Civic Engagement

CGIAR Indonesia-Africa SDG Workshop

In September 2022, CGIAR funded our Open Knowledge Kit accelerated humanitarian and MSME regeneration program in Bali, Indonesia. We brought together selected technical and non-technical women and Indigenous youth to learn our accelerated program of SDG data collection, mapping, analytics and monitoring, drone operations, and Tourism and Creative Industries micro, small and medium enterprise support and market access.

Our model delivers faster, more accurate verifiable representative data using free and open source tools and low-cost equipment. Training local communities means expensive consultant, equipment, software and travel costs and carbon footprints are greatly reduced, and enable continuous and consistent monitoring while increasing local daily wages by 100 to 1700 percent.

CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. The Open Knowledge Kit program is supported under their gender and digital divide Digital Innovation Initiative.

Read CGIAR’s blog post.

Mapping & Data Science Workshop

On Wednesday, October 21 at 10pm PHT | 14:00 UTC, join our free online mapping and data science workshop with the Asian Pathways Research Lab at the Asian Institute of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Policy, University of Toronto. Hear Ivan Gayton’s efforts leading Médecins Sans Frontières|Doctors Without Borders, co-founding the Missing Maps project, and his current work with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap. Celina Agaton shares her global experiences in open data, civic technology, gender, and cultural preservation to regenerate supply chains.

International Women’s Day 2020

OpenStreetMap’s free mapping tools and open data are critical for development that reflects the central role of women in achieving community prosperity. Learn more at our free International Women’s Day webinar on March 10 (1pm UTC, 9pm PHT, 8am EST) Register at http://bit.ly/IWDHOSM #IWD2020

International Women’s Day 2020

This year, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap invited me and my colleagues, Nathalie Sidibe of OpenStreetMap Mali and Jinal Foflia of Grab Asia to discuss the importance of mapping and open data to women during a webinar for International Women’s Day.

I’m excited to connect with more female leaders and mapping groups and to learn about exciting projects to strengthen our communities. Follow female mapping news with the #WhenWomenMap hashtag.

Celebrating Geography Week

Para sa pagmamahal sa bayan! For the love of country! We’re celebrating Geography Week around the world with a free mapping party on Saturday, November 16 from 9am to 5pm at UP Ayala Technohub. Everyone is welcome, families with children aged 10 years old and up!

Tickets are free with registration, Grab discount coupons are available while they last at https://mapphnov16.eventbrite.com

* Learn to map

* Meet amazing mapping communities

* Hear talks on why mapping is a great career

* Win great prizes! Shop in our palengke to help local farmers and artisans

Join our mapping sessions :

• Learn the basics of how to map using OpenStreetMap
• Join GeoLadies PH and Mental Health aWHEREness to help map breastfeeding, LGBTQ, health and mental health services
• Learn how to use drones
• Map tourism sites, restaurants and learn Wikipedia
• Validate Facebook Artificial Intelligence roads
• Join or start a Youthmappers community

Mindanao: Agriculture, Gender Gap and Logistics Mapping

My Canadian consulting company is currently mapping the Mindanao region to support rural farming, gender, healthcare and artisan communities. The Mindanao region grows almost half the country’s food, yet remains the poorest population, with many communities at 30-70% poverty incidence. War and conflict have increased in the region in recent years, with security and safety concerns for girls and women. Our goal is to help map rural agriculture, logistics and the gender gap to plan improved infrastructure with long-term impacts on health, well-being and livelihood for girls, women, Indigenous Peoples and farm families.

This is a coordinated effort across international agencies, government, business, non-profits, academe and community leaders. Our study results will lead the prioritization and coordinated planning between international funding agencies and private investment in the second phase of this initiative.

We’ll be working with communities to teach them to map and using geospatial technologies to rapidly analyze infrastructure gaps for validation with local communities.

Local YouthMappers chapters at Far Eastern University and University of the Philippines Resilience Institute, Map the Philippines, George Washington University Humanitarian Mapping Society, and USAID GeoCenter are generously supporting the validation of these tasks.

