About the Project

Wikimapa Project – Where everyone can set a location.

Wikimapa is a Geocoded (location based) map collaboratively built containing information regarding local offered services in Brazil and all over the world, with focus on mapping streets, points of interest (POI) and services within slums and low-income communities from Brazil, never before mapped by available online mapping services.

The project was idealized and conceived from the perception of the lack and deficiency of interaction, access and usage of web tools and new ICTs – Information and Communication Technologies - by residents of slums and low-income areas of Brazil, faced by impossibilities and technical restraints which only strengthen and confirms the exclusion experienced by that segment of society. Also by the perception of the increasing evolution of new ICTs, especially those related to mobile technology and wiki based platforms,Rede Jovem Program created Wikimapa.

Rede Jovem Program intends, by mapping the low-income areas and slums, to work towards promoting social inclusion using virtual and mobile production by the new collaborative logics inherent in social relations, taking virtual and interactive maps as main resource, since available mapping services have never offered information related to these areas, until now. And this means that until now not only it has been difficult to insert information regarding points of interest(POI) within low income areas on available mapping service, but in fact that it has not been possible until now, since the available online maps and mapping services do not contain any information of the geographic areas that have been occupied by slums and where has been no regulation of the occupations. Besides developing a web platform for mapping points of interest and services available within low-income areas, Wikimapa is a platform for mapping streets, bystreets, traverses within those areas, literally setting their location on the map and making it possible to insert information regarding offered services and opportunities.

Wikimapa is a wiki based system that may be used for different purposes, by three platforms: website, mobile application, and mobile site.

The website offers to users besides the possibility of mapping useful information of any place – either within low-income areas or not - as institutions offering opportunities regarding learning and training, shops, schools, churches, theatres, hospitals, courts, clubs, bars and other information, the possibility of mapping streets and bystreets where those services, places and opportunities are located. All published information can be edited by any user, stimulating the collaborative construction process. After geographical information mapping, the user will be able to include references about the place that have been mapped, as well as related images and videos, which will be stored in a public multimedia database accessible for all.

Besides the web based environment, Rede Jovem Program developed the Wikimapa mobile application, which allows mapping trough cell phones equipped with GPS technology that will enable more precision on the location of mapped information and allow mobile interaction on Wikimapa. With only a cell phone it is possible for a user to map a institution offering opportunities regarding learning and training, shops, schools, churches, theatres, hospitals, courts, clubs, bars and other public interested information, provide historic and cultural information, description of services offered by the mapped location, take a picture, make a video and send all data to Wikimapa website where all those information will be available for the general public.

With the cell phone and GPS usage it is possible to map streets as long as it have not been yet mapped and is not available on virtual maps services, as unofficial streets, named by residents, that carries out local histories, unknown by most civil society. From collaborative geographical street mapping, local references are created on the virtual map enabling points of interest mapping on the attended areas. With Wikimapa it becomes possible to know at least part of the historic richness of low-income communities and its residents, demystifying the slums, usually known as violent and marginal centers. Also it is possible to share and register on the map, useful information that until now have been restrained to those who possesses privileged local information as residents and visitors of mapped areas.

The wikimapa mobile application is available for free download on the website (www.wikimapa.org.br).

The mobile site developed by Rede Jovem Program enables users’ navigation and access to the Geocoded map by using cell phones provided with internet access. By visiting the mobile site users have the possibility of knowing health, culture, services, sports, education and entertainment options related to its current location.

For stimulating the streets and local points of interest mapping on the low-income benefited areas, during the pilot stage, Rede Jovem promoted a competition for youth studying on High School’s last year, residents of five benefited slums from Rio: Complexo da Maré; Complexo do Alemão; Pavão/Pavaozinho; Santa Marta and Cidade de Deus. The five youth participants, called wikireporters, received a Nokia N95 cell phone, and works towards achieving the mission to map streets and existing points of interest of those areas, were they live and know. With a cell phone on their hands and the entire slum around, those 5 youth participated, during 6 months, on the competition promoted by Rede Jovem, which rewards a scholarship for studying social communications, in a private university, for the one who inserts more and better local information on the Wikimap.

Through the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), Wikimapa project fosters the democratization of information access and also the enlargement of low-income youth´s social participation that besides assuming the consumer´s role becomes information providers and agents working towards promoting local development and appreciation, widening perceptions and creating new cultural and geographical references.

Contact and Information:
www.wikimapa.org.br
www.redejovem.org.br 
wikimapa@redejovem.org.br 
comunicacao@redejovem.org.br