A friend is soon traveling to Algeria, and is looking to map a refugee camp. That email response turned into this blog post, quickly and wildly surveying Map Kibera phase 1. It also leads on from this post on mapping an entire country, with part of the answer being that you have to start small, focused, and high profile, and leverage that work into an initiative that spreads throughout the country.
While there’s no formula to doing this right, I think Map Kibera has stumbled across some of the key methods to approach mapping in marginalized communities. Longer term, we’re intending to write up documentation on how everything worked here, but for the mean time this stream of consciousness. I’m very interested to hear how a similar approach is going to take in a refugee camp, rather than an informal settlement.
Sounds very much like the scope is akin to the intensive first phase of Map Kibera. We first identified trusted groups within Kibera, who could share the vision and introduce the project to young people eager to take part. Getting the blessing of respected people was key to operating effectively. Sharing the vision is tricky in a place with limited internet access and major problems of its own. We were often asked (and still asked) “what good is a map in a place like Kibera? we know where everything is! what we need is clean water and health care, not another survey!”. It’s difficult to explain the abstract concept of Open Data, and how this can effect change by bringing transparency and more effective communication within and without the community. We basically boil it down to saying “This is your map, made by people who live here, showing what you want to show. We don’t have all the answers for what this map will do, but there are lots of possibilities and we think you may have the answers. The people taking part will gain valuable skills. AND there will be a paper map.” This last point usually wins them over, as a tangible map is vastly more approachable to them than something online. So I very much recommend some way in the plans to distribute paper maps … even if it means bringing a printer (we’ve done this in Haiti). And if you have a printer/scanner, you can also employ Walking Papers, which may be a more sustainable method in the long run for this community to update the map.
Getting back to the process, our trusted groups recommended a few dozen individuals to take part, and we held interviews to select participants. Our first criteria was community spirit, especially history of volunteering in Kibera, long experience living in Kibera, followed by geographic spread within Kibera (which corresponds to ethnicity roughly), gender balance, and finally experience with using computers. We had one individual responsible for each of 13 villages; in review, we’d probably set up small teams, as people tended to pair up anyway. Computer experience was hard to find, access to computers in Kibera is still limited and relatively expensive, which meant we had to spend a lot of time in the computer lab on the basics. Get ready to be frustrated, especially with the cruddy interfaces and conventions of computing we’ve somehow gotten used to. The lab, technically, is likely to be chaotic, breakdowns, power fluctuations, bad network; you need some minimal reliable infrastructure here, and probably a day or two to make sure all the software is working correctly on these machines. We had a thumb drive with a Java installer, JOSM, and GPSBabel, to install on all machines. We have very specific guides to using JOSM; various versions are on the MK wiki, the OSM wiki, and in development in Haiti. The editing is the hard part to train; we found the actual surveying was pretty intuitive. People are used to difficult interfaces with their mobile phones, so using the GPS is not hard (with a few problems occurring again and again, specific to the unit we used, the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx). The GPS have a setup process themselves.
The first day was billed as a Mapping Party, with a general introduction to OSM, overview of the entire plans, and a very open offering to map whatever seemed interesting. Get people out into the field as soon as possible … it’s always fun to work with the device, and wander around. Have them bring paper to write details on the waypoints they collect … it’s easier to write on paper then edit in the GPS; Walking Papers can work well here if the place has a recognizable and pre-existing grid in OSM. When they come back, gather all the GPS tracks and do a “party render” with the python scripts … watching everyone scurrying around like ants will get them hooked!
We usually did one day in the field, then one day in the lab. Good idea to review the work each day, and even schedule to time to review with every individual or team. We had other logistics to contend with, like transport from Kibera to the lab (a good distance away) and arranging meals (mapping is tiring). We spent a long time figuring out if stipends were necessary, and in the end we did, though this leads to all sorts of complications; a hard problem which could be discussed at length. In a refugee camp, none of these issues may come up; Kibera is certainly unique. Another possibly unique thing about Kibera is its setting within a major city, with an active technology community and international presence. We invited speakers to talk to the group about their work, and invited the mappers to events within Nairobi. This helped to connect the project to the bigger picture, and foster connections. As much as possible, show that this work is not isolated, but part of a global project.
The length of time required to map is important to estimate. 3 weeks in Kibera turned out to be pretty accurate, and I think there are formulas emerging to make estimates in other areas. At the end of the mapping, we celebrated with a map cake, and awarded certificates to the participants. Start with a party, and end with a party. That was phase 1 basically. Throughout, ideas will generate … uses for the map, uses for other kinds of technology, other details to map. Capture these! And if possible, engage developer friends to quickly hack together some of the ideas. This leads to later phases, and ultimately, is what helps answer the question of how mapping is relevant to marginalized communities.
These posts are getting more and more interesting. From the images of the hand-drawn kids maps to the “party to party” arc in this one. Looking forward to more.
Sorry, what I meant is: its inspiring to hear about the challenges and realities that the Map Kibera project runs into.