COMMUNITY USER EDUCATIONAL TOOL

TOOLBOX #1

SELF-ASSESSMENT

Why do the toolbox? These tools are based upon the rich experiences of people and organizations that have

used the Ushahidi instance. The following toolboxes are crucial to your success!

Checklist TOOLBOX 1- SELF ASSESSMENT TOOLBOX 2- IMPLEMENTATION TOOLBOX 3 - USING YOUR INFORMATION

TIPS: A Ushahidi project doesn’t start with setting up the platform and putting it on-line. You need to prepare your strategy, study the context, understand the implications, secure cooperation and knowledge of the tool for all the actor involved. The launch of the platform is the last step of the project, not the first one. (Anahi Ayala Iacucci)

Tips on using these toolbox documents:

These toolboxes are in beta (draft). We are using this content to test for the final web and print versions toolboxes. Please provide feedback.

Print documents do not include the extra notes which appear in the online versions.

Online documents will show rotating tips, which are shown as extra comments in the notes field.

TOOLBOX 1SELF- ASSESSMENT

Helping you take the first steps to determine if the Ushahidi platform is a fit for your project

- Learn about Ushahidi

- Find out if Ushahidi will fit into your project goals & objectives

- Think about partnerships for your project

- Identify the information, communication and technology needs for your project

- Think about what resources are necessary to make your project successful

Let’s Begin…..First Name:____________Last Name: ____________

Are you an individual or part of an organization? Organization

Individual

Email Address:___________________

Organization Name: ____________

Uchaguzi-KenyaSudan Vote MonitorUnsung Peace Heroes

iconPoint on a Calendar

For events like election monitoring, media campaigns with ending dates…. (more text)

Deployments

icon Hot Flash For emergencies like natural disasters, unexpected

events….(more text here).Ushahidi PrototypeHaiti Crisis MapUk Riot CleanupChicago BlizzardJapan Earthquake

iconSlow Burn For ongoing or complex emergencies, to track changes

in communities or responding agencies …. (crime mapping?)

War on GazaDRCZim Political Crisis

iconLong Term For ongoing programs and initiatives (human rights

monitoring, media, environmental mapping, local gov mapping, resource mapping )

Voice of KiberaKANCO (health) Uchaguzi-Kenya

You can use the Ushahidi Platform for information collection and sharing, visualization and interactive mapping. There have been over 3000 uses of Ushahidi/Crowdmap. Here are some common types of uses of the Ushahidi platform (Ushahidi video introduction) (FAQs).. And more

EXAMPLES..

Here are some things you might want to think about before you start using the platform…..This toolbox will help you answer many of these questions..

Who is your target audience?

What is the incentive/motivation for people to use your platform?

How is mapping going to contribute to your project?

How are you collecting and using data now?

Do you just want to use a new cool and free tool? Is there a gap you are trying to fill?

Tips on Thinking about How Ushahidi Will help your Project

Project Goals and Objectives

Is this a new or existing project?

new

old

What are the project goals? (user enters text here)

What are the project objectives? (user enters text here)

Example GoalsViolence Against Children ProjectVoice of KiberaUchaguzi Kenya

Example ObjectivesUchaguzi Kenya

What kind of project are you working on? (please check all that apply)

Health Water and Sanitation Media HIV/AIDS Environment/Conservation Women’s Issues War/Conflict Natural Disasters Human Rights

Children and Youth Education Gender Based Violence Economic Development Security/Protection Political Violence Elections/Election Monitoring Other, please describe______

Is this a development or humanitarian/crisis project? (definitions and examples)

Development/Governance Humanitarian/Crisis

Community Programming Other

TIPS: How will you achieve your goals? How will the collected information achieve the goal.

Expected Outcomes/Impact

icon Type

Your project/program’s goals and objective are:

With the goal to _____Users can correct the auto- inserted text here________.

The program/project objectives are Users can correct the auto- inserted text here__.

What are the expected outcomes/impact?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How will the Ushahidi platform help you achieve your expected outcomes/impact? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TIPS: How will you achieve your expected outcomes?

Mapping and VisualizationWhy use a map? What is the benefit of using mobiles or mapping to track your information? The information does not need to be crisis related. You might want to map existing community resources within a geographic area or raise awareness of local events (Linda Rafferty).

case studies instance sites Blogs/mediaLearn more…icon

Mapping data is important for creating responsibility. The fact that people see their report it is the biggest motivation to engage them.-Oscar Salazar - Cuidemos el Voto

Mapping information will benefit your project by:

What kind of information will you map? How do you intend to use it?

Who do you want to view the map?

