Ushahidi Mailing Lists

A thought has been bouncing around my head since I started using
Ushahidi a year ago:

Why maintain the connection to MySQL?

I understand the deep integration with PHP, and that most of the
original developers probably come from that kind of background.
However, the MySQL backend is a real drag on the overall
responsiveness of the system. No app I've deployed has taken longer to
load up a map than my ushahidi instances, and I can lay much of the
blame on the fact that spatial data is an afterthought for MySQL,
buckled on instead of built from the ground up. As much as it's an
industry standard, MySQL is being lapped in speed by PostgreSQL,
SQLite and any number of NoSQL options. And it doesn't have anywhere
near the spatial processing and analysis capabilities of PostGIS.

You have acres of code fully-formed. I get that. But while everyone's
talking about a reboot for 3.0, why not explore a basis in PostGIS or
CouchDB? Why not jump out of the PHP/MySQL box completely and build
with jekyll or node.js - something that represents the new paradigm
for speed in delivering managed content?

This has been a voice from the peanut gallery, and you may have
already covered this at length. I've piped up now because I want to
see Ushahidi improve. It's still an amazing tool.

-Bill Morris
Burlington, VT USA