Innovation Watch: Unsung Peace Heroes

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2008-11-26 09:46:00 UTC
Topics:

In a really cool demonstration of how platforms get used for things other than their intended purpose, the Ushahidi software developed to track conflict and emergencies in Africa and around the world is now being used by Butterfly Works and Media Focus on Africa to power an "Unsung Peace Heroes" campaign in Kenya.

The idea is to recognize that while much of the company was immersed in violence, there were many people who were opening their doors and going out of their way to calm tensions and protect friends, family, and strangers alike. The campaign aims to honor and award those unsung heroes. In an awesome mirror of the way that people reported violence with the original Ushahidi engine, they're now text messaging to honor those who rose to the challenge.

Read more about the competition here.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Featured Idea: Promote International Volunteerism with a Two-Way Service Corps
NEXT STORY:
Facing Forward: The End of the Social Entrepreneurship Blog on Change.org

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.