Contact: Press Office, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), 202-712-4320; Public Information: 202-712-4810

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 /Standard Newswire/ -- USAID has partnered with Fortius One's GeoCommons, Google, Development Seed, Relief Star-Tides, Synergy Strike Force, and Alive in Afghanistan to map election related incidents online -- enabling anyone to share information that bolsters the fledgling democracy.

See maps and layers of data uploaded at http://news.geocommons.com/afghanistanelection09.

Volunteers from the Synergy Strike Force are on the ground in Jalalabad and are helping to collect, share, and disseminate local data. The Synergy Strike Force (SSF) is a volunteer team that works to support humanitarian relief and stabilization efforts in post conflict environments such as those in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The SSF is a private volunteer organization comprised of individuals with various technical skills and access to a wide range of social network.

Anyone interested in supporting the effort is welcome to participate by uploading any geographically coded data at http://maker.geocommons.com/. If anyone in country has an incident to report via cell phone, they can send a text message to 93 79 404 0569.

This open data mapping project is one way for everyone to increase transparency as the elections roll out. It allows anyone anywhere to report an incident in the name of more meaningful democratic results for better governance.

Read about the potential uses of the maps for analysis and policymaking at www.GlobalDevelopmentCommons.net. For more information about the partners and tools involved, please visit www.globaldevelopmentcommons.net/node/2776.

This partnership was achieved through USAID's Global Development Commons initiative, which seeks to catalyze innovations for better international development results.

For more information about USAID, please visit: www.usaid.gov.