Women’s Day: Mapping the Gender Gap

For International Women’s Day and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), Missing Maps, YouthMappers, American Red Cross, U.S. Department of State‘s MapGive program, and the USAID – US Agency for International Development GeoCenter hosting a mapathon in Washington, D.C. and are helping map our Mindanao tasks for gender gap mapping in agriculture, healthcare and artisan communities. Please help us complete these tasks to reduce the security risk to our field teams during the election season: https://www.youthmappers.org/projects #WhenWomenMap #EM2030Index #GenderGap #MapPH

Mapping Party for Mindanao

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Para sa pagmamahal sa bayan! Alang sa paghigugma sa atong nasud! Thanks to your amazing efforts, in two days we were able to complete 120,500 map changes! Keep up the good work, we can do this!

Many thanks to Youthmappers in Bangladesh, Washington and France for joining us remotely!

This Valentine’s weekend, 40 participants joined our mapping party on Saturday, February 16 to help map Mindanao to support rural farming, gender gap, healthcare and artisan communities. MapPH and Youthmappers Philippines chapters at Far Eastern Universtiy Technology Junior Philippine Computer Society and UP Resilience Institute welcomed attendees to

* Learn how to map with OpenStreetMap, the Wikipedia model of maps
* Meet mappers from the public and private sector
* Join the international humanitarian mapping community
* Won prizes of free mobile data for a month and enjoyed free pizza

Learn about OpenStreetMap at https://youtu.be/suk8uRpIBQw and learn more at https://learnosm.org/

Learn how to use iD Editor to edit maps https://learnosm.org/en/beginner/id-editor/

Learn how to be a humanitarian mapping volunteer with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap https://youtu.be/8wdzGKmZu-k

Learn how to help with humanitarian mapping tasks https://learnosm.org/en/coordination/tasking-manager3/

Learn about the World Bank DRIVER Road Safety Platform https://www.roadsafety.gov.ph

#MapPHMindanao #SDGs #GenderGap #EM2030Index #OpenStreetMap #hotosm

The Do No Digital Harm Initiative

I’ve just joined the board for the Do No Digital Harm Initiative, the world’s first on-call, deployable team mandated to address the ethical, security, and design challenges faced by humanitarian actors supporting highly vulnerable civil society groups, crisis-affected populations and the humanitarian practitioners who serve them. Our mandate is to reduce harm resulting from information activities and digital services deployed in natural disaster and protracted conflict environments.

Celebrating Jane’s Walk Ortigas

*Update* The photos are up! Come see them on Facebook.

It’s time for another Jane’s Walk! On May 13 from 8:30 to noon we’ll explore the dynamic Ortigas neighborhood, learn about the exciting new Ortigas Greenways parks, bike hub and walkways, and finish off with homemade halo-halo at Purple Yam Estancia. Hear amazing stories from Paulo Alcazaren and Amy Besa. Children and leashed pets are welcome! #Janeswalk #mapPH

Highlights include learning about the upcoming Ortigas Greenways Project, where new elevated walkways, three parks and a bike hub connect from the Ortigas MRT to Robinsons Galleria and Meralco Avenue. The Ortigas Greenways is a partnership with the Department of Transportation and Asian Development Bank to enhance walkability and recreation in the Ortigas business district.

Meet at 8:30am at the main gates of Saint Pedro Poveda College on Poveda Street. Tour ends at noon at Purple Yam Estancia at Capitol Commons where homemade halo-halo will be available for P240. Stay and explore the Katipunan Weekend Market until 10pm.

Tour stops include:
Saint Pedro Poveda College
Asian Development Bank – ADB
Ortigas Greenways
Lopez Museum and Library
Purple Yam Estancia

This Jane’s Walk is led by
Architect and heritage advocate Paulo Alcazaren
Purple Yam restaurant co-owner and culinary heritage advocate Amy Besa
ADB Senior Transport Specialist Lloyd Wright
MapPH.com founder Celina Agaton

Dress for summer walking and bring water, sunscreen, hats and umbrellas! Children and leashed pets are welcome.

