Ushahidi is a mobile phone-based system, first used in 2008 to allow Kenyans to report and track post-election violence via mobile phone text messages and that was later used in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gaza. It is also in the news in the West right now for its use to save lives in the aftermath of earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.

Most surprising thing: Media outlets in the West are surprised that Africans (working with outsiders) could pull this off. Take the New York Times and BBC News, for example.