great resource available to future Uchaguzi project is the lesson learned and training structure of the Standby Task Force. There were two locations where volunteers processed information: the iHub and CRECO offices. These two groups, one from the iHub community and the other from the CRECO community were complementary to one another and the shared spaces allowed volunteers the opportunity to communicate with one another. It was an energizing environment. Although there were no security events, having multiple locations and also remote volunteers as backup support will mitigate some security concerns. Other volunteers worked remotely from their homes and were assisted via a Skype channel set up for the project. Depending on the security context, this may be another strategy for mitigating concerns. There may be instances in an election monitoring where it would be strategic to have pods located in multiple places if there are security concerns.

Contingency Planning
The volunteer iHub team functioned as a backup volunteer group for the CRECO team. Communication lines between CRECO, the IIEC and PeaceNet were available to facilitate information exchange for high priority events. The project did not appear to have a formal

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contingency plan and when interviewing project members almost all expressed interest in having such a plan for future projects. The following are recommendations on how to think about a contingency plan. In the setting of violence and security events, the contingency plan should consider communicating information to the media, and also feeding information back to peace activities if possible. Consider back-up volunteers from the Diaspora or others who can process information remotely, and plan for the management of this community as well. Recognize that verification of information by these communities can be a challenge. Consider having a backup server at another location so that operations can continue. Consider having rotating volunteer teams to prevent volunteer fatigue.

Output Phase
This following section describes the Uchaguzi-Kenya referendum activities as well as the Uchaguzi-Tanzania election (grey boxes). It includes how information flowed into and out of the Uchaguzi platform. It also discusses feedback loops and communications between partners and the broader community.

2010 Kenyan Referendum Day

I think we were very communicative about the issues. At that moment we were able to enjoy each other as a community and know that we were all there for a purpose and working towards a common goal. Which really made it a positive experience for everyone, regardless of the challenges. One of the greatest successes of the Uchaguzi-Kenya project was the collective approach to problem solving with leadership support that focused on the overall goals. The flexibility and creative minds of the leadership team and volunteer groups created real-time work-arounds that helped the project achieve its goals for all partners. We just made sure the information was getting in there instead of making it perfect or making it so that we could dissect it later. Having that ability to say, okay, were going to forget about this now, this is not the most important priority and were just going to make it work. Information Flows In Kenya, 550 election monitors, stationed around the country, began sending in SMS messages into the CRECO offices where 10-11 staff began processing and mapping information. Initially some election monitors requested additional guidance on how to send SMS messages. Volunteers provided guidance via telephone in the morning and by mid-day, the monitors were comfortable sending in information. Uwiano information began flowing in representing information gathered from the public weeks prior to the referendum date but individual messages were not time stamped. Information from the crowd also starting flowing in. One of the challenges during the referendum was filtering messages. Although there had been plans to separate crowd and monitor messages, this was not technically possible at the time of the project. Uwiano message also were difficult to filter after the messages were merged into the system. This resulted in untagged information on the Uchaguzi platform making retrospective analysis of information flows difficult. For future Uchaguzi instances, one recommendation that resonated from interviewees is to improve the filtering system for incoming messages. Color coding crowd and monitor reports
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would help microtasking and processing of information as it comes in. Others suggested coding information as pre-event, event and post-event as they believed these types of information have different purposes.
Uchaguzi-Kenya Platform Statistics 2010 Tanzanian Election Information Total messages received 2,525 Overload Referendum day messages 1,778 The Tanzania-Uchaguzi experience faced information overload challenges. There Uwiano messages 1,573 were thirty times more trusted sources who # reports 1,523 sent in coded information via SMS and the # total Uchaguzi messages 2,492 team faced technical challenges as well. SMS: 1,900 The instance was not set up to Twitter: 571 accommodate the large number of Email: 21 pre-defined trusted sources in the system. % verified reports 51% During the election day, when numbers arrived via text message volunteers spent 1,515 # of Actionable reports time calling people back to ensure that the 149 # of Action Taken reports numbers came from trusted sources. Top Categories: Although this provided a high level of Everything Fine (49%) Tensions (17%) verification, the number of messages, Peace Efforts (6%) coupled with the more novice computer skills of volunteers created an information-processing overload, limiting the speed of mapped information during the election.

Some people felt that the crowd reports included less information that could be mapped, including spam messages and other messages with no geographic locations. Some members felt that had the campaign commenced earlier this may have improved the quality of the crowd messages. In Tanzania we were struggling with 4,000 messages.

Communication
There were many pathways of communication during the referendum. At the iHub, volunteers communicated with coordinators troubleshooting platform glitches, and clarifying volunteer questions on how to process and map information. Erik Hersman (Ushahidi) and Philip Thigo (SODNET) sat side-by-side communicating information between Ushahidi and SODNET. Kawive from CRECO traveled to and from the iHub maintaining communications between the two information processing centers. He also maintained communications with IIEC staff. Some members felt that having two separate locations of information processing created a silo. Despite the intent to compare crowd and monitor messages during the referendum it was not possible to filter messages from election monitors and the crowd. This likely contributed to the feeling that the groups were silod. It will be good to build some easy steps by which you can actually separate your reports between your actionable ones and your non-actionable ones

Prioritization and Actionable Messages

(Uwiano information was) imported it into Google spreadsheets. People went through the data to try to parse out the important ones.

Another challenge was identifying action or priority messages. Confusion likely stemmed from the lack of consensus around the definition of priority and actionable from a project level, volunteer training, and limitations in platform filtering functions. Despite these challenges, volunteers and leaders in the project
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worked together to create work-arounds to achieve the project goals. Volunteers transferred Uwiano messages to Google Docs spreadsheets to identify high priority messages that required follow up and action. In the implementation phase bringing partners together to determine what constitutes feasible action-oriented messages will help define what actionable and priority means for the project. Volunteers can then be trained on how to identify and filter actionable or high priority messages. Developing action and priority buttons on the instance would also improve microtasking efforts to filter and allow key decision-maker to respond with the appropriate partners. Many recommendations have already been incorporated into the new Ushahidi platform. Developer George Chamales has built and tested new microtasking platforms that may address these challenges for future Uchaguzi projects.

Feedback Loops & Action

We tried to have direct links to the electoral commission. Its important, once you have observed violence, to do something about it If we had a report around an area where we knew a CRECO monitor was, we had a channel to them. Strong communications between the Uchaguzi-Kenya project manager, Ushahidi staff, CRECO and SODNET helped strengthen the feedback loops for urgent and high priority messages. There were multiple feedback loops including those from CRECO to the IIEC. For example, CRECO monitors identified posters with incorrect voting colors and this information was sent into the Uchaguzi platform, verified, by the trusted CRECO network with digital images, which prompted the removal of the posters with the assistance of the IIEC. Sharing information with the local and international media was a major way of sharing information with the broader community. The platform information was aired on prime-time Kenyan television for two days. If youre going to send in messages that people are going to classify as urgent, there should be a specific reply says thank you for your message, were responding to it. For future projects, people recommended an urgent response team who would be able to track priority messages and monitor levels of tension and conflict. The teams role would be to communicate important information to partner organizations in positions to respond. Learning from the Uchaguzi-Kenya experience, trusted individuals among organizations (supernodes) should be placed in positions to help facilitate coordination and sharing of information between Uchaguzi and responding actors. While information feedback and action loops should occur among the project partners, parallel feedback loops to communities should occur as well. Printing reports and sharing them in community meeting or posting them on public walls is one suggested way of sharing. Individual feedback to senders can also occur with reply SMS message to sender acknowledging the receipt of high priority message. Auto-replies for high-priority messages may increase expectations for timely response and these communications should be tightly linked to action. Engage all partners in developing a feedback loop to citizens: how do you make sure citizens realize the power of such an ICT platform? And how does each organization contribute its own specific merits to this process?

Conclusion
Overall the Uchaguzi Kenya project was a success. The collective action of all those involved provided a communication channel for Kenyans to share information about the referendum. It
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also enabled some organizations to take immediate action based upon the information received. The project was not without its challenges. This case study aims to help bring light to some of them and share the creative solutions of dedicated and passionate participants. But more importantly it aims to help future user learn from the past, to spark fruitful conversations among future Uchaguzi deployers and help others plan future projects. Thank you The content, analysis, and presentation of this case study could not have been achieved without the honest and creative insights of many interviewees during the project. Feedback from the Ushahidi community of users, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative staff, experts in the field of crisis mapping and crowdsourcing provided invaluable feedback. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative hopes that this collaborative learning effort will contribute to not only evolving growth of Ushahidi as an organization, but also to the next steps that people, groups and organizations will take using their own Ushahidid/Crowdmap platforms in the future. With gratitude,

Jennifer Chan Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

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Case Study: Unsung Peace Heroes and Building Bridges

Spreading a positive message of peace
The Unsung Peace Heroes project began as a way to recognize individuals who participated in peace efforts in the violent aftermath of the December 2007 Kenyan General Election. The goal of the campaign was to motivate and symbolize goodwill amongst (young) Kenyans towards each other in the aftermath of the violence and conflict which started in December 2007. Butterfly Works, an Amsterdam-based co-design organization, and Media Focus on Africa Foundation (MFAF), a Nairobi-based nongovernmental media-for-development organization, developed the Unsung Peace Heroes campaign. Unsung Peace Heroes used the Ushahidi platform to collect nominations for local peace heroes, post the nominations, and map the locations of the peace efforts. People could send nominations via the Peace Heroes site, SMS, email, and by filling out a paper nomination at various peace events. Unsung Peace Heroes received nominations through all four options.

