An extension of my thoughts from a comment here.
Ushahidi, at its core, is a simple map. While it's been marketed as a tool for information dissemination in times of emergency and crisis, it could also do very well in a city's normal operation. Why not turn its slogan of "Crowdsourced crisis information" into "Crowdsourced information"? Think about all of the things and all of the useful data a nicely sized city has that could be improved with a map—bus locations, closed roads, future events, city-sponsored events, power outages, park closures, public art installations, and so on. I know that if I had a map nicely listing all of these things in a nice, filterable interface, my life would be a lot easier. If you think about it, Ushahidi is the perfect platform for all of these things. Its mobile infrastructure would allow for citizens to text in an accident, a road closure, or so on and have it instantly appear on the map. The SMS alert capabilities would let you get a text message if something happens within a certain radius of, say, your work or neighborhood. Think of the possibilities that could open up if governments embraced the crowd!
Postscript: I'm going to try for a proof of concept with this for my city, Austin. Stay tuned!
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