What is a Jane’s Walk?
Jane Jacobs believed in walkable neighbourhoods and cities planned for and by people. Her principles continue to guide urban planning principles today. We started Jane’s Walk in 2006 to honour her life and ideas. More than 200 cities around the world host walks every year. Learn more at
http://janeswalk.org/information/about/janes-walk/

SIX Wayfinder

 

London calling! Thrilled to be heading to SIX – Social Innovation Exchange Wayfinder: Mapping the Way Forward For The Next Decade of Social Innovation. I’ll be sharing our Map the Philippines story and delivering a talk on the future of development session with 160 leaders from 34 countries.

7th International Conference of Crisis Mappers in Manila

I’m thrilled to be co-organizing the 7th International Conference of Crisis Mappers in Manila on September 28-30, 2016. The week of October 1st sends our participants to field sites across the Philippines to connect with local communities and collaborate on mapping tasks.

This year’s theme is Building Resiliency: Inclusive Innovations in Crisis Mapping. The Philippines is the third most disaster prone country in the world and the most at risk from climate change. Its geography is spread over 7,000 islands, which are home to 12 ethnic groups and over 100 tribal groups. In contrast, it is also the fasted growing economy in Asia and our communities are one of the top users of social media in the world. In spite of our many challenges, Filipinos maintain a remarkably resilient and warm culture, even Anthony Bourdain dedicated a show episode to our resounding spirit.

Everyone is welcome to attend the conference, we hope to have a good representation of all the sectors providing their insights and feedback. We hope many Filipinos will participate, and we are offering a 3-day conference rate of P2500 to improve accessibility and will open scholarship opportunities as well.

Registration will open soon, please stay tuned.

 

ADB’s Innovation for Resilient and Smart Communities

MapPH was invited to present our national OpenStreetMap resilience mapping program during the Improving Mobility, Improving Resilience at the Asian Development Bank’s Innovation for Resilient and Smart Communities event on May 20, 2015.

Celebrating National Heritage Month and 10 years of Jane’s Walks in Historic Quiapo District

On May 7, Manila joined 200 cities in celebrating the 10th anniversary of Jane’s Walk and what would have been Jane Jacob’s 100th birthday. Jane’s Walks began in 2006 to commemorate the life of one of the most influential figures in urban planning. Jane Jacobs championed a community-based approach to designing cities, including the seminal concepts of pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, parks, and retail design in building vibrant local economies. She helped derail plans to convert core downtown neighbourhoods into highways in both Toronto and New York. May also marks National Heritage Month, providing opportunities to raise awareness of heritage buildings in need of preservation.

In partnership with Far Eastern University, Map the Philippines hosted a walking tour of historic Quiapo district attended by over a hundred participants. Labelled #mapPHquiapo, the tour included 125 year-old San Sebastian Basilica, led by Conservation Foundation Director, Tina Paterno who detailed the rich history of the country’s only all metal building and whose interior finishes are still original from 1891. The Basilica’s steel and cast iron were forged in Belgium and shipped to Manila in 9 steamships, and then curiously painted to look like stone. Its painters were the country’s leading art school which eventually evolved to become the University of the Philippines Fine Arts. Another original feature is its intricately painted German stained glass by Heinrich Oidtmann, whose work is part of major museum collections around the world.

From the church, Kapitbahayan sa Kalye Bautista’s Peter Rallos and Far Eastern University Guides Fatima Mae Luna and Francis Calderon led participants through historical Hidalgo street lined with 300 year-old homes and Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, home of composer Julio Nakpil and heroes of the 1896 revolution. The tour ended at Far Eastern University’s living art space, recognized by UNESCO for successful heritage preservation. Its five Art Deco buildings were designed by Pablo Antonio, Sr., National Artist for Architecture.

From the walking tour showcasing Quiapo’s past and present, the event transitioned to a mapping party for Quiapo’s future at the modern Far Eastern University Institute of Technology 17th floor hall overlooking the city of Manila. Participants learned the basics of neighborhood mapping on OpenStreetMap, how to report heritage protection needs, and how to share photos on free mapping app, Mapillary. Wikimedia Philippines taught participants how to create and edit Wikipedia pages. Local residents and the local fire hall inspector shared concerns regarding fire safety and the lack of adequate sprinkler and hydrants to protect heritage sites and affected communities, which initiated a separate project to map to identify fire risks in Quiapo.

