Dead Data Journalism - Dead Ushahidi

There was an excellent post a few days ago about dead data journalism, more specifically crowd sourced maps using Ushahidi software which are now ghost sites because they are not updated. They list 31. I get the impression there are a lot more.  That's not a reflection on Ushahidi, the makers of the software. More on some of the people who use it.


As a I mentioned in another post on radio, many of the NGO projects I've seen recently are great ideas but unsustainable business models. There are far too many experiments going on aimed at bringing short-term successes for donors rather than long term benefit to communities. There are also good ideas like the Building Bridges Peace Project which also had much more potential than was eventually achieved before funds ran out. 


Building Bridges in Nairobi, Kenya from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.


I have respect for some of the data journalism the BBC is doing because they're in it for the long term. Like keeping track of  British casualties in Afghanistan. But of course that's not the full picture of what's going on there. Don't suppose anyone is keeping track of that. Good article today on other forms of data journalism.

iHub Prepares to Open in Nairobi

This is the third interview I have done with Erik Hersman in a year. Each has been in a different continent and each time I find his enthusiasm for entrepreneurship to be even more inspiring. Erik is one of five founders of the iHub in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a city that is booming, yet until now, it has no focal point for those IT start-ups that need cheap, fast Internet access and a place to interact with colleagues with a similar passion. iHub is the answer and when I visited on April 6th 2010, I found them in the early stages of building out.

Erik and the iHub's new manager Jessica Colaço are both TED fellows. They combine creativity with sound business sense - as well as being great people to know. In the film you will also will also see two 3rd year students, Samuel Olembo and Angela Oduor, who are helping out.

Check out ihub.co.ke, and if you've got a great idea, I definitely recommend hooking up.