Databases rarely engender feelings of excitement or empowerment but Ushahidi, a crowd-sourcing tool developed as an open-source platform to map reports of violence in Kenya, is doing just that.
As described in the New York Times, Ushahidi is being used by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an advocacy group dedicated to reducing accidents at Louisiana refineries, to collect and log reports of the effects of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It relies on witnesses to self-report via tweets, texts, e-mails and online submissions spill-related damage.
