Applications of Ushahidi

Introduction:

The swift progress of the world trade and the truly dynamic exchange of many goods and services on a yearly basis illustrates the greatest growth dynamism. Moreover, Globalisation is seen as two opportunities whereby are retrieved by the consequence of the revolution of information and communication technologies. The two opportunities are educating through knowledge of economy and knowledge of management, which are in fact combined as one from its concepts of operation within many countries. (Kuqi and Hasanaj, 2018)

The approach which will be highlighted is the regionalisation perspective with the differences made by globalisation. The effects caused by globalisation to Ushahidi will simply display the magnitude of benefits, in quality rather than quantity. (Hart and Prakash, 1995)

Moreover, the transformational approach will explain the transfer from a standardised state to a mode which is contained of opportunities to fill for benefit of exposure categorically i.e. political, cultural and economic. (Parjanadze, 2009)

The essay organisation will consist of the review of the world culture theory and its context through its effectuation perspective. The two sides of perspectives which will be overviewed is the matter of regionalisation and the breakthrough of globalisation. The background and timeline of Ushahidi will be evaluated and placed into the setting of the effectiveness of globalisation. Practical relevance will be included for a comparative overview. Finally, a critical and analytical assessment will be implemented through the right examples, and through the advantages and disadvantages will lead to the proposed recommendation which will be attained by a context developed argumentation.

Main Body (Review of Theory, Critical and Analytical Assessment and Recommendation):

Firstly, the overview of globalisation is simply referred as the process of which economies and societies become closely integrated and concurrent with increasing worldwide globalisation. (Irani and Noruzi, 2011) Ushahidi is a platform which was initially utilised to help protect lives in Kenya, which was referred to an incident which occurred after the post-election violence in 2008. (Ushahidi, 2019) The company had begun from a simple WordPress blog with dots on a map, which then transformed into an entire ecosystem of software and tools which aided in completion of work by the human rights advocates, journalists etc. The focal point of their structured scheme was by providing for the individuals during the 2008 Kenyan elections, which had expanded on a global scale with more than 150,000 deployments in 160 countries. (Doran, 2018) The software built is beyond of benefit as to how much it being widespread.

Regionalisation:

The regionalisation approach simply relates to the beginning of Ushahidi, in which mentioned the company had been able to provide a platform which allows to report signs of violence on a regional level. The inevitable forces of globalisation and regionalisation have created a different structure of the world economic landscape in which have developed companies by full potential. (Hirata, Kose and Otrok, 2013)

The benefit of Ushahidi attempting to cover this solution through regionally had related to events during the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, during the year’s regionalism was viewed as an important strategy for attaining security, peace, development and welfare. This was specifically done in Europe but was not only the main target. Which moves on to the importance of shifting from regionalisation to globalisation, as the enthusiasm of regional norm had come to an end during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Furthermore, this was due to grand projects having limited impact or never materialised. This elaborates that there had been a concern of focusing on global opportunities rather than regional interdependencies. (Schulz, Soderbaum and Ojendal, 2001)

An example of firm expansion within the UK is Tesco. The research in history displays that the expansion rate was high, and their portfolio had just begun with numerous amounts of stores across the UK. In the 1950s the retailer had purchased 70 Williams stores and 200 Harrow stores, which had then led to 97 Charles Philips stores. Although there were no plans to settle for certain position, as the brand had aimed to be placed at the top of the supermarket industry. With their multi-strategy the retailer had introduced its first 24-hour store whilst expanding overseas with the likes of Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The clear interpretation from this piece of history has shown that the retailer had created a contingency style approach from covering on a regional level, although viewing global opportunities as a form of security. (Clark and Chan, 2014) This example relates to the disadvantage of remaining the operation on a regional level, as opportunities are far more globally.

The World Culture Theory (Globalisation):

Ushahidi is now seen as the platform which aids the world’s biggest humanitarian and international development challenges, which are done by building virtual tools. The transformation of Ushahidi from supporting regionally to expanding globally has made an immense impact. Ushahidi had achieved a role of social enterprise along with a global team of over 30 highly-skilled and diverse experts which are operating from 10 different countries. By not only transforming as an organisation, they have created their platform to its maximum exposure with the aim of people to raising their voices on matters and providing the help that is needed. (10 Years of Innovation. 10 Years of Global Impact. This is Ushahidi., 2018)

The strategy which Ushahidi have placed in which takes consciousness of humankind, leads to the rationale of the world culture theory. The world culture theory is an interpretation of how members of organisations are conscious of and provide meaning to the living in the world as a single place. In emphasis of defining the world as a single place, as mentioned Ushahidi have been able to provide a platform which can be used globally with the necessity of making awareness of any crimes. Furthermore, the world trade theory involves a formulation of four main components of the global human circumstance, which are the societies, the system of societies, individuals, and humankind. Through the global human circumstance, it forms the process of respectively, societalisation, internationalisation, individuation and generalisation in consciousness regarding humankind. (Pannilage, 2017)

The practical example which is in relevance of the theory is the Global Fund. An introductory of the international organisation, which is a partnership created to hasten the eradication of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. The Global Fund had achieved to mobilise and invest over $4 billion yearly, to support programs which are run by of region experts in more than 100 countries. The involvement of the organisation includes the governments, civil society, technical agencies, the private sector and individuals who are affected by these diseases. (The Global Fund, 2019) This highlights the need of involvement from different groups and implements a benefit of enlightening culture towards operating globally, as there would be reflections on norms, morals etc. which are based on specific countries.

Recommendation:

Firstly, The world culture theory is the suitable approach as there are many countries of which have cultures which are indigenous, and this may be a limitation to what could be potentially be better in terms of protecting society i.e. in the context of Ushahidi. When cultural globalisation takes place, it transforms the forms of naturally created cultures which are developed by ethnic groups and nations. In further elaboration there still may be practices which no longer have impact, which therefore need reasonable resources. In relation to Ushahidi, when transforming the indigenous cultures, it promotes a strategy of reporting incidents through one platform rather than a method of reliance on specific representatives in different nations. There is mutual understanding from distinct nations and ethnic groups which results in an impactful transformation. The only drawback to the theory would be incompatibility of the maintenance in indigenous cultures, which the argument would be there are countries of ethnic groups having formed cultures which have effective cultures that draw across as much focused to societies. (Pannilage, 2017)

Conclusion:

Firstly, the concept of the platform has been very impactful especially towards the benefits it brings to humankind, around the globe. The interpretation is simple, as they have collectively improved Kenya which was a form of regionalisation, it was only right that they had provided the source for the globe for the advantages brought in from globalisation. To put further, the world culture theory focuses on the importance of human representation as four constructive groups. A further amplification would be the structure of enlightening good set of skills and qualities to better reveal a company and its operations. Viewing previous of the regionalisation approach, the highlight would be the limitation of a company’s performance as opportunities are likely to be out of borders. Linking back to the motivation of the study, the world trade theory meets with the two opportunities mentioned; educating through knowledge of economy and management. This emphasises on one of the sectors of education, which is the operating through economy and management on an international scale. Through the conduction of Ushahidi’s process of working into a global state, has shown its continuous learning phase through different events of crime. This had broken the forms of reporting e.g. mainstream media by providing a managerial platform that collects authentic data. (Ushahidi, 2019) To which is now handled by different representatives across nations. Overall, there is one tool which is still being taken for granted at the very least since its worth, and that is technology. (10 Years of Innovation. 10 Years of Global Impact. This is Ushahidi., 2018)

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