Kenya: Ushahidi's Ping APP To Help Users Check On Status of Colleagues

Ushahidi has released a private alpha for its new messaging app,Ping, that has already been translated into 15 languages and works with a variety of global SMS providers like Nexmo, Twilio and Clickatell among others.  Ping with the private alpha will open the doors to businesses, municipalities, and organizations who are looking for tool like Ping.  Inspired by the WestGate mall attack, Ping will help users quickly find out whether their families, friends, and teams are safe anywhere in the world and on nay device.

Ushahidi says Ping has modules that work with a dozen carriers around the world and allows one to send messages via email or SMS and on any device. The app is now available in English, French, Spanish, Russian and more coming up. The service allows users to create and store contacts with multiple numbers and email addresses for each for multiple points of contact. Users can also add their contacts to a group so that they ping multiple people with the push of a button.

A blog post done by Juliana Rotich, executive director, Ushahidi, states: "We love building software (and now hardware) this way: responding to a need, a community. Our products have been better for it, ourselves unable to see the whole path before us by trusting that by building communities before audiences, platforms/foundations before features."...