Jane’s Walk Anniversary: Quiapo

In partnership with Far Eastern University, you’re invited to Map the Philippines at our Quiapo Walking Tour and Mapping Party on May 7th! #mapPHquiapo #mapPH

Join one or both events, everyone is welcome and the event is free!

9:00 – 12:00 Quiapo Neighbourhood Walking Tour. Meet at San Sebastian Church steps.
12:00 – 5:00 Mapping Party at the Rooftop of FEU’s Institute of Technology
Click on the green Register button above to secure your spot! You’ll receive more details and tips after registration.

During the Walking Tour you’ll hear stories behind the color and character of the Quiapo district, the former downtown of Manila. The Walking Tour is part of the 10th Anniversary of Jane’s Walks taking place in over 150 cities around the world. Learn more about the tour and Jane’s Walk.

Tour stops include:

• Quiapo Market for truly Filipino crafts and their popular lumpia, hopia, noodles and curry stalls.
• San Sebastian Basilica, the only all steel church in Asia, built in Belgium in the late 1880s, fitted with German stained glass and painted beautifully by the arts school which evolved to become UP Fine Arts.
• Historical Hidalgo Street lined with 300 year-old homes and Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, home of heroes of the 1896 revolution.
• Far Eastern University is a living art space, recognized by UNESCO for successful heritage preservation. Its five Art Deco buildings were designed by Pablo Antonio, Sr., National Artist for Architecture.

At the Mapping Party you’ll learn the basics of neighborhood mapping on OpenStreetMap, the Wikipedia of maps.

• Share your photos on Mapillary to help highlight Quiapo heritage preservation and community needs.
• Help update maps and create Wikipedia entries for the historical places and spaces of Quiapo.
• Learn how to map and report community needs.

* We will have computer stations available.

Map The Philippines and Mozilla GeoWeek Mapping Party

The week of November 15-21 is Geography Awareness Week and to help celebrate, Map the Philippines and Mozilla Community Space Manila are hosting an OpenStreetMap GeoWeek mapping party on November 17 from 1-6pm.

We believe maps and community driven mapping projects can help visualize the needs and opportunities in our neighbourhoods. Maps can serve as the connecting point to coordinate and track efforts across government, business, NGOs and community groups. Which is why we support OpenStreetMap, a free and open source mapping platform supported by a community of over 2.3 million mappers that contribute data about roads, hospitals, restaurants, coffee shops and more from around the world. Learn more about becoming a mapping volunteer.

Learn about OpenStreetMap and how mapping helps visualize community needs and opportunities in disaster, livelihood, arts, heritage preservation and food security.

If you’d like to learn how to map, please bring your own laptop, tablet or GPS.
The event is free and everyone is welcome! Introductions will begin from 1:00-2:00pm.

Please register at http://geoweekmnl2015.eventbrite.com

Hashtag #mapPHL #osmgeoweek
November 17, 2015

1:00 to 6:00pm
Mozilla Community Space Manila (MozSpaceMNL)
Roof Deck, Molave Building,
2231 Chino Roces Avenue (Pasong Tamo)
Makati City, Philippines 1233

Mobile Number:
+63.905.398.4499

Map and Directions

Map the Philippines

Map the Philippines is an international initiative to help provide free, comprehensive and accessible maps of the Philippines. We teach local government, business, NGOs, students and citizens how to map their community assets and visualize needed infrastructure and investment for economic and tourist development, and disaster and community resilience. We collect and share data to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals through real-time data collection, coordination and monitoring of cross sector efforts. Our mapping partners include the U.S. State Department’s MapGive program, OpenStreetMap, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, OpenStreetMap Philippines and the Digital Humanitarian Network.

Our goal is to help create more sustainable infrastructure and to provide a space for better cross sector collaboration, transparency and accountability for our communities. Our free online platform launches in early 2016 and provides opportunities for citizens and organizations to share their programs, services, and best practices, and to identify funding needs and connect with other stakeholders.

