lawaugh

What is Ushahidi? from Ushahidi on Vimeo.

I came across Ushahidi while doing thesis research on existing tools for citizen journalists. The service started in Kenya as a way for people to report situations of crisis in real time. It includes geotagging so that information can be sorted through quickly, based on who’s posting, where they are, and when they are posting. It was used last year to cover swine flu outbreaks in conjunction with Google Maps. What’s great about this service is that it’s open source, so it can be used as a valuable tool for citizen journalists within their communities.

Since I’ve been in grad school, I’ve become really interested in how people are interacting more and more on a digital level and the implications of this on face to face contact. Last semester, my final paper discussed how design has started to address this and how it’s becoming part of a shift within the design world.

I came across this article on Time.com about how digital networking can actually enhance human physical relationships. Since I’m just starting to develop an opinion on this, I admit I never thought about it that way. Even though I’m on Facebook, I’m still a little anti-Facebook in that I don’t use many of the features and don’t get on much if I can help it. I guess I’m just afraid of that time suck. And maybe the TMI aspect. It feels a little too voyeuristic at times, but at the same time it’s interesting to think about the value it may have in furthering relationships.