Setting up the instance

Emer worked closely with David Kobia, lead developer at Ushahidi, during the Unsung Peace Heroes setup. Ushahidi hosted the site for the project so no one at Butterfly Works or MFAF had to install the platform on their servers; however Emer worked with a PHP developer to adjust the site structure and visual design. In short, the Butterfly Works team had control over the design of the site and worked closely with Ushahidi to get the site up and running. Kevin Madegwa, one of the volunteers responsible for managing the Unsung Peace Heroes Ushahidi site, reported having little difficulty using the administrative interface. Kevin, who responded to Ushahidis feedback survey, found the features of the Ushahidi site to be very useful to my project because I can easily modify ideas and easily make corrections. He also responded that the categorization was super nice, and indicated that he liked it. Overall, Kevin found the setup and navigation easy to use.

Gathering nominations and visualizing the results

Marten Schoonman, former Projects Coordinator at MFAF, thought the Ushahidi platform was effective for meeting their project objectives. He indicated that not only did they learn where peace initiatives and positive action took place, but also where violence occurred. According to Marten, the peace nominations they received align with the places where the most violence was reported during the post-election crisis. The Unsung Peace Heroes campaign was the first time mapping was used as part of a Butterfly Works or MFAF campaign. According to Marten, mapping and visualization of the data helps show patterns when compared to previous Media Focus SMS-based campaigns that did not have geolocated information associated with the messages. Because each nomination was tied to a specific location, it enabled the data managers to see that people in the area nominated a particular hero. Marten noted that the mapping helped ensure that winners were selected from various parts of the country. However, he also indicated that there is a major drawback of an Internet-based project: The people who Media Focus on Africa Foundation are targeting do not have Internet access - We want to bring the results back to the people using mass media. As a result of the project goals, Internet was only one part of the larger project and campaign. Both MFAF and Butterfly Works use multimedia approaches to target large, diverse audiences. Unsung Peace Heroes received over 500 nominations. Combining an offline and online strategy yielded the most nominations. After advertisements were placed in the daily newspapers and fliers distributed at peace events, nominations increased. The first peak (43 nominations) came after a half-page color advertisement appeared in The Standard newspaper (see graph below). The largest peak of 80 nominations occurred after flier distribution at a peace event in Njoro organized by Citizen Assembly. The second largest peak of 70 nominations occurred after flier distributions at a peace gathering in Nairobi. At both events, the volunteers in the project team got some friends to assist them in distributing fliers. The campaign used one advertisement with the same design to promote the Unsung Peace Heroes (see flier below). The team mailed 2000 posters and 20,000 fliers to partners throughout Kenya with a reach across 12 towns. Volunteers distributed fliers during Generation Jipange, a peace event in Njoro, and Huruma and Jamhuri Day. According to Marten, the distribution of fliers by hand during relevant events (peace in this case) worked wonders. He believed that distributing fliers at the events was successful because people participate with a certain mindset for that day and find it attractive to participate and spend a few shillings. During the campaign, Kenyans nominated peace heroes who protected others from violence despite putting their own lives in danger; distributed food and goods to those in need; and those who promoted peace through organizing peace marches and singing peace songs. The Unsung Peace Heroes team announced the results of the contest in February 2009, showcasing eight winners. The winners represent Kenyans from various parts of the country,

backgrounds and ways of life. Butterfly Works and MFAF announced the winners during live events, placed an ad in The Standard newspaper and posted the winners picture and biographies on the Unsung Peace Heroes website.

Unsung Peace Heroes and Unexpected Outcomes

Butterfly Works and MFAFs multimedia strategy for promotion and gathering nominations had very successful results in terms of the number of nominations they received. This strategy has been recommended to others interested in deploying Ushahidi because it allows project implementers to target diverse audiences including those that do not regularly access the Internet. The goal of Unsung Peace Heroes was to recognize and reward Kenyans for promoting peace during a time of violence in the country. The implementers expected that the campaign would empower the unsung peace heroes to continue to engage in peace efforts as well as encourage others to actively promote peace in their communities. Emer Beamer, the research and development director at Butterfly Works, describes some of the unforeseen impacts of Unsung Peace Heroes as something you didnt see coming, but was often more valuable than anything else. In other words, the project sparked more positive action from the winners, which in turn led to more positive events. The idea of unexpected outcomes fits in with Butterfly Works overall philosophy regarding a positive chain of events. In the case of Unsung Peace Heroes, that chain continued to grow well after the conclusion of the project. The most vivid examples of unexpected outcomes resulted from the work of the eight Unsung Peace Heroes winners. For example, Joel Cheruiyot Sigei set up a prize to re-run the unsung peace heroes competition in his village so that people could nominate good leaders within their community. Two winners were invited on the NTV show, Heroes, and Kamakei Freddy Ole Sangiriaki started his own peace organization in his community. More broadly, in 2010, one year after the post-election violence, newspapers republished the Unsung Peace Hero winners despite many other reports recapping the crisis and focusing on the problems. According to Emer, this shows that reporting on people who do something good for their community is newsworthy too.

Moving forward and Building Bridges

The success of the Unsung Heroes project and the impact it had on the winners and their communities sparked an interest in Butterfly Works and MFAF to do another project related to peace in Kenya. According to Emer, we were really happy with the crowdsourcing aspect of the whole thing, and people wanted us to repeat it in other places, so the team began thinking about how to develop a long-term strategy and initiative. We knew we wanted to do it again, but it had to be different to make sense for the situation in longer term so thats how we came up with the Building Bridges project and it being about peace initiatives in general. The goal of the Building Bridges project was to recognize and reward Kenyans who participate in peace initiatives and promote conflict resolution as a way of strengthening the nations peace-building
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capacity. The project had two main objectives: (1) map peace initiatives throughout Kenya and (2) recognize and reward (with prize money) Kenyans who participate in peace initiatives and promote conflict resolution. Building Bridges launched in April 2009 and ran for three months as a competition in which individuals, community-based organizations, and civil society organizations were eligible to win a prize for their work. According to a press release sent out to Kenyan bloggers, Building Bridges is open to all Kenyans engaged in peace-building and peacemaking activities, including organising peace gatherings, community discussions, creative and sportive activities or even holding festivities and doing pro bono work to ensure peace in areas. Building Bridges is putting them all on the map and rewarding the most promising projects.

Unlike Unsung Peace Heroes, Building Bridges was not based on nominations, but rather on registrations. The project designers anticipated that people would register via a web form, email, SMS, voicemail or postal mail and then update their peace initiatives through the similar mechanisms. They expected most submissions to be sent through SMS. That data-handling team, a group of three former NairoBits students employed by the project, were responsible for managing the registrations and updates. They received most of their submissions via mobile phone, typically preceded by a text messages asking for more information about the initiative. According to Rukia Sebit, the leader of the data-handling team, any texts with info, Building Bridges, 5447 (the registration short code), or left blank were treated as inquiries for more information. When they received these messages, the data team would call the people back.

Some people wanted more general information about Building Bridges, others wanted to register their peace activities, and some people were simply confused about the initiative. The competition received more than 600 registrations from individuals and groups all over Kenya. The data team believed that the project had good reach and that Kenyans throughout the country were familiar with the initiative because of the advertisements, particularly the radio spots, and the strength of word-of-mouth, especially through their connections with PeaceNetKenya and other local partners. The partnership with PeaceNet-Kenya was critical for spreading the word about Building Bridges to communities with limited access to mass media. Analysis of the available data showed that the majority of registrations came from the Rift Valley and Nairobi provinces (36.9% and 23.6% respectively).1 There were 61 registrations from Nyanza province, 10% of all registrations in the country, with Eastern province accounting for 9.9% of registrations.

1 The

Building Bridges has 628 registrations posted, but only 618 have provincial data used in this analysis.

Activity Categories
There were a total of 1,409 activities entered into seven categories. This number is much larger than the number of registrations because some activities were tagged with more than one category. The three largest categories were Individuals, Organizations, and Educational Activities. Media and For Children were the smallest categories.

The Building Bridges jury selected five individual winners, two community-based organizations, and two civil society organizations. The winners were Jane Mweru from Eldoret; Amani Kibera, a CBO located in Nairobi; and the Rafiki Club, which works in Kakamega, Mumias, Msabweni, Mitaboni, and Nairobi. Mweru was injured in a church that was set ablaze during the postelection violence. After the crisis, Mweru opened a nursery school for children who were affected by the church fire. Amani Kibera is a youth program focused on peacebuilding and conflict management through the use of sports, arts, culture, and entertainment. Rafiki Club focuses on empowering women and girls in various Kenyan communities. After the post-election violence, the club developed a program that paired women of different ethnic and religious backgrounds with one another in a letter-writing program. On September 21, 2010, World Peace Day, the winners and runners-up were recognized and rewarded at an event at the iHub, marking the end of the project.

