Kibera Repository
From Map Kibera
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Apps 4 Africa Write Up
The central repository application is an openly available application that will be used to consolidate data from different organizations and CBOs (health, education, water and sanitation) in the slums about:
- exististing projects
- ongoing projects
- their organizations
- challenges
- successes
- contacts
The different organizations still have local autonomy over their data and they may choose not to share some information.
This application should be composed of the following modules:
- web application
- mobile application
- mapping application
- database
The main aim of the development of this application is
1. To encourage the organizations to share their information
2. To make information about the organizations openly available for auditing and checking purposes
3. To encourage a spirit of collaboration within the various organizations
4. Use the developed tools to foster accountability and eliminate brief case organizations that are just looking out for donor grants
5. Encourage the organizations to work hard in making life better and most of all to earn recognition.
More thoughts
The need driving this in Kibera is widely similar ... open and efficient civil society in a chaotic place. There are hundreds of NGOs and CBOs operating in Kibera, substitution for almost all of the services you'd expect from government, which operate only very partially with their cohorts ... duplication, corruption, and lack of coordination are huge drains on a place that receives an inordinate amount of funding with little to show for it. Many of those organizations collect information in Kibera but do not share it. Kibera has become a research laboratory of sorts, with hundreds of published academic papers, many of them undertaken with the cooperation of individuals and organizations in Kibera. Absurdly and tragically, these papers are rarely made available again back in Kibera. I am more well read on Kibera than even highly educated people who have lived there their entire lives!
The emerging idea is to set up a Crabgrass instance, seed it with organization profiles (we have sources from the Population Council, OpenStreetMap, and local partners) and make those group pages. We'd make this a subsection of Voice of Kibera (http://voiceofkibera.org/). During our "Maps for Data" program (think "Beer for Data" but in a place where alcohol wouldn't be appropriate ... we'll be printing large maps of Map Kibera and distributing them, and at the same time ask for data to be shared), we'll raise awareness of the new site, collect details, and reports, etc. Some data may not be fully publicly releasable, so we at least want to build up an index of who has what.
Early playing around at http://maps.mapkibera.org:3000/groups/directory/search
Some of the questions we're facing are how to facilitate an organization claiming their Group page, whether we want to have individual profiles, and if there are ways to access the site without internet access. Maps will be a part of this, but we're unclear exactly how yet ... perhaps it's simply a tool to place organizations on the OSM map (Crabgrass has some pretty basic geo integration at the moment).
Earlier Thoughts
Building off Population Council report, and Map Kibera collected data. Also SODNET's database of CBO's. Fahamu data? Seperate system, or integrated with maps for data (more information could be collected then), or part of some kind of composite wiki?
Draft: http://maps.mapkibera.org:3000/groups/directory/search
- there's an index included in the pdf ... i haven't processed that yet, but it would essentially become tags
- some of the contact info would go direct in the profile
- maybe work on integrating the map
- need to think about how someone might "claim" a group, for editing of the official profile, or just keep that open wiki-like
- would be nice to have a way to add a comment on a group (maybe just a featured discussion)
- want to import sodnet's list too
- want group listing and document listing to be more accessible (like the pakistan example)
Dev
- git repository
- Kibera Repository/Customizing CrabGrass For Windows Development
- Kibera Repository/Work Plan
Data Sources
- File:Ngos in Kibera.xlsx That data is from the National NGO Cordinating Board which I visited this afternoon at Corporative House.I clearly told them we have an interest on this as a media outfit & they said No objection.I'll keep updates on other leads I'm following.
- Population Council Directory of Organizations in Kibera
- OpenStreetMap collected data
- and local partners
See Also
Issues/Ideas
- Home navigation - when you enter into a group profile - there is no way to navigate back to the "home" page of the entire site besides than pressing "back"
- Filtering organizational profiles - currently only alphabetical - also filter by location (village perhaps) and thematic area (health, education, etc) so need a way for organizations to select which thematic areas they work in
- Discover button? What does this do?
- The information that is there in each individual organization's profile is confusing - the fields need to be separated out clearly for example "who we are, what we do, history, mission, vision, objectives, thematic area, website, telephone, street address)
- Logo for each organization to replace smiley faces
- We tried the "search" field and were asked for a password to search - no password for searching information, but need accounts for organizations to submit information and for individuals and organizations to comment on profiles
- Include "recent activity" field within each individual profile for organizations to provide updates on what they are doing
- Facebook integration for commenting
- hyperlinks to website of each organization should open in a new window
