Two days ago I posted an analysis on the flow of news and crowd-sourced reporting during a crisis situation. It touched upon recent events here in Kampala as well as the Mumbai Attacks, and events in Iran and China. The observation was that many of the current tools that people use during these situations, aren’t designed to be as useful as they could be.

Crisis mapping by Jen Ziemke about the Angolan Civil War has helped predict when combatants are likely to target civilians.

The Global Development Commons congratulates Pascal Katana, a Fourth Year Student at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of Nairobi, Kenya on his two new inventions which will enhance food security and renewable energy usage.

The Capacity Project, funded by USAID and led by IntraHealth, has developed the iHRIS Suite of three Open Source core software solutions, each addressing a specific Human Resources for Health (HRH) leadership issue.

New ideas for a better world captivated the minds of many at an unprecedented event at the State Department yesterday-- TED@State. Leading thinkers in conflict resolution, environmental affairs, business approaches to poverty-reduction, social media and international health brought Washington DC its first-ever US Government sponsored TEDTalks.

In times of disaster, getting relief to the right places is critical. Often times, this depends on how fast information can be gathered from different locations. MapAction creates a 'shared operational picture' through the form of maps.  Having mapped 15 disaster since 2004, MapAction, a UK NGO, deploys its disaster response volunteers all over the world.

For years, the District of Columbia has provided the public with online access to its operational data. The District provides citizens with the access to its Data Catalog  - 275 datasets from multiple agencies that is a catalyst to ensuring that its agencies are responsive, better performing organizations.

In some parts of the world, geographical data is not free. Inspired by sites like Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap set out to create a free editable map of the world. Initially, information was collected by volunteers using handheld GPS devices and a notebook.