Movity Blog

I read a quote this morning about which summed up the power of crowd-sourced maps:

“While (the mapping of the Haiti Relief Efforts was) not without problem, this effort nevertheless represents a remarkable example of the power of crowdsourced online mapping and the potential for new avenues of interaction between physically distant places.“ 

The map below (created by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade) illustrates the recent Gulf Oil Spill.  This map is maintained by a concerned populace, and enables them to effectively illustrate damage done to their community.  The most powerful aspect of the map is that it allows users to digest and filter information rapidly.  These filters enable users to examine local incidents, examine particulars of the event (oil slicks vs. bird deaths), or view time-specific information (recent events).   

UGC maps are an increasingly powerful tool that help us understand and analyze event, communities, and society. Much as Google’s analysis of user search terms has helped the CDC understand the spread of endemic diseases, UGC maps present a more complete picture of an event.  

One of the strongest indicators of the power of UGC maps is the rapid, widespread, and universal adoption of this technology.  UGC maps have been used to organize relief efforts in Haiti, monitor voting procedures in Africa and India, and record violence in Gaza. Since a large portion of the global population can already contribute to these maps, the framework is in place for this avenue of data dissemination to expand and improve.  

Do you have hesitations regarding UGC maps?  

Have you helped to construct a UGC map?  Why?

How else would you want to filter the data from the oil map?  

As always, we are curious to hear your thoughts.  

The entire article that the opening quoting references can be downloaded 

here.

The Oil Spill Map was created by the Oil Spill Bucket Brigade.

More amazing UGC maps can be found at Ushahidi.com.

- Andrew

Click here to view a rough San Francisco Pet Map

Most pet owners would agree with the statement “I want to live in a pet friendly area.”

However, how can pet owners gauge whether a neighborhood or location is pet friendly?  We quickly put together a map of factors that may contribute to a pet’s happiness: access to parks/off-leash areas, day care facilities, etc.  However, after mapping this data, it is clear that one would be hard pressed to make a richly informed decision about the suitability of a location based on this map. 

In judging a location’s suitability for pets, there are too many subjective (yet important) factors that public sources of data do not address. 

For example:

-       Is the off-leash area two blocks away filled with vagrants?

-       Do your neighbors own a Rottweiler?

-       Would you feel safe walking your dog late at night?

-       Are there frequent loud noises in an area that would frighten your pet?

Traditionally, data of this type could not be collected.  It required an understanding of the local area that was impractical for a centralized authority to collect.  However,  without this data this map offers a slightly superficial understanding of an area.  What is the value of living near two off-leash areas if both are areas you would want to avoid? 

We are interested in how much maps such as this can be improved with crowd-sourced data.  Can maps enriched with crowd-sourced data help consumers (or pet owners) find a better place to live more quickly?

Let us know what you think the pros/cons are of our rough pet-friendly map.  Want to add a comment about one of these areas?  Send it my way – we’ll add it to the map.

-Andrew