Ushahidi, a N2Y3 Mashup Challenge winner, proves that sometimes unrest and urgency, not funding, can be enough to get a project off the ground.  Ushahidi means 'testimony' in Swahili, but as a web tool it enables citizens to use mobile phones, emails or web forms to report and map crisis information. 

The original project impetus was to report violence and other acts in post-election Kenya in early 2008.  It has now grown out to be the Ushahidi Engine, designed to allow anyone around the world to set up their own way to gather reports by mobile phone, email and the web - and map them.

PC World recently highlighted Ushahidi's development and the quickness of its success:  "Ushahidi put the first version of its crowd-sourcing site together in just five days and has reaped the benefits of having a working prototype ever since. If there is a lesson to learn here then it would have to be this: Don't let a lack of funding stop you from getting your ICT4D solution off the ground, even if it does involve "failing fast."  (Read more...)

Of course, as a N2Y3 Mashup Challenge Winner, Ushahidi was awarded with $25,000. 

Ushahidi Engine relies on the presmise that allowing the general public to provide crisis information will offer new insights into events in as near to real-time as possible. It is being developed and designed by volunteers primarily from Africa, supported by others around the world.  The private alpha of the redesigned Ushahidi Engine is set to begin testing in late September of 2008.  To learn more about the project, Ushahidi Engine, or to get involved, visit:  http://ushahidi.com