(Note: This post is cross-posted from SciDev.Net who recorded this interview with Chris Albon, Director of Crisis.NET, an Ushahidi initiative.)

Q&A: How open-source tools can help map crisis data

By Imogen Mathers

In this podcast, we talk to Chris Albon, director of the global crisis data arm of Ushahidi, an open-source data mapping organisation that originated in Nairobi, Kenya. Albon explains how Ushahidi software can be tailored to track data in different contexts — from collating reports of violence during elections to tools for monitoring urban planning projects. He also discusses Ushahidi’s growing partnerships with large corporations such as Twitter. And he tells us about some of the potential hazards of using open data mapping in more volatile political contexts or during conflict. This Q&A was recorded earlier this year, when Chris Albon was Ushahidi's director of data projects. In May 2014 he became Ushahidi's CrisisNET director.