Map the Philippines’ partners include Making All Voices Count, a consortium of the U.K Department for International Development (DFID), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Open Society Foundations (OSF) and Omidyar Network (ON), Hivos, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and Ushahidi.

Map the Philippines launches in the summer of 2016.

 

 

2015 USAID AidData Fellows

 

I’ve had the pleasure of hosting five USAID AidData Fellows from June to August 2015 here in Manila to work on several of my Map the Philippines initiatives. This is the first time fellows have been hosted in the Philippines, and we hope to host more fellows in the future. The AidData program helps improve the planning, tracking and delivery of aid of by using maps to visualize where aid has been delivered to a nation. In many cases, aid reporting data tracks the announcement of aid being promised to a nation but doesn’t track the flow down to the region, province, municipality, barangay or village. The process of creating these maps starts with geocoding, where a program or service is assigned a geographic location so that it can be placed on a map. Plotting these locations helps create maps that visualize patterns in the delivery of aid against poverty, disaster risk, hunger and other measures that can help fine tune programming and identify whether there are gaps and overlaps in the flow of aid within and organization, and across sectors. Government, NGOs, Business and citizens provide many programs and services to help communities, but often work independently, and in silos, so mapping can provide opportunities for better coordination, collaboration and monitoring of aid.

 

 

So far the Fellows have joined me on several community engagements across Manila and Leyte, meeting mayors, students and other community leaders, faced challenges with contacting multiple government agencies for access to data and traveled hours to remote areas with limited road infrastructure for first hand experience on the importance of mapping and open data policies for better planning and accountability across public and private sectors. They’ll compile a summary of their work here by August, stay tuned here for the final report.

The fellows are here until August 12th, and are available to provide a complimentary 1-3 hour presentation or half day geocoding workshop to your organization. Here’s more background on their presentation.

Contact me for more details.

Join Making All Voices Count Innovation Showcase

The Making All Voices Count team will be in Manila for the #Tech4Resilience Pitching Competition on July 8 at Far Eastern University’s Institute of Technology. If you have a disaster or community resilient program or technology, apply to join the Innovation Showcase and meet the Making All Voices Count team. Full details are below. Apply now >>

Making All Voices Count is an international initiative that contributes towards effective governance and accountability by enabling citizen engagement and open, responsive government in 12 countries in Africa and Asia. They nurture innovative approaches to strengthening citizen engagement and government accountability. They are supported by supported by the U.K Department for International Development (DFID), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Open Society Foundations (OSF) and Omidyar Network (ON).

INNOVATION SHOWCASE: 

Initiatives on Disaster Resilience and Response in the Philippines
Doing some interesting work on disaster resilience and response in the Philippines? APPLY today to share your initiatives at the Innovation Showcase on July 8th 2015 at the Far Eastern University and come meet the Making All Voices Count team!
Making All Voices Count is a 12 country programme with the goals of promoting transparency, fighting corruption, empowering marginalized citizens, and harnessing the power of new technologies to make government more effective and accountable.

One of our main program themes for the Philippines is supporting initiatives that use technology and innovation to strengthen disaster resilience and response and engage government in doing so. We would like to get to know you and your work!

Only 20 showcase spots available so please apply ASAP through this form https://goo.gl/S2jRdB today!

Philippines #Tech4Resilience Competition

I’m partnered with Making All Voices Count on this Philippines #Tech4Resilience Challenge. Anyone can apply!  Finalists will be presenting their pitches at my Map the Philippines event June 24, please save the date.
The deadline is on June 17. Good luck!

 

After Typhoon Haiyan: Disaster and Community Resiliency

OpenStreetMap Philippines Workshop in Batangas

Under the OpenRoads initiative, the World Bank is supporting the government of the Philippines in advancing a set of policies and tools to improve strategic local road infrastructure for inclusive growth. The starting point for financing and implementation of better local road networks is a strategic map.

OpenStreetMap Philippines conducted a 2-day OpenStreetMap workshop, with SkyEye drone mapping, community consultations and the Local Government Units of Tanauan and Malvar, Batangas. A follow up visit and additional mapping events and tools are planned soon.

