Research can and should inform software development. The Kenya Ushahidi Evaluation Project was 9-month Ushahidi evaluation project in partnership with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative supported by the Knight Foundation. The full evaluation project conducted by Jennifer Chan (Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, NorthWestern University) and Melissa Tully (Assistant Professor, University of Iowa) started with research and included the creation of case studies and Ushahidi toolboxes.
The impact of this important work has been two fold:
1. The research is informing our work for Ushahidi 3.0 redesigns to make our software more intuitive.
2. The Ushahidi toolboxes are the basis for training and documentation for our community to evolve. Every day these are distributed to potential deployers to help them plan their projects.
We will share the Ushahidi Kenya Evaluation findings in two parts. Below are two case studies and a collection of blog posts written about the Ushahid Kenya Evaluation Project.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Jennifer Chan and Melissa Tully for their important research. Thank you to the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Knight Foundation for supporting and funding the Ushahidi Kenya Evaluation. Special thanks to the deployers and participants of the Uchaguzi, Unsung Peace Heros and Building Bridges deployments for their input. Thank you to Steve Renard for the professional desktop publishing.