The mapping system in Ushahidi is not automatic: you need to geo-reference information manually. You can do it at the admin level with volunteers or other people. If you plan to use it as a crowd-source system, you need to have a big number of people mapping those messages, or you need to do it only by web-submission (it means also forget about the media monitoring, SMS, e-mails and twitter submissions). What level of precision does the mapping require? Do you want data points or data areas? (Anahi Ayala Iacucci)

Technology and “the rest”- Allocating Time

Our users’ experience to date has humbled us to realized that the much of the success from organizations using the Ushahidi platform comes from the project planning and preparation around the technology itself……

Just because you bought a domain name and ran the Ushahidi installer doesn’t mean that anyone is going to use the system — and even if you somehow get a lot of reports, you might not be relevant to the existing systems (that is, all the other people who are working on the same problem). So as Ory said in Cape Town, “Don’t get too jazzed up! Ushahidi is only 10% of solution.”

Systems like Ushahidi have turned enormous communication barriers into a trivial installation and training process. But there is a whole other 90% of real work. (Chris Blow)

Learn More: Why technology is 10%- Anahi Ayala IacucciAllocation of Time –Chris Blow

Let’s continue on with that 90%.......and identify potential partners in your project.

Partnerships & Your AudiencePartnerships and your audience are key to the success of your project.

Who are you partners? (listing)

• • • • TIPS- One of the major partners in project is a technical administrator. If you envision customizing your instance a lot you should think about having a developer as a partner if you do not have one in your organization.

What roles will they play?

• • • • TIPS- Which partner will provide the overall project manager. Will it be your organization?

Who are your Audiences? Why do you think they will use your platform?

• • • • TIPS-One of the fundamental parts of your project is the definition of your audience. Who do you want to visit the site and use your information and who you want to be your reporters?

Trust & Partnerships

The crowd as your partner

Learn more…icon

InformationYour Ushahidi instance will help you collect, organize and communicate information for the goals of your project

case studies instance sites blogs/articlesLearn more…icon Type

(existing Project)- What information are you currently collecting? What information do you want to add with this project?

(new project) What information do you want to collect?

How will this information allow the project to achieve it’s goals?

TIPS: Does someone else have existing indicators or initiatives or information needs or formats that you should be linking in with and following or supporting? (Linda Raftree)

IMPORTANT!What is the existing

information flow and how the information flow you propose will change or modify the existing one? The idea is that the more you modify the existing

information flow the less your project will be

successful.

CommunicationYour Ushahidi instance will help you collect, organize and communicate information for the goals of your project.

Collecting information into platform is only half the battle, how will you communicate information to your audience? Partners? Media?

case studies blogs/articlesLearn more…icon Type

From earlier in this toolbox, this is your audience:( slide 11) ______________________________________________________

How do you plan to tell people about your project and how to send information into the platform?

Television Advertisements Radio Newspaper Flyers Internet

How do you plan share the information with your audience?

SMS Othe word of mouth Morning shows Twitter Facebook

TIPS: think about how your audience commonly views/accesses information)- and what way they are most likely to view information during a crisis.

Example“The people who Media Focus on Africa Foundation are targeting do not have Internet access - We want to bring the results back to the people using mass media.” As a result of MFAF’s goals, Internet is only one part of the larger project and campaign. This is not only true for the Unsung Peace Heroes campaign but for all of MFAF’s work. Butterfly Works uses multiple media types in their work as well so the multimedia approach for Unsung Peace Heroes was familiar to both organizations and important to achieving their goals. Butterfly Works and MFAF used a multimedia approach, including a website, newspaper ads, radio and television appearances, participation in live events and word-of-mouth. (Melissa Tully)

case studies blogs/articlesLearn more…icon Type

The Unsung Peace Heroes project in Kenya used

a multimedia publicity strategy, including placing ads in the

newspaper, making TV and radio appearances, handing out fliers,

participating in local peace events and having an online presence, to

spread the work about their project and to collect nominations of Peace

Heroes throughout Kenya. This strategy allowed them to target

various diverse audiences and in the end they received over 500

nominations for Unsung Peace Heroes throughout Kenya.

(Melissa Tully)

The communication strategy can be: 1) Announcement of the project/service2) Setting expectations3) Plan for responding to individual messages4) Communicating information to different audiences

Your Campaign, Messaging and Communication StrategyVery important too is also the communication strategy of the organization, which should explains what the

platform is and what it is not. (Anahi Ayala Iacucci)

TIPS Be sure that you get clearly the message out: what you want to do, why and if the issue is urgent or not.

Example materials

How will you inform the crowd about your project?

How will you communicate with your partners/audience?

Information Communication Technology (ICT), Privacy and Security

case studies instance sites blogs/articles Learn more…icon Type

If you answer yes to any of these questions, or feel that this topic is important to your project -- we encourage you to take the mini assessment tool here……….

