Uchaguzi

Freedom Fone

lillian — Sat, 29 May 2010 09:30:12 +0000

Freedom Fone offers the possibility to extend the reach of information to citizens and groups presently excluded from the information loop because of lack of access to resources such as computers and the internet. Freedom Fone makes it easy to build voice menus, run SMS polls, receive SMS messages and manage voice messages.

Freedome Fone is free open source software.

No internet access is required for the users and callers alike.

The leave-a-message functionality opens the door to two-way communication, which means Freedom Fone can be used as a platform for citizen journalism and election monitoring.

Uses

Freedom phone allows for information to be delivered through an audio platform that overcomes barriers associated with literacy and language. It enables users to move past the 160 character limitation of an SMS. Both of these features can be particularly useful in tailoring elections monitoring systems to challenging environments.

Useful Links

Freedom Fone website
Freedom Fone demo
Freedom Fone wiki
Papers and research on Freedom Fone
Freedom Fone on twitter

CMS tools

lillian — Sat, 29 May 2010 09:30:12 +0000

A content management system (CMS) is a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. The procedures are designed to register and maintain individual user accounts within a role-based permission/privilege system, create and manage menus, RSS-feeds, customize page layout, perform logging, and administer the system. Two popular CMS systems are Drupal and Joomla.

Uses

Useful Links

CMS tools on wikipedia
List of some CMS systems

Wordpress

lillian — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:52:47 +0000

Wordpress is an intuitive web publishing platform that makes it easy to publish blogs for free. Software can be downloaded for blogs that are self-hosted or Wordpress offers free hosting in the cloud.

Uses

A blog can be used to provide information and build a community around elections monitoring projects. It can provide insight and analysis on data collected, create a forum for discussion, provide instructions to supporters and more.

Numerous election monitoring projects have used blogs to enhance the information flow and communication around their activities. Check out blogs posted by past elections monitoring projects in Sudan and India.

Useful Links

Start your Wordpress blog here
Wordpress website
Wordpress.org blog
Wordpress on facebook
Wordpress on twitter

CiviCRM

lillian — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:59:46 +0000

CiviCRM is a free, libre and open source software constituent relationship management solution. CiviCRM is web-based, internationalized, and designed specifically to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups. CiviCRM allows organizations to communally manage contacts, segment mailing lists, events, reports, fundraising contacts and more.

Uses

CiviCRM can be particularly useful in large-scale election monitoring projects engaging multiple groups and/or requiring coordination between multiple partner organizations. It can help organize critical contacts and information to reduce overlapping efforts and promote effective communication with supporters.

Useful Links

CiviCRM website
CiviCRM blog
CiviCRM demo
CiviCRM on wikipedia

NDI’s election monitoring tool

lillian — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:25:19 +0000

NDI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization that has supported democratic institutions and practices in every region of the world for more than two decades. Since its founding in 1983, NDI and its local partners have worked to establish and strengthen political and civic organizations, safeguard elections, and promote citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

Uses

NDI provides numerous “how-to” handbooks on election monitoring best practices that can be useful in planning election monitoring projects.

Useful Links

NDI voter registration monitoring guide
NDI Recruiting and Training Observers
NDI Reporting Observation Findings
NDI Planning for Election Observation

MySociety.org

lillian — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:17:55 +0000

MySociety.org is a charitable project which builds websites that give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. They also run some of the best-known democracy and transparency websites in the UK, TheyWorkForYou and WriteToThem.

Uses

MySociety.org can be hired to improve digital strategies for election monitoring projects. They provide services from basic advice to website development. In many ways they are like any other web development house, giving advice on current sites, new sites or digital strategy in the democratic/civil society market. However, their commitment to civic engagement makes them different and well suited to offer advice on elections monitoring projects seeking to engage civil society.

Useful Links

MySociety.org website
MySociety.org blog
List of MySociety.org projects
MySociety.org on twitter
MySociety.org IRC chat channel

International SMS gateways

lillian — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:24:36 +0000

An SMS gateway is a device or service offering SMS transit, transforming messages to mobile network traffic from other media, or vice versa, allowing transmission or receipt of SMS messages with or without the use of a mobile phone. Typical use of a gateway would be to forward simple e-mail to a mobile phone recipient. Some popular SMS gateways are FrontlineSMS and Clickatell.

Uses

An SMS gateway is an essential part of democratizing election monitoring projects and/or reducing costs by enabling reporting through mobile phones. The gateway provides the link between the mobile network and computers. It allows project organizers to import and manage SMS messages for analysis, mapping and other uses. SMS gateways can be used to broadcast instructions and updates to mobile monitors.

SMS gateways were first used in election monitoring in the 2007 Nigerian elections (FrontlineSMS). Clickatell has been used in many projects including the 2010 Sudanese elections.

Useful Links

SMS gateways on Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s list of SMS gateways
The Open Directory Project’s list of SMS gateways

Pentaho

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:48:24 +0000

The Pentaho BI Suite provides a full spectrum of business intelligence (BI) capabilities including query and reporting, interactive analysis, dashboards, data integration/ETL, data mining, and a BI platform that has made it one of the most popular open source BI suites. It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud

You can choose the complete suite, or use only the pieces you need to meet specific business requirements. Pentaho BI Suite Enterprise Edition includes:

	Pentaho Reporting – Access data and deliver information to the organization
	Pentaho Analysis – Explore and analyze data interactively with rapid response
	Pentaho Dashboards – Get immediate visibility into metrics and KPIs
	Pentaho Data Integration – Cleanse and integrate data wherever it exists
	Pentaho Data Mining – Discover hidden patterns and indicators of future performance

Uses

Elements of the Pentaho suite can be useful in the management and analysis of the data collected through the election monitoring process. It can help organizations assess and act upon the information that is collected.

Useful links

Pentaho website
Product demos
Pentaho wiki
Pentaho community newsletter

SMS Turks

lillian — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:46:42 +0000

SMS Turks is a system created by the Ushahidi team to help mobile reporting projects parse information out of text messages. It allows for the translation, categorization and basic geocoding of sms messages in a way that keeps them organized and manageable.

Uses

Processing reports during election monitoring can be time consuming and tedious. SMS Turks can help organizations spread the work between many volunteers while keeping information organized under one cohesive system.

SMS Turks was created during the Ushahidi Haiti deployment following the January 2010 earthquake. SMS Turks allowed the SMS request data to be collected and accessed by thousands of workers and volunteers. The workers/volunteers entered English translations of Kreyol and French messages into the unique online form which sorted the information by need and priority, and distributed it to various emergency responders and Aid organizations.

Useful Links

Turks SMS is currently being rewritten. Follow the progress on github or check the Ushahidi blog for updates.

Swift River

lillian — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:03:27 +0000

Swift River is a free and open source software platform that uses algorithms and crowdsourcing to validate and filter news.

An Introduction to the Swift River initiative from Ushahidi on Vimeo.

Uses

SwiftRiver acts as the verifying filter for information coming through mobile reports, social media and other sources. During highly contested elections being able to assess the veracity of information is important for accurate analysis. Swift River makes it easier to identify and follow mutually trusted sources in election monitoring.

Useful Links

Swift River website
Swift River blog
Swift River on facebook
Swift River public skype chat (need link – link from site not working)