Mapping and multimedia approach

The Building Bridges website was built by integrating the Ushahidi platform with Joomla!, an open-source content management system (CMS). Although this presented some challenges, which are discussed below, combining the platforms allowed for the desired functionality and design. The Butterfly Works staff was more familiar with Joomla! and hired a developer who was comfortable with the platform. Prior to launching the campaign, Butterfly Works conducted a performance test with a small group from Kenya (see Appendix 1 for the questionnaire). The website worked well for outside users and the integration allowed for more functionality than using either platform alone. This type of integration and customization is one of the advantages to using open-source software solutions. With access to the softwares code, programmers can customize the tools to better meet their needs. Both Ushahidi and Joomla! make their code available online. Although the map was important for tracking and visualizing the peace initiatives, it was not as important for the actual registrants. For example, someone could register without ever going online or even knowing about the Ushahidi instance. One of the major goals of Building Bridges was to be as inclusive as possible, which means not requiring individuals to have Internet access to participate. The site, however, did receive consistent visitors from Kenya(mostly the cities) and around the world.2 In addition to the Building Bridges website, they used a Facebook page, Facebook profile, and Twitter account to reach a wider audience and increase participation and interaction.
Website traffic: Number of visitors to Building Bridges site between April 1, 2010 and June 20, 2010

Challenges
Despite the overall success of the Building Bridges campaign, the team faced a number of challenges along three main fronts: technical, messaging, and personnel and capacity. These areas all present different types of challenge, some of which the team could overcome and others that were not resolved.
2 Unfortunately,

we do not have analytics after June 20, 2010, but it can be assumed that visitors stayed steady or perhaps even spiked at the conclusion of the project in July.

Technical challenges One of the projects biggest technical challenges was integrating Ushahidi with the Joomla! content management system. The Joomla! integration created challenges for the data handling team in Nairobi. Because of the design of the two administration sides, it was difficult to move data between the different systems. The data handling team developed a system for data

management using Joomla!, Ushahidi and Google Docs. Having three different databases created inefficiencies and slowed the data entry process and website updates. Two other major technical challenges: slow and unreliable Internet connections, and mobile limitations were challenges that the team worked to overcome despite little control over these issues. The data handling team relied primarily on Safaricom 3G modems for their Internet connections. These modems, although rather convenient, were often slow. And, if the Safaricom network was down, the team had limited access to a backup Internet connection. In addition, the lack of Internet access in much of Kenya prevented participants from accessing the website, which meant they werent able to register their projects online or view other projects. Because of this lack of Internet access, mobile phones were essential for communicating with participants and for registering projects. The 160-character limit of text messaging presented a challenge for Building Bridges because they needed to collect detailed information about the peace initiatives. It was not possible for people to register their initiatives using SMS because registration required that the projects were entered into the online system. The data team would use the information from the text messages to register the initiatives, but this was not an automatic process. Registrants could send in basic information name, location, and perhaps one detail but needed to either fill the web registration, mail in the registration or relay the information to the data team over the phone. In most cases, the team would receive a text message with some information about the initiative and then call the person back to get the remainder of the information. If the people responsible for the initiative had access to the Internet, they could update their projects online. If not, they could send updates via text message. The data entry process was often tedious due to the limitations of mobile and the complicated backend. However, the data team developed a system for collecting, entering, and managing the data, which is discussed in more detail below.

Communication and Message challenges Another set of challenges had less to do with technology and more to do with communication and the campaign message. Despite consistent messaging across media, it was not always clear to potential participants what Building Bridges was or what they should do to participate. Potential participants would SMS blank text messages or messages asking for more information about the campaign, but would often not submit initiatives. Building Bridges received 16,320 text messages and 628 usable registrations, which are posted to the site. The large discrepancy between the number of messages received and the actual number of registrations suggests that participants were unclear about the purpose of Building Bridges. They would text to the short code without a clear sense of why they were contacting the campaign. The team faced challenges communicating with people on the phone to get more information. It was difficult for the team to talk with people who did not speak English or Swahili. Other times, it was difficult to reach people: the team would call them back, but receive no answer. Some team members disagreed over what qualified as peace activities and what should be mapped. For example, one man said that he talked about peace with patrons in his store. He did not have an organized peace activity, but said he used daily interactions with customers to discuss peace. Some Building Bridges team members felt that this did not qualify as a peace initiative and did not want to add it to the map, while others thought that it did and should be added to the site. In other words, at times, the team disagreed over what should be posted to the site. It would not qualify for the prizes because it did not meet the criteria, but it could still be mapped to show the work going on in that community (see Appendix 2 for criteria used by the jury for selecting winners). More broadly, the Amsterdam team and the Kenya team worked in different environments and sometimes were unable to communicate effectively. Butterfly Works often wanted processes to move more quickly, but the Kenyan team had to cope with the inefficiencies in local systems and Kenyan bureaucracy, which often slowed them down. For example, any competition that awards prizes in Kenya needs approval by the slow-acting Betting Control and Licensing Board. This agency delayed the progress of Building Bridges as the team waited for approval. Capacity challenges The final set of challenges had to do with capacity and personnel. At times it was difficult to coordinate the two teams, one working in Amsterdam and the other in Nairobi. The distance, differential access to technology, and cultural differences sometimes hindered the two teams. For example, a Butterfly Works staff member in the Netherlands did the web development and Joomla! integration, but the data handling team responsible for using the site was based in Nairobi. When the site didnt work, they would need to contact Butterfly Works or try to come up with a fix independently. Not having the web developer in Nairobi with the data handling team slowed the process and sometimes led to confusion or misunderstandings between the team members. As previously mentioned, the data team said that the registration process was not as clear or easy to participants as it could have been, which slowed down the data entry process and created other inefficiencies in the system. For example, the team added a third database to the process, a Google Docs spreadsheet where they managed SMS. In addition, there was little separation of duties among data team members. In other words, all the team members did every step of the data entry process rather than separating the tasks.

Building Bridges Post-implementation

After the initial competition, the implementing partners had plans to refocus their efforts to be more of a networking and facilitation platform allowing groups and individuals to learn about
9

each other as well as link up. As of early 2011, Butterfly Works and Media Focus on Africa Foundation had no plans to continue Building Bridges although they originally planned to run a second phase. They did not receive continued funding to work in Kenya, and therefore, the project has not moved into phase two. In April 2011, Butterfly Works released a toolkit, Social Change Initiatives, geared toward others interested in designing peace campaigns. The toolkit includes a how to guide, a case study of Building Bridges, the software download for the Joomla! component for Ushahidi, Building Bridges graphics, and guidelines for monitoring and evaluating. All the materials are available for download and are free for users.

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Project Evaluation and Impact

The project team felt that the Building Bridges had positive impact on individuals and communities. The research and development director at Butterfly Works felt that as an organization Butterfly Works learned more about cross-media campaigns with their collaborating partners. She also believed that through the project, people were encouraged and supported. Butterfly Works also performed a countrywide evaluation of the impact of their project. According to their study, 95% of people surveyed thought the campaign was associated with changes in their community.3 Based upon Butterfly Works stated goals and objectives4 the data team also shared their perspective on the success of the project in achieving its goals and objectives by completing a survey with five-point Likert scales (See Appendix 3). This is one way to measure a group of peoples feelings about a situation. It can be used to learn how peoples feelings change over time.
3 Butterfly 4 Ibidz

Works. (2011). Toolkit number 1: Social change campaign

Project Goals (2 Respondents)

Question 1 2 3 4 5 How successful was the Building Bridges project in encouraging all Kenyans to stand up and act for peace in their area? How successful was the Building Bridges project in encouraging all Kenyans to become active drivers of peace through the development and registration of their own peace initiatives? How well di the Building Bridges project foster collaboration and interactivity amongst peace initiatives across Kenya? How well did the Building Bridges project support those doing great work? How well did the Building Bridges project create a sustainable culture of peace throughout the country? Average (1-5) 4 4 3.5 3 3.5 Somewhat successful Somewhat successful OK to Well OK OK to Well

Project (2 Respondents)
1 2 3 4 How successful was the project in enabling people to register their own peace initiatives, no matter how tech literate they were on where they were located? How well did the project visualize and map all registered projects including related information on a central platform? How well did the project allow people to connect and (potentially) offer support? How well did the project Inspire people to take their own action? 3 4.5 2 3.5 OK Well to Very well Not so well OK to Well

The data team felt that the Building Bridges project was somewhat successful in (1) encouraging all Kenyans to stand up and act for peace in their area, and somewhat successful in (2) encouraging all Kenyans to become active drivers of peace through development and registration of their own peace initiatives. The team also felt that the project was ok at supporting those that did great work. Respondents in the Buttery Works evaluation also shared this sentiment: A broad majority of participants would have wished for stronger direct support by potentially regional support teams to guide them and help moving their initiatives further, informing them on updates etc.5

11

The team felt that the project was neither successful nor unsuccessful at enabling people to register their initiatives because some never registered their initiative on their own. They also felt that the project objective to connect people together and potentially offer support did no work so well. One member of the data teams shared her thoughts: I strongly felt that what we could have done better was to organize community forums, sports events (something to bring the community together). Then used that avenue to link the peace makers together to avoid repetition of the same peace projects in one area, where they could link to work together to achieve the goal.
5 Ibid

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Appendix 1
Performance test: Building Bridges
www.buildingbridges.co.ke/joomla

25 March 2010 Butterfly Works

The goal of this test is to see how the Building Bridges website performs. Based on the results we will make the changes needed to realize a good accessibility.

1. Please start with entering the url: www.buildingbridges.co.ke/joomla in the address bar of your browser. 2. How long does it take before you see anything (seconds)? 3. Does the website look well structured or is something out of place? 4. How does the design look? 5. Do you see the image player on the homepage? How does it work? 6. Could you test the website in another browser and answer the above questions again? 7. If you click on View Map in the menu, you will see a map, categories, and some time filter options. Can you tell me how long it takes before you see anything appearing? 8. Does it look structured to you or is something out of place? 9. Please play around with the map to see if it works. The dots in the map are links to projects. 10. If you click on Reports in the menu, you will see a list of all the projects that are on the website. Can you tell me if it works? 11. Please play aroud with the list of reports to see if it works. The titles of the reports are links to the projects. 12. Maybe you could visit the other pages to test if everything works and looks the way it should. 13. Any other comments? Thanks for helping!

