Jomy Muttathil's picture

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this so please correct me if it's out of place.

I wan't to suggest the creation of an Ushahidi Appliance.

If you are not familiar with Ushahidi, it is a platform(LAMP) that can be deployed by anyone to collect and visualize information, especially crisis information.  Ushahidi (meaning “testimony” in Swahili) was originally a website that was quickly developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008.  It has subsequently been used after earthquakes, floods and viral epidemics.

Since it is designed to be deployed in the event of a crisis, it needs to be done quickly and easily.  A Turnkey Ushahidi appliance would make deployment quicker and easier for those needing it use it.
 
For more information visit: http://www.ushahidi.com/
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Jomy Muttathil's picture

ok, so i've read up a bit on the appliance development process.

sounds like it could be a great learning experience.

i missed the live training, but i'm still up to the challenge.

i will have questions for sure.

Adrian Moya's picture

I'm still surprised about how much good opensource is out there. This kind of appliance may not be so popular, but it is important for the use it has. You can count with me for guidance and if you have any doubt about the TKLPatch creation process. It's very easy, if you have linux skills and experience deploying software on linux. 

You can check a lot of patches available here in this forum, to have some examples. If you have any questions, ask them in this thread. I'll be happy to lay you a hand. 

Jeremy Davis's picture

Thanks for sharing. I like the idea lots. It is interesting to see some of the usage scenarios too such as earthquake, floods viri (as you mentioned) but also fires, war, violence, crime, election monitoring even wildlife tracking

Adrian Moya's picture

I was telling to myself, I've seen something like this! well, to my surprise, it's been recently used by two organizations in my country to track the parliamentary elections that we had last sunday! Venezuela is a very conflictive country when it comes to elections, as there is a very polarized situation between those who are with the government and those who oppose it. So there's a tense situation going when it comes to elections. This software was used by the opposition to track denounces about irregular activity in the vote centers. Real nice this app. 

Jeremy Davis's picture

Not the tension, conflict or the possibility of illegitimate voting irregularities that is. More seeing the real world application of open source solutions close to home! Yes I agree it looks very nice. I imagine it could possibly be quite useful here in Australia for floods and bushfires which are both quite common.

Nice application .... good luck. Let me know , if you need some help :)

I'm very impressed by what I've learned about this platform and the powerful positive force it can be in the struggle for justice. Thank you, Jomi.

My wife, Sabre, a social studies teacher, and I have put a lot of thought about the powerful ways this could be incorporated into the classroom.

Fine community as always, with Jedmeister, Adrian, and Basil all stepping in to offer support.

I'm left with this question: what is the status of this patch? Has anyone made progress with it? If no one's actively pursuing it, I'd like to tackle it with my students. I look forward to learning where it stands.

Jomy Muttathil's picture

Hi Rik.

I am still fairly new around here and have a lot to learn.

Turnkey Linux helped me get my feet wet with Linux and I have been learning a lot since I started using the platform.

This is my first attempt to contribute back by creating a patch so the progress is slow.

I am not familiar with the patch creation process so it is all new to me.

I look forward to the creation of a TKL patch appliance that will reduce the learning curve.

If you and your students would like to tackle this, I would strongly encourage it.

I don't want to hold back this patch by my lack of experience.

It would be great if it could be finished in time for the next batch of appliances.

Adrian Moya's picture

I want this one too on the final release of TKL 10.04, but Rik, if you're going to work on it, I'll just help you and your team when needed. I was working on the TKLDevEnv patch to make the development easier to the community, and was thinking on working on TKLClientCore next week and this one. 

Here are the instructions for installing under ubuntu 10.04 http://wiki.ushahidi.com/doku.php?id=how_to_install_ushahidi_on_ubuntu

These instructions install from the git repo, but you can download the software (around 3 megs) and overlay it. If you need any help ask.

If you prefer me to do it, I'll can have it done by the end of next week. I feel the same about this appliance, it's a must in the TKL library.

Adrian Moya's picture

Check the patch here. Comments and feedback are welcome as usual.

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