We’ve got some exciting news to share with you all. After months and weeks of tireless efforts by our team and community members, today’s release is the FINAL beta.

We’re rolling out an Ushahidi v3.0 Testing release, gearing towards a full launch set for August 19th, 2015! WOOP! WOOP!

Take it out for a spin on our demo site. Log in credentials for the test site are as follows:

username: demo

password: testing

Community Testing Week

We’ve set one week of community testing between 7th and 13th August, 2015 to help us identify bugs and collect your general feedback on the platform.

How to get started

There are two ways to test:-

• Download and Install the platform locally.
• Use our demo site
  • Use the following credentials (Username: demo, password: testing) OR
  • Register and get in touch with us for an upgrade to admin status after registration
    • Email Angela Oduor Lungati(angela AT ushahidi DOT com)
    • Ping us on IRC/Hipchat/Gitter. Posting on any one of these channels will post on all three of them simultaneously.
    • Ping us on Skype( add ngelzy to be added into the room )

Sharing your feedback!

We’re collecting feedback in two ways:-

• Via this simple form here(no-sign in required).
• Directly via Github issues(for those familiar with Github)

Join us for a Co-testing day!

In the spirit of collaboration, we’re setting aside some time for co-testing fun!

Date: Thursday, August 13th, 2015.

Time: 00:00 UTC to 23:59 UTC

Your local time: Start time - End time

To participate, join us and members of the Ushahidi team on:-

• IRC/Hipchat/Gitter
• Skype( add ngelzy to be added into the room)

Nairobi based folks, the Ushahidi team will be testing out of the South to South Lab on the Ground Floor of Bishop Magua Center, Ngong Road between 9a.m EAT and 5p.m EAT, so feel free to stop by and join the fun(and have pizza with us!)

and a Translation Sprint too!

We’ve updated our repository for v3 on Transifex to match this release and could use your help getting translations up to 80% in time for launch (See our Translators Power Ushahidi Campaign). Here’s a quick guide on how to get started

What’s New in Ushahidi v3?

• Reports are now posts The name change from reports to posts is a recognition that data collected might not just be a traditional ‘report’ of an event any more.
• Multiple ways to view your posts Along with the traditional map and list views, we now have timeline and bar chart views on the homepage.
• Collect whatever information you want with Post Types Posts are no longer a fixed form with built in fields. You can customize them by creating many post types, with different stages and custom fields to collect the data you need.
• Manage a workflow with steps Each post is now made up of a number of steps. These can be made required (or not) before the post is published. This lets you build the workflow you need, e.g Want to make sure all posts have a location before they’re public? Add a ‘location stage’. Want to collect info about actions taken on a post, but don’t want wait to publish it? you can do that too.
• One interface for all posts We no longer have separate views from managing posts and viewing posts.
• Receive messages directly as ‘posts’ The old ‘messages’ views are gone. New SMS or twitter messages now come in directly as “unstructured” posts, that are ready to be completed and published quickly and easily.
• Create curated collections of posts Want to share a group of posts with someone? or save them for later? All platform users can now create collections for themselves and to share with others.
• Build your own workflows with Saved Searches You are no longer restricted to simple queues of posts e.g ‘Awaiting Approval’/‘Awaiting Verification’ - You can create any search you want, save it, and the check again later.

If you’ve been following our releases so far, see our changelog for details on what’s changed recently. There’s so much more that we could share on this post, but it’s best to have you experience the platform for yourself :).

Coming up next?

You’ll be able to

• Import CSV files via the web user interface
• Retrieve a forgotten password
• Switch languages on your deployment
• Upload custom background images for your deployment

Thank you!

It’s been a long wait, but we’re almost at the finish line. We are grateful for you, the Ushahidi community for all your patience, support and feedback throughout this process! We can’t wait to share all our work with you in the coming week :).

Stay tuned on our blog, meetup page, twitter, facebook page and wiki for more announcements soon!

Happy v3 release day!