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Appendix 2
Selection Criteria 1. The applicant must be able to proof it realized a series (at least two but preferably more) of connected, consecutive activities which form one initiative/project 2. The applicant must be able to provide at least one independent reference in relation to the activity activities who are not family relations of the applicant or in any way related to/involved in the activity. 3. Applicants should be willing to have a video or audio interview made of them and be willing to appear in mainstream media in relation to the Building Bridges campaign. Specific for organisations: 4. In case the applicant is an organization, it must have registered the organization with e.g. the NGO council and be able to provide proof of registration upon request. 5. The applicant must provide evidence of the sustainability of the activity/activities. Within no more than two years from the start of the activity, it should: a. Achieve financial independence (i.e. not rely on donor funding for continuation, the activity should be able to pay for itself) OR b. Serve a continued need in the local community and have a steady support base (can be financially and/or voluntary). Specific for individuals: 6. In case the applicant is an individual, he/she must be not less than 18 years old at the time of entry. The selection process: Selection of the winning activities will be done by a panel of experts in the area of peace building and sustainable development; the jury. The jury will assess the applications based on the criteria above and their own interpretation thereof due to the expected variety in the types of activities that will be submitted and the nature of the criteria by which they are assessed. The decisions made by the jury are final and will not be subject to correspondence. NB. These criteria are subject to changes at the discretion of the jury, but with final approval by the implementing parties.

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Toolbox #1
Self-Assessment

Why do the toolbox?

These tools are based upon the rich experiences of people and organizations that have used the Ushahidi instance. The following toolboxes are crucial to your success!

Checklist TOOLBOX 1- SELF ASSESSMENT TOOLBOX 2- IMPLEMENTATION TOOLBOX 3 - USING YOUR INFORMATION
TIP: An Ushahidi project doesnt start with setting up the platform and putting it on-line. You need to prepare your strategy, study the context, understand the implications, secure cooperation and knowledge of the tool for all of the actors involved. The launch of the platform is the last step of the project, not the first one. (Anahi Ayala Iacucci)

Tips on using these toolbox documents:

These toolboxes are in beta (draft). We are using this content to test for the final web and print versions toolboxes. Please provide feedback. Print documents do not include the extra notes which appear in the online versions. Online documents will show rotating tips, which are shown as extra comments in the notes field.

Self-Assessment
Helping you take the first steps to determine if the Ushahidi platform is a fit for your project

Toolbox 1

- Learn about Ushahidi - Find out if Ushahidi will fit into your project goals & objectives - Think about partnerships for your project - Identify the information, communication and technology needs for your project - Think about what resources are necessary to make your project successful

Lets Begin..
First Name:____________ Last Name: ____________ Are you an individual or part of an organization?
Organization Individual Organiza(on Name: ____________

Email Address:___________________

You can use the Ushahidi Pla[orm for informa(on collec(on and sharing, visualiza(on and interac(ve mapping. There have been over 3000 uses of Ushahidi/Crowdmap. Here are some common types of uses of the Ushahidi pla[orm (Ushahidi video introduc(on) (FAQs).. And more
Deployments

icon

Hot Flash

For emergencies like natural disasters, unexpected events.(more text here).

Ushahidi Prototype Hai( Crisis Map Uk Riot Cleanup Chicago Blizzard Japan Earthquake War on Gaza DRC Zim Poli(cal Crisis

icon

Slow Burn

For ongoing or complex emergencies, to track changes in communi(es or responding agencies . (crime mapping?)

icon

Point on a Calendar Long Term

For events like elec(on monitoring, media campaigns with ending dates. (more text)

Uchaguzi-Kenya Sudan Vote Monitor Unsung Peace Heroes Voice of Kibera KANCO (health) Uchaguzi-Kenya

icon

For ongoing programs and ini(a(ves (human rights monitoring, media, environmental mapping, local gov mapping, resource mapping )

EXAMPLES..

Thinking about How Ushahidi will Help your Project

Here are some things you might want to think about before you start using the plaAorm.. This toolbox will help you answer many of these quesFons..
Who is your target audience? What is the incen(ve/mo(va(on for people to use your pla[orm? How is mapping going to contribute to your project? How are you collec(ng and using data now? Do you just want to use a new cool and free tool? Is there a gap you are trying to ll?
Example: Linda Racree and her team wanted to gather informa(on on the amount, types, and loca(on of violence happening in communi(es where they were working on a Violence Against Children project. They wanted to know where the violence is happening most, and what kind of violence it is. The informa(on was then going to be used by the youth and project par(cipants, sta, and relevant local or na(onal authori(es. The goals were to generate awareness, inform programma(c eorts, and advocate for more aeen(on and services to prevent, respond to, and treat violence against children.

Project Goals and Objectives

What are the project goals? (user enters text here) What are the project objec(ves? (user enters text here)
Example Goals Violence Against Children Project Voice of Kibera Uchaguzi Kenya

Example Objectives Uchaguzi Kenya

TIPS: How will you achieve your goals? How will the collected information achieve the goal.

What kind of project are you working on? (please check all that apply)
Health Water and Sanita(on Media HIV/AIDS Environment/Conserva(on Womens Issues War/Conict Natural Disasters Human Rights Children and Youth Educa(on Gender Based Violence Economic Development Security/Protec(on Poli(cal Violence Elec(ons/Elec(on Monitoring Other, please describe______

Is this a new or exis(ng project?

new old

Is this a development or humanitarian/crisis project? (deni(ons and examples) Community Programming Development/Governance
Humanitarian/Crisis Other

Expected Outcomes / Impact

Your project/programs goals and objec(ve are: icon
Type

With the goal to _____Users can correct the auto- inserted text here________. The program/project objec(ves are Users can correct the auto- inserted text here__.

What are the expected outcomes/impact? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ How will the Ushahidi pla[orm help you achieve your expected outcomes/impact? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
TIPS: How will you achieve your expected outcomes?

Mapping and Visualization

Why use a map? What is the benefit of using mobiles or mapping to track your information? The information does not need to be crisis related. You might want to map existing community resources within a geographic area or raise awareness of local events. (Linda Rafferty)

Mapping data is important for creaFng responsibility. The fact that people see their report is the biggest moFvaFon to engage them. - Oscar Salazar, Cuidemos el Voto Mapping informaFon will benet your project by: What kind of informaFon will you map? How do you intend to use it? Who do you want to view the map?
TIPS: The mapping system in Ushahidi is not automa(c: you need to geo-reference informa(on manually. You can do it at the admin level with volunteers or other people. If you plan to use it as a crowd-source system, you need to have a big number of people mapping those messages, or you need to do it only by web- submission (it means also forget about the media monitoring, SMS, e-mails and twieer submissions). What level of precision does the mapping require? Do you want data points or data areas? (Anahi Ayala Iacucci)

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Learn more

case studies

instance sites

Blogs/media

Technology and the rest Allocating Time

Our users experience to date has humbled us to realized that the much of the success from organizaFons using the Ushahidi plaAorm comes from the project planning and preparaFon around the technology itself

Allocation of Time
In an Ushahidi Deployment
Ushahidi setup
Requires some tech skills and training, but not much work Set up a server, run installer, poke around

All the other stuff that makes a project successful

Outreach, branding, translation, annotation, verification, documentation, integration with other systems, SMS debugging, taxonomy development

Learn More: Why technology is 10%- Anahi Ayala Iacucci Allocation of Time Chris Blow

Just because you bought a domain name and ran the Ushahidi installer doesnt mean that anyone is going to use the system and even if you somehow get a lot of reports, you might not be relevant to the exisFng systems (that is, all the other people who are working on the same problem). So as Ory said in Cape Town, Dont get too jazzed up! Ushahidi is only 10% of soluFon. Systems like Ushahidi have turned enormous communicaFon barriers into a trivial installaFon and training process. But there is a whole other 90% of real work. (Chris Blow) Lets focus on that 90% and identify potential partners in your project.

Partnerships & Audience

Key to the success of your project
Who are your partners? (lisFng) TIPS- Which partner will provide the overall project manager. Will it be your organizaFon? What roles will they play?

TIPS- One of the major partners in project is a technical administrator. If you envision customizing your instance a lot you should think about having a developer as a partner if you do not have one in your organizaFon.

Who are your Audiences? Why do you think they will use your plaAorm?

TIPS-One of the fundamental parts of your project is the deniFon of your audience. Who do you want to visit the site and use your informaFon and who you want to be your reporters?

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Learn more

Trust & Partnerships

The crowd as your partner

Information
Your Ushahidi instance will help you collect, organize and communicate information for the goals of your project (ExisFng project)- What informaFon are you currently collecFng? What informaFon do you want to add with this project? (New project) What informaFon do you want to collect? How will this informaFon allow the project to achieve its goals? TIPS: Does someone else have exisFng indicators or iniFaFves or informaFon needs or formats that you should be linking in with and following or supporFng? (Linda Radree) case studies icon Learn more instance sites Type

IMPORTANT! What is the exis(ng informa(on ow and how the informa(on ow you propose will change or modify the exis(ng one? The idea is that the more you modify the exis(ng informa(on ow the less your project will be successful.

blogs/articles

Communication
Your Ushahidi instance will help you collect, organize and communicate information for the goals of your project. Collecting information into Ushahidi platform is only half the battle. How will you communicate information to your audience? Partners? Media?

