We believe there’s wisdom in crowds, but turning crowd-sourcing into a viable business model is a challenge as yet unanswered. Twitter, Gowalla and Foursquare are getting there, but a sparsely funded non-profit project, Ushahidi, is the one breaking new ground in harnessing the power of the masses.

Ushahidi, which means “witness” in Swahili, was started by a group of tech-savvy activists in Africa to monitor violence in Kenya. They created an online platform that allows anyone with an internet connection or mobile phone to post location-based events or occurrences to a project URL. Their system aggregates the data and displays it via map-based visualization. Users can then access the site to view up-to-date reports and identify areas of activity and need.

The initial Ushahidi project was so successful that the system was subsequently used to track shortages in medical supplies in Africa, the H1N1 outbreak in the U.S. and numerous global events.

The ultimate test for Ushahidi came during the Haitian earthquake disaster. Their system collected over 3,500 events, primarily submissions by volunteers using mobile phones. The immediate response was so robust that the United Nations and other relief agencies used the site to monitor and address their relief efforts. In fact, at one point FEMA told the group, “Don’t stop mapping; you’re saving lives.” Most recently, Ushahidi’s crowd-sourcing technology has been used to log the effects of the Gulf Coast oil spill, in hopes of giving “a more global perspective” of the damage.

Not bad for a small group of mostly volunteer developers who had organized coding parties, called “hackathons,” just months before to enable the site to handle larger events like the Haiti disaster and the Gulf Coast oil spill.

With the advent of more mobile phones and a connected globe, sites like Ushahidi will become even more indispensable to organized relief efforts and NGO projects. Much of the crowd-sourcing technology promises to filter into business and consumer sectors, but the real story may be the impact that a small community of developers can have in helping to reshape the world in very positive ways.

For more on crisis reporting via texting, check out this TED video from Erik Hersman, one of othe Usahidi developers:

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t agree that there’s an ever-expanding need for organizations to branch out into the mobile sector. But with the plethora of mobile platforms that exists today, we have a tricky task of knowing which to develop for, and how to most effectively and efficiently make sure the application is successful on the other platforms as well.  

We recently hosted a three-hour workshop at the 2010 South by Southwest Interactive Festival, where we discussed mobile development across platforms and brought together three top-level thinkers in the industry: Rylan Barnes, lead developer on the ShopSavvy application and co-founder of Big In Japan, Inc.; Kevin Hoyt, group manager of platform evangelism at Adobe, Inc.; and Tom Conrad, CTO of Internet music giant, Pandora. Throughout the course of the workshop, our speakers provided insight on their experiences and key learnings for today’s mobile developers. Here are a few highlights and how-tos:

• Keep it familiar. Each platform provides room for customization, but it should be done within the parameters of its standard, familiar toolkit. Take the iPhone, for instance. All of the navigation buttons remain on the screen at all times. Then there’s the Blackberry, whose buttons are tucked into the menu. Users don’t typically jump between platforms; they’re only familiar with how to use the device they own. So, while it’s easy for developers to want to bring tools from one over to the other, for user experience purposes, it’s imperative to stick to the basic rules of each individual platform.
• Don’t silo your customers. When developing for multiple devices, too often customer segments get broken down too much. Your users are most likely not just Windows phone users, or just desktop users. They move across contexts and they take their data with them from one to the other, making it important to create a unified user experience across multiple devices. A recent Nielsen report shows a substantial increase in media multi-tasking in America, with 57% of consumers watching TV and going online simultaneously at least once a month. Adobe is at the forefront of an industry-wide initiative that aims to make the cross-device development task less daunting. The Open Screen Project (OSP) is bringing front-end Web development into the mobile conversation with the hopes of making it no longer necessary to develop new sets of code for each individual platform. While the possibilities presented by initiatives such as the OSP are still up for debate, if done right, it could undoubtedly ease the workload of developers in the future.
• Invest in user experience. In 2007, Pandora had a presence on an array of feature phones, but quickly found that success in the mobile arena isn’t as simple as just making sure you’re everywhere. Phone owners at that point weren’t thinking of the Internet aspect of their devices. Then came the iPhone, a very Web-centric device, and as a result, the opportunity developed to create not just an app, but a full-blown user experience tailored to the way customers engaged with a specific device. Within four hours, Pandora had more users on a single platform than they had ever had on all the feature phones combined. 

Mobile development will continue to be a hot topic of conversation as bright new solutions and ideas surface, morph and are repurposed to improve the user experience. We’re excited to see where mobile is headed, and, along the way, help steer conversations and develop solutions that make sense for both marketers and mobile enthusiasts.

This past year has been historic for mobile, with the rise of Android, the explosion of apps and the sheer volume of people flocking to the Mobile Web. Yet the most exciting development has been watching mobile “grow up.” This is the first year that we have seen brands truly embrace the idea of mobile as a viable marketing channel. Nothing is more evident of that than the first ever Mobile Upfront, taking place next Tuesday in New York. By definition, the concept of an Upfront implies planning for the WHOLE year. In mobile? Incredible.

The industry coming together at next week’s event shows that mobile really has arrived. Smart brands from every area are paying close attention to mobile and are planning ahead for the future. I am honored to be moderating the client panel at the event, which includes marketers from a broad mix of categories including:  CPG (Coca-Cola), Consumer Electronics (Panasonic) and gaming (Atari). 

My how far we have come. In recent months, magnificent mobile devices were born, and great user experiences and faster networks collided. And the masses followed. Mobile now has a seat at the table as the overall marketing strategy is hashed out. And guess what? The mobile programs are getting better because of it. The panelists I will be sharing the stage with at this event all realize mobile cannot live in a silo, it has to be a part of a larger strategic initiative. And they’ve got some great programs to show for it.

So what can we expect for 2010? More integrated campaigns, larger mobile budgets, consolidation and a focus on cross platform development with the Mobile Web at the center. But it all starts with planning ahead. Watch this space and I will share more about what is on the marketers’ minds and how they are using mobile to reach consumers.