Keeping it Global with news and updates from a few continents. This week we have some free stuff for your maps, the Deployment of the Week from Macedonia and a few "help wanted" requests. Also, Ushahidians will be participating in some upcoming events: Creative Commons Salon in South Korea and the Hacks/Hackers event in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Into the Code

Here is the recording from the last community developer call. We talked about Swift development and installation, Ushahidi 3.0 and plugin architecture. The next community call will be September 24, 2012 at 21:00 PST. Rene Neee has created more documentation on how to use Ushahidi with Ubuntu 10.4. Thanks for this! Also, stay tuned for more details: we'll host a Day of SwiftRiver on September 8th. This will give the community a chance to group collaborate in our testing of the beta software. If you want an invite, drop us your request here.

From the Community:

The Deployment of the Week is from Macedonia. The React team aim to amplify the issue of harassment. We love their unique design. The teams have also been busy translating the Ushahidi platform and mobile devices into Macedonian. React (Macedonia)

Free Symbols for your maps!

In your maps you can have "icons" associated with each category. Visual sensemaking makes a difference, especially if you are deploying a project for humanitarian, emergency or crisis response. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (United Nations) collaborated with the Noun Project. You can download them from the Relief Web site. Please be kind and credit "OCHA" as your source. And, drop them a line of thanks - ochaavmu "at" un "dot" org. To our friends at OCHA, thanks for sharing! ocha symbols

Contest

If you are a US resident, you could be eligible with your map/hack with Live Citizen's Fix*US contest. The funds are up to $1000.00 per category. It is worth a look/see. Let us know if you use Ushahidi and we'll help amplify your work.

Help wanted

Coastal mapping for clean-up efforts

It has been over a year since the Japanese tsunami and the debris field is now reaching North America. Residents along the west coast from California to British Columbia to Alaska are asking how to report the debris and objects that have very human stories. Responders are coming together to the size of the cleanup effort that will be required over the next 12 to 18 months. Could an Ushahidi deployment be a valuable tool - for coastal residents and others to connect ? For responders to visualize the story? Interested to hear feedback from the Ushahidi community on this one. Please contact Richard Hoath if you would like to get involved.

Community Developer Support, Mentors

I often get requests for developer support for deployments. Some of the current users including the Standby Task Force and Faith Matters are both keen for your help. Drop me a line if you are available to lend a technical hand.

Forums

Thanks to Loren Bell (our amazing moderator) for helping me clean up the forums. We're working to keep our responses up to date. If you can lend a hand and help a fellow deployer, that would be grand.

The ITU and the future of the Internet

You can add your ideas for the ITU and the future of the Internet. Also, see Rebecca MacKinnon's article on this topic in Foreign Policy.

Upcoming events

From South Korea to Argentina, we're excited to be participating in two events this coming week. These are being hosted by partners and friends. We hope you can join us. Brian Herbert will participate in the Creative Commons Salon on August 27 in Seoul, South Korea. https://twitter.com/iwillbe99/statuses/238421426661634048 To see more news on this event, check out Bloter. Hacks and Hackers is hosting a large event on August 30/31 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Registration is still open. Join Rob Baker to brain and hack away. https://twitter.com/HacksHackersBA/statuses/238603213044076545 Have a great week, Heather