In 2010, the ICT4Peace Foundation mandated Ushahidi to develop a plugin for Ushahidi’s existing web based platform to validate information generated from the ground. This plugin, called the Matrix, was integrated into the core functionality of Ushahidi and used successfully in the Egyptian parliamentary elections of 2010.

Mr. Kamal Sedra, Manager of the Ushahidi Platform in Egypt (http://www.u-shahid.org) noted:

“The new generation of crowd sourced crisis information management tools developed by ICT4Peace and Ushahidid have made extraordinary progress in providing validated information to decision makers in crisis, through assessing the reliability of the source and the probability of the occurrence”.

Based on the success of this implementation, the Matrix Analysis plugin as outlined on ICT4peace website (http://ict4peace.org/publications/the-matrix-plugin-for-ushahidi-platform) and as provided on Ushahidi plugin repository (http://apps.ushahidi.com/p/analysis/page/Analysis-Plugin/) will be further developed as part of the main Ushahidi platform.

The ICT4Peace Foundation was and is supporting the design and development of this core functionality that is vital to any bounded crowd sourcing model such as election monitoring and early warning on genocide. The new functionality will embrace the following features:

• Multiple groups plugin for several separate “bound” and “non bound”-reporting reporting communities on the same platform. This keeps data centralized while allowing each of the groups to keep reports and messages private until they decide to make them public. This can allow for collaboration of different agencies that have varying levels of comfort with sharing data publicly.
• Groups can white list phone numbers so that messages are forwarded to their group.
• Each group can have a logo and html about page for themselves, where they can relay their responses/data gathering activities
• Each group can manage its approved and unapproved reports with their administration interface.

Several screenshots of the first avatar of the functionality, as used in the Egyptian elections, follow.

For further details, please contact Mr. Daniel Stauffacher, Chairman, ICT4Peace Foundation on danielstauffacher@ict4peace.org.