Update: our drone imagery is available on CC-BY license on the OpenAerial platform.

View the photo gallery on Facebook >>

Learn more:

OpenRoads
http://openroads.ph/

OpenStreetMap Philippines
http://www.openstreetmap.org/

Map the Philippines
http://celinaagaton.com/openstreetmaps-10th-anniversary-party/

Get Walking! Jane’s Walk May 1-3

I was lucky enough to be Jane Jacob’s neighbour in Toronto and am happy to now be helping organize Jane’s Walk in Manila, and hopefully other cities for the now annual Jane’s Walk on May 1-3. It’ s a terrific way to spend the day exploring the city and learning about the rich stories from our neighbourhoods.

Jane’s Walk is a movement of free, citizen-led walking tours inspired by Jane Jacobs. The walks get people to tell stories about their communities, explore their cities, and connect with neighbours.

Stay tuned for more details!

Learn more about Jane’s Walks taking place all over the world >> http://janeswalk.org/

 

See you at RightsCon Manila 2015

I’m thrilled to have been invited by RightsCon to design and lead a disaster simulation at their 2015 conference in Manila. RightsCon is a premier event on internet freedom and the future of the internet. I’ll be presenting how our tools and programs begin with disaster response but are designed to help build community resiliency year round through an integrated network connecting cross sector stakeholders and citizens with their government – centered largely around mapping, open data and citizen reporting.

Our session will take place on March 25 from 1:30-2:45pm at the Crown Plaza Manila Galleria Hotel. Register here.

Preparing for the Next Haiyan: Utilizing Technology to Transform Disaster Response

From crisis to community, this session explores innovations in disaster response in the Philippines from Typhoon Haiyan and beyond. The panelists, covering sectors as diverse as telecom industry to citizen media, will share their technology-driven approaches to rebuilding communities following Typhoon Haiyan and to addressing community resiliency all-year-round. Cross-sector data mapping, drones to map and verify citizen reports, new sustainable farming practices, anti-poaching, and internet access technologies are some of the innovations being developed in partnership with local communities. These tools help form a sustainable infrastructure to identify and prioritize local community needs and high-risk areas, and to share best practices across the country.

Moderator

1. Celina Agaton
Managing Director
Cross Sector Mapping|Map the Philippines

Panelists

2. Gil Francis G. Arevalo
Communicating with Communities Officer
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

3. Felino Castro V
Director III, Information and Communications Technology Management Service
Department of Social Welfare and Development, The Philippines

4. Darwin Flores
Vice President
Community Partnerships
Smart Communications

5. Matthew Cua
CEO, Founder
SkyEye UAV

6. Tanya Zaldarriaga
Program Officer for Membership
CodeNGO

9. Aivon Guanco
Humanitarian Accountability Manager
World Vision

10. Neil Barsch
Fulbright Scholar
Hapinoy Social Enterprise

11. Denise Celdran
Citizen Group

Many thanks to the conference sponsors for making this opportunity possible.

 

Launching Netsquared Manila

Coming soon…Netsquared Manila! We’re bringing all kinds of tech tool goodness to support the wonderful NGO community in Manila, and to connect us with over 80 Netsquared cities worldwide. Stay tuned for more updates! Netsquared is the face to face social purpose tech community meetup of Techsoup Global – a program providing free and discounted software and tools to NGOs around the world.

Bogota Chamber of Commerce

I consult as the Community Engagement Director for Don Tapscott’s Open Cities initiative. Open Cities is an international think tank that works to transform municipalites into smart, connected cities for the 21st century.

In 2012, the Bogota Chamber of Commerce engaged us to identify key priorities and engagement strategies during a tumultuous time. Their beloved mayor had completed his two term limit, and the current mayor, along with his brother were on their way to jail for corruption charges.

Don Tapscott writes about our experience in the excerpt below. Read the full article in the Huffington Post.

Around the world our cities are in desperate need of rejuvenation and transformation. Elected officials are scrambling to equip their cities for the 21st century, talking about creating “open,” “networked,” and “smart” cities.

