Maptivism can be defined as the use of maps to promote a cause. All maps tell a story and the use of geographic data and maps to accelerate attention on an issue has become more profound and globally available with the increase of crowdsourced geographic data and user friendly mapping technologies. Organizations like the Tactical Technology Collective offer resources such as the Maps for Advocacy Guide highlighting case studies of advocacy maps and an introduction to mapping technologies.
Nancy Scola interviews eight individuals in an article on techPresident entitled “Digital Mappers Plot the Future of Maptivism” (via The Map Room). She asks these experts in the geospatial field to answer her main questions about those involved with maptivism:
Why do they bother building maps? What are they hoping to do? What aspects of mapping do they worry about? In short, what do they think about when they’re mapping?
Interviewees include Steve Coast, founder of OpenStreetMap, Eric Gundersen, co-founder and president of Development Seed, Patrick Meier, director of crisis mapping and partnerships at Ushahidi, and Andrew Turner, the CTO at GeoIQ which is responsible for GeoCommons.