Will your project be dealing with sensitive information?Will your project potentially place the users or partners at risk?Does the government strictly control information in your project area?Are you prepared to address any information/ privacy breaches if they should happen? Whowill be responsible?

Information Security and Privacy can be a very important consideration for many projects that use the Ushahidi Instance. We encourage you and your organization to think about how the Ushahidi

instance may affect community/organization safety, and the impact that mapping and information will

have on your audience and partners.

Take the assessment

now.

1 Do you have regular power/internet access?

Yes No If you project area has limited power, and limited access to internet this will limit the ability to use Ushahidi /Crowdmap. Consider using another tool or start with a small pilot project……

2 Are your team members volunteers comfortable with computers/the internet, etc?

Yes No How do your partners and audience currently communicate? What are they comfortable using to communicate? (cell phones, sms, internet) What do they have access to and can afford?

3 Do you have a technology person on your project?

Yes No If YES, then have this person take a look at the Ushahidi Manual to see if this fits their capacity. If NO then take this technology assessment test here.

4 Is he or she a PHP developer and/or designer?

Yes No If NO, then consider using crowdmap. Link Here.

5 Do you want a lot of customizations?

Yes No Customizations, or ****, will require a developer and likely a designer. And you have YES’s for questions 3 &4

case studies blogs/articlesLearn more…

What is the local use of ICT in the country?

How do people in the community use the internet and mobile phones?

TIPS- How do your partners and audience communicate now? What are they comfortable using? (cell phones, sms, internet) What do they have access to and can afford?

TechnologyUshahidi is a software, which means it requires access to certain technologies.

Take the tech assesment!

Resources & Funding

TIPS: Have a clear budget and take into account advertisement campaign, dev work, PHONE EXPENSES if you use SMS and alerts, server space, and time to dedicate to the project. Also fundamental, have a monitoring &evaluation line in the budget and in your project plan and do periodical review of the project according to goals. (Anahi Ayala Iacucci)

Here are some tips to think about when looking for funding to support your project or idea:

‣ How does my proposal address the problem?

‣ What are the goals and objectives of the program?

‣ What is the budget and timeline for the project?

‣ Can you partner with others for non-financialsupport?

‣ How will the project be sustainable?

‣ Is there a geographic focus? (funders often support specific locations)

‣ What are the expected outcomes and howwill you measure them?

Funding UsesExamples of how you might use your funding:

‣ Funding a SMS shortcode number to allow people to send free SMS

‣ Funding an SMS alert campaign

‣ Funding a web designer to customize your Ushahidi deployment

‣ Funding a PR campaign: newspaper ads, online ads, to raise awareness about your Ushahidi instance

‣ Funding a data entry resource if you are migrating existing data into the Ushahidi platform

ResourcesHere are some resources that you may need. Fill out the cost that you will need too

Resource CostProject Manager

Developer

Designer

Project Manager

Volunteers/Coordinators

Campaign Advertising

Servers

Computers

Phone/SMS expenses

Monitoring/Evaluation

Training Workshop

Planning Workshops

General Office/Equipment

TIPSMake sure you have a clear budget and think about the resources that will you need for your project.

TIPS“Find out about any potential

licenses you might need, for example for holding a competition, this can

often be bureaucratic and take time to organise. NOTE Calculate time for

the design and printing or production of all your materials,

making a website or flyer and printing it can take a few weeks.

(Butterfly Works Toolbox)

Planning & Project timeline

Example project timelines

blogs/articles Learn more…icon Type

Planning your project, and allowing enough time to prepare for volunteers, customization, campaigns, and partner/community engagement will make you project more successful.

TIPSIf you are looking to gather, share and make decisions with many different people & partners.

Consider:

- Planning meetings& workshops early to make sure that all partners have similar expectations and understand their roles/responsibilities

- Plan your media/advertising campaigns early, determine the cost, and how you will inform people of your project and set expectations.

PROJECT EXAMPLES

ELECTION MONITORING

Staff and Volunteers for the Uchaguzi Kenya Project ( 2010 Kenya Referedum) –

recommend 3-6 months for planning around a specific election days.

Project Goal/Objectives/anticipated impact_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reasons for mapping__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Partnerships__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Information/Communication__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Marketing Media Plan __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Technology Assessment__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Below is information about your project that you entered in the first toolbox(On the online tool, what you have filled out in the previous panels will automatically show up here!)

I would like to make

changes…..

Let’s move on!

THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING TOOLBOX #1!

Please save this file and add your name to the title. Then return it to Heather Leson: hleson@ushahidi.com.

You will receive a report from toolbox #1 to use in your project.

In your email please send comments on how you would like this tool improved or changed!

Thank you for being a very important part of Ushahidi’s User community!