Our technological edge continues to slip away.
Kenya was in turmoil in late 2007 and early 2008. Mwai Kibaki had been declared the winner of a controversial presidential election which reeked of fraud and corruption on both sides. Violence erupted between different ethnic groups throughout the country that killed at least 1,000 people. It was hard for the media to keep track because many of the murders happened in remote regions.
It was then that a group of tech-savvy Kenyans got together and developed Ushahidi, a crowdsourcing software that let people report cases of violence and tracked them on a map. This provided a far more complete picture of the situation than any news outlet had given at the time.
Ushahidi, which means testimony in Kiswahili, has come a long way since then. It's now a multinational software enterprise headquartered in Nairobi with around 30 employees working in eight countries. Their technology has been used for all kinds of purposes - from earthquake response to journalism. And this year, it will help monitor the US elections.
From Kenya to the United States
Ushahidi has put up a special website, where voters can report any irregularities or problems they may encounter at the polling stations. They can, for example, flag up that ballot papers have run out or that disabled people have a hard time accessing the polling booth - or that there's nothing wrong at all. Ushahidi collects and maps all this information to visualize the bigger picture.
| If some of Rantburg's clever computer people would take a look at that and let us know if it's what it claims to be, I would be grateful. |
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
The existing structures to prevent voter fraud in the US already seem quite fail-safe. The different states and parties as well as outside observers all independently monitor the polling. But Manning thinks Ushahidi can still add to the process. "It allows regular citizens to raise their voice. It puts a lot more eyes out there. And importantly, it creates a feeling of transparency and engagement," he told DW.