From slide 11, this is your audience: Example The people who Media Focus on Africa ___________________________________________________ FoundaFon are targe(ng do not have Internet access - We want to bring the How do you plan to tell people about your project and how to results back to the people using mass send informaFon into the plaAorm? media. As a result of MFAFs goals, Internet is only one part of the larger project and SMS Television AdverFsements campaign. This is not only true for the Othe Unsung Peace Heroes campaign but for all Radio word of mouth of MFAFs work. Bueery Works uses Newspaper mul(ple media types in their work as well so Morning shows Flyers the mul(media approach for Unsung Peace Twifer Internet Heroes was familiar to both organiza(ons Facebook and important to achieving their goals. How do you plan share the informaFon with your audience? Bueery Works and MFAF used a mul(media approach, including a website, newspaper ads, radio and television appearances, par(cipa(on in live events and TIPS: think about how your audience commonly views/ word-of-mouth. (Melissa Tully) accesses informaFon)- and what way they are most likely to view informaFon during a crisis. icon case studies Learn more blogs/articles Type

Campaign, Messaging, & Communication Strategy

Very important too is the communication strategy of the organization, which should explain what the platform is and what it is not. (Anahi Ayala Iacucci)

The communication strategy can be: 1) Announcement of the project/service 2) Setting expectations 3) Plan for responding to individual messages 4) Communicating information to different audiences

How will you inform the crowd about your project?

How will you communicate with your partners/audience?

The Unsung Peace Heroes project in Kenya used a mul(media publicity strategy, including placing ads in the newspaper, making TV and radio appearances, handing out iers, par(cipa(ng in local peace events and having an online presence, to spread the work about their project and to collect nomina(ons of Peace Heroes throughout Kenya. This strategy allowed them to target various diverse audiences and in the end they received over 500 nomina(ons for Unsung Peace Heroes throughout Kenya. (Melissa Tully)

TIPS Be sure that you get clearly the message out: what you want to do, why and if the issue is urgent or not.

Type

icon

Learn more

case studies

blogs/articles

Example materials

Information Communication Technology (ICT), Privacy, and Secuity

Information Security and Privacy can be a very important consideration for many projects that use the Ushahidi Instance. We encourage you and your organization to think about how the Ushahidi instance may affect community/ organization safety, and the impact that mapping and information will have on your audience and partners.
If you answer yes to any of these quesFons, or feel that this topic is important to your project -- we encourage you to take the mini assessment tool here. Will your project be dealing with sensiFve informaFon? Will your project potenFally place the users or partners at risk? Take the Does the government strictly control informaFon in your project area? assessment Are you prepared to address any informaFon/ privacy breaches if they should happen? Who now. will be responsible?

icon

Type

case studies

instance sites

blogs/articles

Learn more

Technology
Ushahidi is a software, which means it requires access to certain technologies.
1 Do you have regular power/ internet access? Are your team members volunteers comfortable with computers/the internet, etc? Do you have a technology person on your project? Is he or she a PHP developer and/or designer? Do you want a lot of customiza(ons? Yes No If you project area has limited power, and limited access to internet this will limit the ability to use Ushahidi /Crowdmap. Consider using another tool or start with a small pilot project How do your partners and audience currently communicate? What are they comfortable using to communicate? (cell phones, sms, internet) What do they have access to and can aord? If YES, then have this person take a look at the Ushahidi Manual to see if this ts their capacity. If NO then take this technology assessment test here. If NO, then consider using crowdmap. Link Here. CustomizaFons, or ****, will require a developer and likely a designer. And you have YESs for ques(ons 3 &4

Yes No

3 4 5

Yes No Yes No Yes No

What is the local use of ICT in the country? How do people in the community use the internet and mobile phones? Take the tech assesment! Learn more

TIPS: How do your partners and audience communicate now? What are they comfortable using? (cell phones, sms, internet) What do they have access to and can afford? case studies blogs/articles

Resources & Funding

How does my proposal address the problem? What are the goals and objec(ves of the program? What is the budget and (meline for the project? Can you partner with others for non-nancial support? How will the project be sustainable? Is there a geographic focus? (funders ocen support specic loca(ons) What are the expected outcomes and how will you measure them? Here are some ?ps to think about when looking for funding to support your project or idea: Funding Uses Examples of how you might use your funding: Funding a SMS shortcode number to allow people to send free SMS Funding an SMS alert campaign Funding a web designer to customize your Ushahidi deployment Funding a PR campaign: newspaper ads, online ads, to raise awareness about your Ushahidi instance Funding a data entry resource if you are migraFng exisFng data into the Ushahidi plaAorm

TIPS: Have a clear budget and take into account advertisement campaign, dev work, PHONE EXPENSES if you use SMS and alerts, server space, and time to dedicate to the project. Also fundamental, have a monitoring &evaluation line in the budget and in your project plan and do periodical review of the project according to goals. (Anahi Ayala Iacucci)

Resources
Here are some resources you may need. Fill out the cost that you will need too.

Resource
Project Manager Developer Designer Project Manager Volunteers/Coordinators Campaign Adver(sing Servers Computers Phone/SMS expenses Monitoring/Evalua(on Training Workshop Planning Workshops General Oce/Equipment Other

Cost
Make sure you have a clear budget and think about the resources that will you need for your project.

TIPS

Find out about any poten(al licenses you might need, for example for holding a compe((on, this can ocen be bureaucra(c and take (me to organise. NOTE Calculate ?me for the design and prin?ng or produc?on of all your materials, making a website or yer and prin?ng it can take a few weeks. (Bufery Works Toolbox)

TIPS

Planning & Project timeline

Planning your project, and allowing enough time to prepare for volunteers, customization, campaigns, and partner/community engagement will make you project more successful.

If you are looking to gather, share and make decisions with many dierent people & partners. Consider: Planning mee(ngs& workshops early to make sure that all partners have similar expecta(ons and understand their roles/responsibili(es Plan your media/adver(sing campaigns early, determine the cost, and how you will inform people of your project and set expecta(ons.

TIPS

ELECTION MONITORING Sta and Volunteers for the Uchaguzi Kenya Project ( 2010 Kenya Referedum) recommend 3-6 months for planning around a specic elec(on days.

PROJECT EXAMPLES

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Type

Example project timelines

blogs/articles

Learn more

(On the online tool, what you have lled out in the previous panels will automaFcally show up here!)

Below is informa(on about your project that you entered in the rst toolbox

Project Goal/Objec?ves/an?cipated impact _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

Reasons for mapping _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

Partnerships _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

Informa?on/Communica?on _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Marke?ng Media Plan _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Technology Assessment _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ I would like
to make changes..

Lets move on!

THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING TOOLBOX #1!

Please save this file and add your name to the title, then return it to support@ushahidi.com or wiki.ushahidi.com You will receive a report from toolbox #1 to use in your project. In your email please send comments on how you would like this tool improved or changed! Thank you for being a very important part of Ushahidis User community!

Toolbox #2
Implementation

Why do the toolbox?

These tools are based upon the rich experiences of people and organizations that have used the Ushahidi instance. The following toolboxes are crucial to your success!

Checklist
TOOLBOX 1- SELF ASSESSMENT TOOLBOX 2- IMPLEMENTATION TOOLBOX 3 - USING YOUR INFORMATION

Toolbox #2
Implementation
This toolbox will help you implement your project using the Ushahidi/Crowdmap instance : Review of your work from Toolbox #1 Choosing the platform that will work best for your project (Ushahidi or Crowdmap) Understanding and planning roles and responsibilities Think about information inflows and outflows Plan a verification process that will link directly to action Create a marketing plan Build a feedback loop Plan for a volunteer team Plan and implement training for your members and partners

Before moving into toolbox 2, here is a review of your work from the assessment toolbox. The database will auto-generate the following: Project Goal/Objec/ves/an/cipated impact

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reasons for mapping ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Partnerships ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Informa/on/Communica/on ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Marke/ng Media Plan ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Technology Assessment _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I would like to make changes

Lets move on!

Choosing the platform that will work best for your project
A pla?orm for organizaCons with more tech experience. Needs to be downloaded to your own server A good t for a project that has tech experience and developer support. Allows for customizaCon. You can own the data Check out the demo..

Allows you to set up your own deployment of the Ushahidi Pla?orm without having to install it on your own web server Does not require installaCon Fastest and simplest installaCon of the Ushahidi pla?orm. Built to handle informaCon coming out of a crisis. No need for a developer Fewer plug-ins Open data / unable to password protect Learn more on the website

Which one will work best for you project?

TIPS: A technology developer (or tech savvy person) can install your Ushahidi instance and you or other team members can install Crowdmap. There is a very comprehensive Ushahidi User guide, that will help take you every step of the way.

Understanding Roles/Responsibilities
TIPS: Community users believe that dening roles and responsibiliCes early in a Ushahidi project is very important to its success.

Planning roles and responsibilities for your project will depend on the size of your project. Choose the option that best fits your project:

LARGE

Planning a country-wide project, one that involves many partners, or will be collecCng large amounts of informaCon

Crisis Mapping HaiC, Libya ElecCon Monitoring Kenya/Uganda

medium

Planning a small audience outreach program to collect and share with a single, specic community

Unsung Peace Heroes/Building Bridges

small

Short-term deployment with one to three volunteers. Lower targets for volume and outreach.

