N2Y3 was what got Ushahidi started financially.  Up until that time, we had no money at all. Zero.  We were all just volunteering our time to a project that we all believed in.  The $25,000 we won last year changed all that.  Here are some of the lessons that we learned and which just might help you too.

At Ushahidi we're using Basecamp for a lot of project management activities.  It's a good tool, but we've found that it just doesn't cut it as a knowledge repository.  We knew we were going to have to find a wiki engine to use for our knowledgebase, but didn't realize how many options (good and bad) that there are in the wild world web.

Wiki Software or Hosted Wiki?

Okay, time for an update to let you know what we've been doing at Ushahidi with the winnings from the NetSquared Challenge.

Ory and I are madly dashing around Kenya, meeting with local NGOs and users to determine what we need to build into Ushahidi's Engine (version 2). We helped sponsor the local Barcamp Nairobi, which was a huge hit and brought us even more developers.

We wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who attended the NetSquared conference and for NetSquared for making this whole thing possible. David, Ory, Juliana and myself are absolutely stunned and ecstatic about what this win will let us do.

More than the financial support, we were moved by the validation we got from the community through this prize. Sometimes you can think you're a little crazy, tilting at windmills on your way to changing the world, so this means a lot.

When moved to build Ushahidi earlier this year, I wrote:

Last weekend three US-based members of the Ushahidi project team were able to get together for two full days of planning for the upcoming Net2 conference. (Photo proof exhibited... Erik, David and Juliana)