This looks like a press invite, but contact details at the bottom if anyone wants to find out more. Apologies if this has been circulated already. Have a lovely weekend, Andrea ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Press Ushahidi <comms@ushahidi.com> Date: 8 February 2013 15:04 Subject: Uchaguzi launch at Intercontinental Hotel To: Comms@ushahidi.com *The launch is at Intercontinental hotel.* THE UCHAGUZI PLATFORM OFFICIAL LAUNCH The Uchaguzi partnership wishes to invite you for an official launch to be held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi on Monday 11th February 2013 from 7:30 am. Uchaguzi is a joint initiative of Ushahidi, Hivos, Creco, Umati, and SODNET, seeking to deliver unprecedented collaboration between election observers and citizen’s to monitor the March 4 general elections in near-real time. The goal is to extend the common practice of traditional election observation by seeking to engage citizens in election monitoring as citizens can be a valuable source of information for election observers to verify and amplify to the respective electoral authorities or security personnel in case of violence. Three key components of Uchaguzi are: Crowd: this is the main focus of Uchaguzi and the source of most of the reports. We want people to send us any information on the election/electoral process that they feel is significant Verification: the process of evaluating information and determining how credible it is Response: Getting verified information to organizations and individuals who can intervene positively and monitoring that response to measure its effectiveness. The methodology has evolved and builds on the concept of trusted sources and unverified sources. The goal is to both the traditional election monitors and citizen science included on Uchaguzi. This combines Ushahidi’s roots of “what do you see, what do you hear” (citizen data) with the trusted expertise of election monitors who have field experience. What: Uchaguzi Partnership official launch When: February 11th, 7.30 am Where: Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi For More information Contact: Rebecca Wanjiku (+254 720 318 925) Rebecca@wanjiku.co.ke -- Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt> Publisher www.ratio-magazine.com www.africa-assets.com