PRESENTATION: Developing a Humanitarian Open Source Project by David Kobia and Woody Gilk, of http://ushahidi.com (@dkobia and @shadowhand)
Mini-talk by Chris Beauregard: MailChimp and PHP
NEW LOCATION: We are now meeting at Polygon Atlanta in Atlantic Station. See directions at http://polygonatl.com/directions/. Easiest: park, then take the Green #5 elevator to the 2nd level. Exit the elevator, bear left, and look for Polygon above Moe’s (photo on directions link above).
Description: During this presentation, David and Woody will talk about the birth of Ushahidi 6 years ago in response to a crisis in Kenya, its role in Humanitarian FOSS (Free and Open Source Software), responding to disasters around the world, building communities and empowering people to make an impact with open source technologies. Most importantly though, we’ll try to highlight the role of PHP and the decisions around our stacks over the years.
About David: David is a co-founder and technology lead at Ushahidi and brings more than 15 years of product development experience and a multidisciplinary background to his work, with a focus on social and emerging technologies. He works in a variety of roles, from designer and coder to strategist. After pursuing a BS in Computer Science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he has been a professional software developer and has worked with most web technologies in use today. David is an MIT Directors Fellow and in 2010, he was a recipient of MIT Technology Review’s TR35 award (35 top innovators under 35) and the Humanitarian of the Year award.
About Woody: Woody is a web application developer living in Grand Marais, Minnesota, USA who joined the Ushahidi Platform team in 2014. He has been building websites since he was 16 years old and has worked in website development his entire life. Prior to joining Ushahidi, he has worked for both small and large companies, as well as running a successful freelancing business for several years. Woody also contributes to other open source software, including co-founding the Kohana PHP Framework. When not programming, he likes to brew tea gong fu style, tend to his garden, and ride single-speed bicycles.
When: Thursday, December 4th, 2014 — 7pm-9pm
