New Maps for Ushahidi

Ushahidi has recently switched to Mapbox Streets and Satellite! Ushahidi is an influential crowdsourcing platform that allows users to gather data from a variety of devices with custom surveys and crowdsourcing tools. Ushahidi relies on quality base maps to accurately geocode reports. OpenStreetMap fills an important role by allowing Ushahidi users to contribute and edit map data that is most important for their needs. We can see that there’s clearly a larger opportunity to link Ushahidi and OpenStreetMap communities closer together.

Peka Kota is one amazing example. Supported by Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program, Ushahidi worked with a local artist collective called Hysteria to start Peka Kota. The project works with local communities in Semarang, Indonesia to map neighborhoods, community assets, and report on issues that residents care about most. Peka Kota started out with community mapping to create the base map in OpenStreetMap. Community issues can then be reported using the Ushahidi platform.

Peka Kota benefited greatly from a partnership with HOT (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team) in Indonesia and the GroundTruth Initiative, who helped develop activities that used community mapping as a way to convene different stakeholders to co-create important geographic data. The project is helping citizens and government transform their city from the ground up...