The Ushahidi Engine is a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Our goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response.
Choose "Basic Installation", "Let's get started", and it will prompt you for a few details. The database name is "ushahidi", database user name is "user", the password is also "user". The database host is "localhost". Then continue. In the General setup page choose a site name (title) for your website such as "OSGeo demo" and if you like tag-line subheading as well. The email address it asks you for is used for receiving automatic submissions which it will process and add to the database and maps, and send automated reports from. For now set it to something like "ushahidi@localhost.localdomain" or "ushahidi@example.org" and 'Continue'.
After that is all done it should tell you that installation was successful and give you a link to 'View your website'. From now on when you start from the menu or desktop icon it will lead you right to this page.
To make changes in the administration area, the login username is "admin" and the password is also "admin". For example in the setup page you might want to select "Settings" (top right) and then the "Map" tab, and change the "Map provider" to OpenStreetMaps (no API key necessary for OSM, as it's Open :-) ).
The setup up README page is available locally in the /var/www/ushahidi/readme.html file.
A live example of Ushahidi in action (open to the public) can be found at http://drc.ushahidi.com.