I Vote Because - hZp://ivotebecause.ca/

STOP HERE and consider having a workshop with your partners and audience to agree upon

Lets collaborate!

roles and responsibili@es for your project!!!

Understanding Roles/Responsibilities (large project example)

Project Manager (PM) Responsible for keeping the coordinators up to date on the project, monitor acCviCes, and communicate what needs to be done for the project. Will organize meeCngs, dra_ agendas and reports. Has direct access to the Ushahidi pla?orm and is responsible for overseeing the approval of reports. Selects a small team with access to this site. Will be responsible for idenCfying mistakes in reports.

Admin Coordinator

Technology Coordinator some example roles from other deployments: managing all technical problems. For example, will O_en a technical advisor who is responsible for Here are change categories, basemaps, & sms syncing programs Works with a PHP Developer and/or GIS expert. Not all projects require a PHP or GIS expert, especially if you are using Crowdmap.

1) To the right examples- ->

Volunteer/Training Coordinator Media/Outreach Coordinator

He/she will keep track of the volunteers and will coordinate the division of volunteers (ex, mappers, monitors and admins). Requires three dierent tasks: recruiCng, training and coordinaCng. Responsible for the pla?orm messaging to the crowd/community and media and manages relaConships with journalists and general media in general. You may have two people on this team one for the community/crowd and another for the media/journalists. Works closely with the PM on the media/outreach strategy. For Crisis related Projects: Responsible with a team to constantly monitor and process reports to idenCfy emergencies and to provide informaCon to responders. Communicates closely with the project manager or core team.

Emergency Response Coordinator

This is not a complete list! Consider having a workshop with your partners and audience to agree upon roles and responsibili@es for your project!!!

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Example TORs

Leadership Lessons Learned

Roles in Election Monitoring

Roles in Crisis

Planning Roles and Responsibilities

Role (drop down box+ write in) Partners (drop down box+ write in) Responsibility (write in) Tasks or Specidic act (write in)-

Community users from other deployments recommend a leadership team. Who will be part of your leadership team?

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Learn more

Job TORs

Partner Agreements (MOU, etc.)

TOR job description

Planning Roles and Responsibilities

Crises and Emergencies

When responding to a crisis, you will likely need to plan, recruit volunteers, and build partnerships at the same @me. We recommend the following resources: - The StandbyTaskForce- hZp://blog.standbytaskforce.com/ - The CrisisMappers Network www.crisismappers.net/ - The Ushahidi Manual - wiki.ushahidi.com

Planning Information & Communication Flows

One of the most appealing reasons to use Ushahidi/Crowdmap is the potenCal to improve communicaCon and informaCon ow between groups & to improve knowledge among communiCes and to help people make decisions. The next few slides will help you create the informaCon ows using Ushahidi/Crowdmap, but rst think about how you will analyze and feedback informaCon: 1) How will you analyze your informaCon? Examples

2) How will you feedback informaCon?

Planning Information & Communication Flows

Examples of the parts and groups that will help make up your information system

The crowd or public community

People who will freely send in information from an open community who are unknown to the program . For example; affected people during a crisis, citizens during an election. (need more examples here!)

A trusted or bounded community Individuals or Groups that are part of the community and
also part of known set of reporters to the platform. For example: NGO workers reporting to a UN system, election monitors reporting into the system. Pre-identified trusted community members sending in human rights information, and even known first responders during a disaster.

Partners who will send & receive informa@on

Other organizations/partners- Organization that are partners involved in the program. This
can be the organization that represents a bounded community (ex. Election monitoring group, UN Cluster, consortium) They can also be organization that wish to received analyzed information as well. ( Media/ Journalists)

Ushahidi or Crowdmap Pla?orm

Ushahidi/Crowdmap Platform- This is where information from the group above will come into
and will also be the location where analyzed or processed information may come from. Within this platform there may be more people involved to process/analyze and present information back to the wider community. Remember that on major part of the platform is internet and web-based!

Planning Information & Communication Flows

Determining information flows in the Usahahidi instance
Feedback loops and return of information Incoming Information

Partners who will send informa@on

Other groups such as interna@onal media

Ushahidi Map/ Website

Ushahidi/Crowdmap Pla?orm categories layers reports staCsCcs

Your thoughts?

EXAMPLES
UNDP/OCHA COLOMBIA HAITI CRISIS MAP LIBYA CRISIS MAP

Planning Information & Communication Flows

Create the information flow and system that will best fit your project

(is it possible to do a drag/drop function here? Where they would drag a group/partner into a circle? )

Drag your partners/group into the shapes- (auto-generated from assessment) Add more partners.

Drag the arrows to show where the information will enter

Information / Communication
Here is a recap of your informaCon communicaCon strategy from the assessment toolbox

make changes

Lets move on!

List the specific types of information that you will collect for your project:

How do you plan to collect information the information you wish to map on the Ushahidi platform? SMS Web TwiNer Smart phone apps Email Call Center Voice Message Facebook Face to Face Radio Other________________ Other________________

Before creating / choosing categories, first understand how you will use the information
EXAMPLE: You are quickly setting up a crisis map. Your goal is to identify the location of refugee camps to share who/ what/where maps and share information about hospitals/ and clinics at UN Cluster meetings so organizations can plan shelter and health services.

Information & Categories

1 The information for the UN meeting will be maps with refugee locations and functioning hospital locations 2 Categories you can create are Camp Locations and Hospitals (functioning) 3 Now think about how this information will feasibly be collected. a) crowd information b) NGO individuals reporting into the system. 3
Informa/on How will it be collected?

2 CATEGORY
Camp LocaCons Hospital (funcConing) Informa/on
(drop down or write in..)

1
How will it be communicated out?
(drop down or write in..)

XXX camp XXXX hospital

sms, phone sms, phone

How will this informa/on be categorized?

Refugee camp locaCons in X region FuncConing hospitals in Y region

UN cluster map, SMS alert, UN Health map, Cluster meeCng

How will this informa/on be communicated out?

Adding Information & Feedback Loops

Add information types to the diagram that you just created

Schema@c diagram from Slide 11 inserted here.

(is it possible to do a drag/drop function here? Where they would drag a group/partner into a circle? )

Drag your information types next to the red and green arrows above (auto-generated from
assessment)

Informa/on IN (drop down) Auto inserted from slide 13 As above

Informa/on OUT (drop down?)

Auto inserted from slide 13 As above

Have you completed the feedback loop? More /ps..

Action & Response

One of the challenges of using a crowdsourcing tool is verification. When information enters the Ushahidi/ Crowdmap platforms you or your team will need to verify and confirm reports. Here are some ways that deployments have verified information:
You have the information from multiple reliable sources You have two or more text messages from different phone numbers about the same incident. Someone on your team has spoken with the person on the ground to get more detailed information about the report. On of the providers of information is a partner or part of your trusted network

Verifying Information

What will be the rules to verify a report? (enter text here) If you have large numbers of reports coming in all at once, how will you prioriCze which ones to verify quickly? How will you train your teams on how to verify? (enter text here)

TIPS: If there is any doubt about a report, a good first step would be to mark the report as unverified, until you have the opportunity to investigate further.

icon

The Guide to verification

What is a trusted network?

Twitter challenges

Example verifications

Choosing the Right Map

When using Ushahidi or Crowdmap your veried reports will be placed on a map. You will need to choose a map that best ts the needs of your project.

Consideration #1: What is the scope or size of your project. Do you plan to collect information for an entire country, a city, or just a community? Consideration #2: Is there a map that exists of the areas that you are interested in? Some maps services may not have the area mapped. You should always check. If it does not exist? What are the next steps? What are your options?
Ushahidi has 4 available providers, if you have a developer you can have them add another map to better fit your needs. The only customizable map is OpenStreetMap (OSM) Check out the following map providers here:
I cant nd a map for my project ..

Visual Earth

TIPS: How large is the area that you will place information on the map? (country, region, city, community)?

Messaging / Campaign
How will people find out about your initiative?
If your project involved receiving messages from the crowd or the open community, it is very important that you have a clear message and strategy about what type of information you would like people to send in, and for what purpose you will be using the information.
Here are some things to think about:

HOW DO PEOPLE ALREADY BROADCAST INFORMATION TO ONE ANOTHER? Think about the ways that people communicate with one another
about informaCon. If the community that you want to send in message watches television, reads the newspaper, or listen to the radio, this may be a very eecCve way to inform people of your project and why you want them to send you informaCon. KEEP IT SIMPLE Dont forget about face to face communicaCons! Think about how people can spread the word in local meeCngs, through community leaders, and other basic communicaCon pathways. TRUST If you are asking people to provide sensiCve informaCon how can you create trust so that they will feel safe and comfortable to provide informaCon? Who will help you achieve this? (community leaders, etc) and how long will it take? TIMELINE Think carefully about the Cme it will take to launch your campaign. If you are planning on using dierent media plan for Cme to contact radio staCons, money for prinCng iers, and more Cme to build relaConships and trust with community leaders who may promote your project. SMS USE The presence of mobile networks does not always mean that people will easily and freely SMS text. If you expect most of your informaCon to come by SMS , invesCgate whether or not people are literate, feel comfortable texCng, etc. COST Although using more media channels increase your campaign, it will likely also increase the cost of your project. One inexpensive and very eecCve way is to use community leaders and community organizaCons but this requires Cme and trust- which you may not always have especially during an emergency or crisis.

TIPS: Many users believe in the importance of advance outreach via media coverage, adverCsing, workshops & demonstraCons.

What will you actually say?

