Creative Corner: How Kenyans Helped Vermonters Connect With Sun Power

Mapping violence morphs to mapping solar power

If there were any doubt about this being the era of inter-connectedness for social movements and businesses alike, think again.

The spasm of violence that followed Kenya’s 2008 elections led a couple of young computer devotees there to write software that could map reports of both violence and peace ef­forts. These dispatches could be submitted by reg­ular people from through­out the country, mostly through mobile phones. It’s called ushahidi, which means 'testimony' in Swa­hili.

After 45,000 Kenyans suddenly used this re­markable innovation, oth­ers found it could be used in all manner of applica­tions around the world. This open-sourced tool was used here in Vermont after Irene to map disaster damage and coordinate re­covery efforts. Over 1,000 reports were submitted by everyday Vermonters via web, email, twitter and text messages.