Citizen Cartographers Fill The Gaps In Maps

...[M]aps are a vital resource, especially when deciding what infrastructure to build or in the event of a humanitarian crisis. Now teams of mappers are working to chart some of the most obscure corners of the developing world using OpenStreetMap (OSM), the citizen-mapping tool that today has over 1 million registered users. By sending out volunteers across the globe, the Humanitarian OSM Team (HOT) aims to create collaborative maps that can be used by aid and development agencies.

For example, if you want to install new sanitary facilities in a slum, says HOT's president Mikel Maron, you need data on the location of existing toilets, the condition they're in, who owns them and so on. Accurate maps enable facilities to be built in optimal locations.

Google's Map Maker tool also allows users to build collaborative community maps. The software has had a lot of success in countries like Pakistan, which have large expat populations who tend to go online from abroad to map their hometowns, says Manik Gupta, Google Maps' Group Product Manager. "The interesting thing there is that you don't have to be physically living in a place to map it," says Gupta...