The specific words that you use in your campaign message will not only determine the type of messages you received, but will also influence the expectations of the users or crowd. Here are some examples of successes and challenges.
This message generated thousand of messages, but one of the challenges was the large number of needs. In addiCon many people believed that if they texted in their need, that there would always be a response.

The Message

Needs content here for snowmageddon

Needs Accurate Content here!

This web banner was one of many message that Building Bridges use to have people map peace iniCaCves around the world.

MORE EXAMPLES

Managing the Expectations of your Partners & Audience

When using the Ushahidi/Crowdmap platform, people often expect a response
HERE ARE SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT If you decide not to respond, then it is extremely important that you make this clear to your audience to ensure that there are no expectaCons around the project or that there is no informaCon gathering system that you cannot or are not set up to meet. How will you ensure that there are not expectaCons around the project or informaCon gathering system that you cannot or are not set up to meet? Do you have a communicaCon plan when you are unable to fulll the promise of response that you messaged out in the past? How will you return the informaCon to the community/local district/those who provided so that they can use it for decision making or program intervenCon? HERE ARE SOME EXAMPES OF USER EXPERIENCES (please help with content here!!!)

TIPS: There are different ways to manage expectations, like conducting local media campaigns, or sending automatic responses to
messages saying "thank you for message, now the message will be processed", and so on. (Anahi)

Messaging / Campaign
How will people find out about your initiative?
How will people find out about your initiative? What communication pathways will you use?

Write down some sample messages that you will you for your campaign

How will you manage expectation from communities and the crowd?

TIPS: If you have Cme, we recommend that you touch base with your partners and users to see how they will interpret your message.

Volunteers / Data Handling Team

The human resources needed to run the platform

Training

To be completed soon. Please add ideas here!

THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING TOOLBOX #2!

Please save this file and add your name to the title, then return it to support@ushahidi.com or wiki.ushahidi.com You will receive a report from Toolbox #2 to use in your project. In your email please send comments on how you would like this tool improved or changed! Thank you for being a very important part of Ushahidis User community!

Appendix

Local AssociaCons
Key node(s)
Community Individual(s)

Policy

Public Advocacy RecommendaCons

-Trusted by community -Trusted by the system

Pla?orm SIHCE SIDCE

PlaYorm Administrators

Individual Agency Recommenda/ons

CollecCve Report

-Informa@on management -Maintain ow of informa@on from nodes to commiNee - technical knowledge to maintain plaWorm infrastructure

Key Components -Fact -Request -DocumentaCon - Proof of Support

Rapid response

CommiZee

-validate/monitor/and analyze informaCon - local organizaCons rapidly respond -Coordinate & collecCvely present informaCon to government -key representaCve of organizaCons

Government
-Governor -Secretariats -Advisors

- Monitoring

Local Responders- police, redes social Agencies/Intl Orgs- PDP, defenseria, NGO, UN

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Departamento del Cesr United Nations Development Programme Redes United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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Next Example

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Toolbox #3

Real-Time Evalua-on

So youve done all of the planning to implement your Ushahidi/Crowdmap pla?orm. Were here to help you self-evaluate how its working!

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TWO WAYS TO USE THIS TOOLBOX 1) The project is happening now.Im ready to learn about how the project is doing to make immediate changes to improve the project! 2) Well My project is over, but I want to learn about the successes and challenges!

The rst step is to ask the following big ques-ons.

Is the project fullling its goals?

Is the project fullling its objec-ves?

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Answer the following big ques-ons.

Goals: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

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The project has : Goals from implementa5on toolbox, panel #4, imported here

Strongly disagree

disagree

undecided

agree

strongly Agree more goals.

Why?

Objec<ves: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

The project has : Objec5ves from implementa5on toolbox, panel #4, imported here

agree Strongly disagree undecided disagree Why?

strongly Agree More objec-ves.

How are you achieving your program objec-ves?

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Which parts of your project is working well? and helping to achieve your objec-ves? Partnerships Communica-on
Technology Campaign/Messaging Informa-on Flows Ac-on/Feedback Maps/Visualiza-on Informa-on Security Volunteers/Teams Other, please describe______

Which parts of the project need improvement and may be preven-ng the project from achieving its objec-ves
Communica-on Partnerships Maps/Visualiza-on Technology Informa-on Security Campaign/Messaging Volunteers/Teams Informa-on Flows Other, please describe______ Ac-on/Feedback User ac5ons: A) select 2 from working well and 2 from needs improvement. B) select all that apply

So now youve learned from & evaluated your project What are your ac-on plans for change?
Findings
(EXAMPLE) Partnerships- We have a strong rela-onships with our community partners, we trust each other. We have monthly mee-ngs to keep our rela-onship strong. (SUCCESS!) (EXAMPLE) Informa-on Security- our informa-on security plan is working, Our servers are secure and there is a con-ngency plan. Our partners provide monthly feedback about their concerns. There has been no security events yet. (SUCCESS) (EXAMPLE) Volunteers- It has been hard to keep our volunteers. They say the long hours and travel are dicult. It is dicult for the project manager to train each new volunteer every day. (CHALLENGE)

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Some way to auto-import the selected categories on slide 6. Here is a RTE example

Ac<on Plan
(write your ac5on plan here ) We will con5nue to have monthly mee5ngs, and will look for people to support the workshop space to help con5nue to bring people together.

Check-in
(when will you check in to see how youre doing with your ac-on plan?)

Print your ac-on plan now!.

Print out your Evalua-on

Here are the dierent parts of your evalua-on (you can click on each one to print specic sec5ons)
(autoll in base on what is check on slide 5)

(autoll in base on what is check on slide 5)

(autoll in base on what is check on slide 5) (autoll in base on what is check on slide 5) (autoll in base on what is check on slide 5) (autoll in base on what is check on slide 5)

Print all of your checklists and ac-on plan

Print your self- evalua-on report here.

Partnerships Checklist

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1. Which partnerships in your project are working well? Why? 2. Which partnerships in your projects are dicult? Why? 3. Is there trust between your partnerships? Why or why not?

4. If your audience include local communi-es are they also your partners? How is it going?

Technology Checklist

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1. How is the technology support ( example, server support, PHP support, ***)? What are the challenges? 2. Do you feel your partners, volunteers, and audience are comfortable with the technology? (SMS, ushahidi instance/crowdmap, etc, viewing the map) 3. Are your volunteer or teams who are responsible to processing messages, reports, comfortable with the technology? What are the challenges?

Campaign/Messaging Checklist

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1. Do you believe that your audience (or crowd) understand the purpose of sending in informa-on? Why or Why not. 2. Do you believe that your audience understands what you are doing with the informa-on? And how they will be able to see the results? 3. Are the expecta-ons of your audience the same as your expecta-ons? Why or Why not? 4. What needs to con-nue.. to keep your messaging/campaign successful and sustainable? to improve your campaign strategy.

Informa-on Flows Checklist

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1. Are you collec-ng the type of informa-on you planned on? Is it helping you achieve your goals and objec-ves? How? How not? 2. How are you analyzing informa-on ( verifying, conrming, mapping) What is working well and what can be improved? 3. Do you feel now that your categories are appropriate, why or why not? 3. Click here to evaluate and revise ( or re-evaluate) your informa-on ow diagram

Ac-on/Response/Feedback Checklist

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1. Is the informa-on collected being used in the way you planned? 2. Have you been communica-ng back to your target audience/or the public? 3. How well do you and your partners feel the report and maps are returning to decision makers for program change? 4. If it has been more dicult than you thought to share informa-on and the maps with your par-cipants and audience, why do you think this is happening? 5. Click here to see your informa-on ow and feedback diagram, what would you keep the same and what would you do dierently?

Communica-ons Checklist

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1. Are your par-cipants/crowd communica-ng/sending you informa-on in ways that you thought? Why or why not? 2. What part of these communica-on successes are due to technology? 3. What part of these communica-on successes are due to trust, other reasons?

Maps/Visualiza-on Checklist

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1. What do the dots on the map mean to your project? To your par-cipants? To Others? 2. Are people specically using the map for decision making and ac-on? How are they using it? If they are not, what are they telling you as the reasons why they are not using it? 3. How do all of your audiences have access to the map? Do they know the way to nd needed informa-on on the map? If they cant or have diculty, why? How have they told you ways to improved the access and nd informa-on on the map?

Informa-on, Privacy and Security Checklist

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1. Do you have a current program strategy for privacy and security? If so what is working well, what will need improvements? If not write here what your strategy will be. 2. How is your project managing the risks of sharing informa-on (including the maps)? 3. Ask all of your partners and contact your par-cipants to ask them if they feel secure providing informa-on. List the answers here. 3. If your partners and par-cipants tell you they are worried about privacy what are their recommenda-ons on improving?

Teams/Volunteer Checklist
1. 2. 3.

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(Create your own) Checklist

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

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THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING TOOLBOX #3!

Please save this file and add your name to the title, then return it to support@ushahidi.com or wiki.ushahidi.com You will receive a report from Toolbox #3 to use in your project. In your email please send comments on how you would like this tool improved or changed! Thank you for being a very important part of Ushahidis User community!

