Hello everyone,

In line with our 2 week release cycle, we churn out yet another beta version of Ushahidi today, dubbed Ushahidi Platform v3.0.0-beta.2.

This release is not ready for production and remains largely a developer release. However, you can get a sneak peek of what we currently have on our demo site.

What’s changed?

A few improvements have been made since our first beta release two weeks ago, which include:

The map view now shows a full screen map
Sorting users by name now orders properly
Authentication errors are now handled in a more friendly way
OAuth token expiration length has been made consistent, regardless of time zone
Post detail UI has been improved to show extra information more clearly

What’s New?

We’ve added the ability to change basic map settings (default location, base layer, etc)
The sidebar now shows actual counts for totals and report status counts
The form wizard feature has an improved UI and less buggy reordering
The API explorer has an improved UI and now shows more complete information

Documentation

We realize that there has been a bit of confusion regarding terminology of our products and how they relate to each other, so we’ve taken a first step at clearing this all out for you by changing references of “Lamu” to “Ushahidi Platform”, under which exists Ushahidi v2.x (what is currently in production), and Ushahidi v3.x (the new revamped version, which is still in development and yet to be released)

How Can I help?

Download and Install the platform
Set up a development build
Follow our developer processes to send in bug reports and submit changes.

If you’re not already set up on Phabricator, please head over to the Ushahidi Phabricator page and sign up. Once your account is approved, here’s a guide to get you started.

Join in on our discussions on IRC and our mailing list

What should I expect in the near future?

In the lead up to a full product launch, we plan on having regular releases every two weeks, with regular updates on what will change with each of the releases. Review our roadmap on Phabricator to keep yourself updated.

v3 Meetup & Demo

We had a few hiccups last week that inevitably led to the cancellation of our scheduled live demo. We’re ready to give it another try, so we hope you can join us for our rescheduled virtual demo walkthrough and Q&A with core devs on Tuesday July 1st, 2014 at 1.30 P.M PT/4.30P.M EST/ 08.30 P.M UTC (See timezone conversion information).

We will also record this session for those who may not be able to attend. As earlier mentioned, this is the first to many more virtual and physical discussions that we plan on hosting in the lead up to full product launch. We welcome any feedback/thoughts on what topics you would like to discuss.

In the meantime, stay tuned on our blog, meetup page, twitter, facebook page and wiki for more announcements,

Happy v3 beta release day and thank you all for your continued interest.

The Ushahidi Team