Appendix: Evaluation Blog Series

Kenya Evaluation Project

Kenya Evaluation Blog Series

Ushahidi-Kenya Evaluation: First Steps
by Melissa Tully and Jennifer Chan This is the first in a series of posts documenting a 9-month Ushahidi evaluation project in partnership with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative supported by the Knight Foundation. During the first two weeks of January, we traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to begin phase one of a 9month evaluation of Ushahidi-Kenya projects. As part of a team, Jennifer and I met with individuals and groups who have incorporated the Ushahidi software into their programming as well as other partners to better understand how organizations have implemented and used the platform to improve their programming and organizational goals. This evaluation has multiple purposes. In addition to writing case studies of some interesting and dynamic projects that use the Ushahidi platform: Unsung Peace Heroes and Building Bridges, and Uchaguzi in both Kenya and Tanzania; we plan to document our progress through a series of blog posts; and to create practical and interactive tools. These resources can help organizations decide if Ushahidi is right for them through a self-assessment and evaluation process. Implementers can use these resources throughout the entire project period to track their progress and strengthen monitoring and evaluation. Were in the very early stages of development, but based on discussions with people in Kenya who have used Ushahidi and members of the Ushahidi team and community, we think were developing some very useful stuff. Currently, were focusing on the pre-implementation assessment and implementation resources so that we can get feedback from current and future deployers on these key areas. Were working closely with the Ushahidi team and others involved in developing the Ushahidi Community page to integrate the case studies and tools into this part of the site and to add to the already existing resources for Ushahidi users. Another goal is to link to guides, case studies, tips and tricks or anything else out there created by the vast Ushahidi community worldwide to better serve the entire user community.

Wrapping up Phase 1 of the Ushahidi-Kenya Evaluation

by Melissa Tully and Jennifer Chan This is the second in a series of posts documenting a 9-month Ushahidi evaluation project in partnership with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative supported by the Knight Foundation. The Ushahidi-Kenya evaluation is off to a strong start. Since returning from Nairobi in January, 2011 we have worked on the self-evaluation and assessment tool for individuals and organizations interested in using Ushahidi. The purpose of the tool is to help interested organizations learn about the Ushahidi platform via a web-based learning tool and to provide access to community resources and to actively plan their Ushahidi project, through a project cycle. An off-line manual will also be available for those with limited bandwidth. The learning tool has three parts: 1. The assessment module will help new users a) incorporate Ushahidi into project goals and objectives b) plan to collect information that will be mapped, c) identify partnerships and technology resources. This tool may include budget and project timeline templates. 2. The implementation module will help users go through setting up the instance and further plan any media/publicity campaigns to help information collection and much more. It is meant to support organizations as they launch and maintain their Ushahidi project.
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3. The analysis & evaluation module will support users as they actively collect, map and make decisions with their Ushahidi instance. It will also provide tools with which to evaluate the project helping organizations report their successes and challenges to donors, the user community and others. This image is an example of a screen shot of the Assessment Tool. Organizations can learn about the instance types (icons on the left) and link to examples of how other organizations have used Ushahidi. We hope that this will help new and existing community users learn and make decision for their projects and programs. Jennifer is off to Nairobi this week to share our progress and get feedback from the local Ushahidi community. We are completing our first case study on Unsung Peace Heroes and Building Bridges. These two projects used Ushahidi to map peace related information. Unsung Peace Heroes was designed to recognize individuals who participated in peace efforts in the violent aftermath of the December 2007 Kenyan General Election. These heroes often risked their lives to help members of their community. Building Bridges is an extension of Unsung Peace Heroes. Building Bridges was designed to map peace initiatives throughout Kenya as well as recognize and reward Kenyans who participate in peace initiatives and promote conflict resolution. These two projects offer interesting lessons for the greater Ushahidi community. Media Focus on Africa Foundation and Butterfly Works, the implementing organizations:

Relied on strong partnerships with local organizations. Used multimedia strategies including radio, television, newspaper and online advertising; interpersonal communication at events throughout Kenya; mobile communication and social media. Produced materials in English and Kiswahili. Had clear goals and timelines. Customized the Ushahidi platform to meet their needs. This was particularly true for Building Bridges as they integrated Ushahidi with Joomla, a free and open source content management system.

The full case study will be available for download later this year. As we wrap up this phase, we will move onto phase two, which includes a case study ofUchaguzi in both Kenya and Tanzania and completion of the self-assessment tools. We look forward to continued feedback from the Ushahidi community.

Kenya Ushahidi Evaluation Phase 2: Making Progress with Community Feedback!

by Melissa Tully and Jennifer Chan This is the third in a series of posts documenting a 9-month Ushahidi evaluation project in partnership with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative supported by the Knight Foundation. We have made great progress on the Ushahidi Kenya evaluation. Jennifer has been back at the iHub continuing to build the 3-part assessment and self-evaluation tool. The goal of this toolbox is to help interested organizations learn about the Ushahidi platform using a web based interactive tool, also with a low bandwidth and no bandwidth option as detailed in our earlier post. In Nairobi, Jennifer met with organizations and individuals that have used the Ushahidi platform for election monitoring, peace campaigns, crisis response and other community programs. She also met with new organizations interested in the toolbox. They will be testing Toolbox #1 and #2 for their projects and also providing recommendations on how to improve them. Here are some examples of what they look like. Each toolbox will have different sections that will help you work through different stages of your project. Like this one from the Toolbox #2: In Toolbox #1 you can select a type that best fits your program, and click on links to other Ushahidi instances to learn more about what people have done in the past or even doing right now. You can also take a technology assessment. There will be rotating panels where you see the RED circle arrow that will show you more tips and examples. Thank you everyone for sharing very helpful tips and examples and for testing out the tools! Its still a work in-progress but were looking for more people to test the toolbox, especially if you have used Ushahidi in the past. Please let us know if you would like to help out by adding a comment to this post.

Join the Ushahidi.ke Evaluation Launch

By Heather Leson You are invited to attend our Ushahidi.ke Evaluation Launch on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at the iHub in Nairobi, Kenya. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Ushahidi are collaborating to build educational tools to help community users. Three toolboxes have been built by and for the community. The Assessment, Implementation, and Output toolboxes are interactive and will allow people to selfassess and evaluate the different stages in using Ushahidi or Crowdmap for their projects. For more information about the project check out the blog series: Ushahidi Kenya Evaluation First Steps Wrapping up phase 1 of the Ushahidi Kenya Evaluation Kenya Ushahidi evaluation phase 2: Making progress with community feedback The Ushahidi .ke Evaluation Launch has two goals: *introduce you to some of the research findings, and *give you a chance to interact shape the content. We need your help to test Ushahidi toolboxes. Your feedback will help Ushahidi users in Kenya and around the world. Register today: Thursday, August 25, 2011 10:00 16:00 EAT iHub Nairobi Kenya

Schedule (subject to change) 10:00 10:30 Introductions and Research overview 10:30 10:45 iHub Research Program 10:45 11:00 Break 11:00 11:15 Ushahidi.ke demos 11:15 12:30 Toolkit interactive sessions 12:30 13:30 Lunch 13:30 14:45 Policy working groups (eg. usability, security) 14:45 15:00 Break 15:00 16:00 Group Brainstorm and Next steps We will provide lunch and toolbox documentation. We ask that participants register to help us plan accordingly. The Ushahidi.ke Evaluation Launch is in partnership with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and supported by the Knight Foundation. More details

We will be using Meetup to build community events around the world. Whenever possible, well provide streaming and interactive participation. There will be more event announcements soon. If you have ideas or want to host a meet-up, Id be happy to hear from you. Thanks! Heather L.

Perspectives from the MamaBits team: Rukia and Tobias

By Heather Leson Preparations for the Ushahidi .ke Evaluation launch are running full speed ahead. Jennifer Chan, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and I visited Rukia Sebit and Tobias Ouma ofMamaBits, the coordinators of Building Bridges deployment. Building Bridges is a project to encourage people to encourage, map and connect people working on peace initiatives in Kenya. Their work was one of the featured deployments for the evaluation. Building Bridges Rukia and Tobias provided further feedback on their deployment: successes, observations and things to improve.

Highlights:

OUTREACH: Communication targeting of audiences differed for rural and urban areas and diverse age groups. For example, rural areas were reached by radio rather than newspaper. However, the radio programs were sometimes aired in different vernacular language to accommodate all listeners. The impact was great, even neighbouring countries such as Uganda received the information from the website and created their profile online. This required more intensive report verification based on location. The power of mobile in .ke is amazing. Telco providers like Safaricom will allow short codes to accompany hash-tags which will redirect to a website, like Building Bridges. The campaign was successful due to the SMS program and pervasive use in .ke. REPORTS: As part of the campaign, the Building Bridges team telephoned over 6000 people. These calls were often to verify the content or to request clarification. Some content was translated into English for the map from telephone calls. Some reports were web-based submissions in Swahili. It would have been useful to have a bilingual map: Swahili and English. People who filed reports often required feedback or follow-up on their content. These involved counselor-type telephone calls. This community approach was essential to build comfort and trust. Some report providers preferred that their content be provided verbally and their report listed by peacemaker to maintain their privacy. The majority of the reports were submitted via SMS with the other reports far below in numbers (in descending order): telephone calls, email and, lastly, web-based form reports. KEY LESSONS: The plan was revised to accommodate more SMS reports (sometimes 700 a day). Education (digital literacy) was a large component of the telephone calls for feedback loops. The number targets were given less weight over time in lieu of qualitative content and relationship-building with the reporters. And, this type of project is easily replicable in other regions using Ushahidis platform.

A very special thanks to Rukia and Tobias for their contribution to this project and for their time today. Check out their other projects including mobile education games such as Get H20. There are still a few spots left open for the Ushahidi .Ke Evaluation Launch. Register via Meet-up. We will be testing toolboxes, talking best practices and building forward. Heather L.