The problems are legion. Mexico City is now one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Megacities such as Sao Paulo and Johannesburg are straining to the point of paralysis from population influx, lack of infrastructure, traffic congestion, pollution and crime.

Many cities in the United States grew rapidly after World War II, but now have dysfunctional urban centers. By separating where we live, work and shop, cities have been divided into downtowns that become ghost towns at night, suburbia where the commute is brutal and the mall where a car is required for all shopping. Detroit has lost more than half of its population and large parts of the city have become a wasteland, populated by wild animals. The median house price is under $10,000.

Fortunately the digital revolution provides a powerful new platform for the transformation of the city. In areas ranging form public safety and transportation to more transparent government operations, the Internet is enabling a new kind of 21st century city.

However, everywhere local government, business and civil society leaders are struggling with the challenges of making change happen. There is a lot of excitement but progress is uneven.

Surprisingly it is a city in the emerging economies that may have discovered a key to success — Bogota the capital of the South American Country of Colombia. And it turns out the best way to transform a city for the digital age is to use those same digital tools to engage the population in reinventing their own municipality.

The beleaguered city has been beset by crime and corruption, but recently residents have become optimistic that improvements are possible. On October 31, Bogota residents elected Gustavo Petro as mayor. He replaced the previous mayor, Samuel Moreno, who had been suspended from office in early May 2011 after charges of bid rigging and accepting kickbacks.

During Moreno’s regime, the city’s coffers had been depleted by massive expenditures in a public transit system. Relatively little work had been completed for the large amounts of money spent. In the wake of the corrupt Moreno mayoralty, there was a crisis of government and a political vacuum. Huge changes were required but it was unclear who would take the lead in achieving it.

The Bogota Chamber of Commerce had been a relatively strong and active organization in the city for many years. Under the leadership of a new CEO Consuelo Caldas, the Chamber wanted to take a more active role in the city’s economic and social development.

With a municipal election scheduled for the end of October, the Chamber saw an opportunity to challenge the mayoral candidates with ideas and proposals to fix the city. But rather than doing the back room lobbying that characterizes municipal politics, it took a different approach. It decided to engage the citizens of Bogota in a process to reinvent their city.

I was fortunate to participate in this process as an adviser, and from my perspective it was an extraordinary exercise that is rich with lessons for anyone wanting to help their own city. The goal was to encourage local businesses, community leaders and citizens to become involved in the city’s affairs.The campaign was called “Set the Hearbeat of Bogota” (HACEMOS LATIR A BOGOTÁ — HLB)

Read the full article in the Huffington Post.

Help the UN Tag Tweets for Typhoon Ruby

The UN has activated Micromappers to help tag tweets for Typhoon Ruby. In just one click, you can help classify tweets about typhoon damage, provided humanitarian aid, and requests for help. Micromappers helps the UN and other humanitarian aid groups assess typhoon damage and prioritize help more quickly.

Learn more about Micromappers >>

OpenStreetMap’s 10th Anniversary

Come Join Our Celebrations for OpenStreetMap’s 10th Anniversary!

* Learn about mapping * Enjoy our drone showcase * Eat cupcakes! *

Everyone is welcome! Twitter, Instagram and Facebook Hashtag #mapPHL

Mind Museum Outdoor Canopy
J. Y. Campos Park, 3rd Ave, Taguig
Thursday December 4th 11am to 2pm
Enjoy snacks and drinks
FREE

Learn more >>

Help Spread the Word! Download the Flyer

OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. It is supported and updated by 1.7 million registered users worldwide. During the Typhoon Yolanda response, as in other disasters, OpenStreetMap was widely used by the local and international aid community for its accuracy and accessibility with sharing and transferring data.

We want to help map the Philippines through free mapping workshops, citizen reporting and crowdsourced data. We’re creating mapping networks with local community leaders, colleges, government, business and NGOs to help empower Filipinos from across the sectors to collaborate together to map our communities. Our first step is to create a base layer map with roads, rivers and buildings, next we can then add additional layers such as needed infrastructure and social programming like disaster risk and preparedness, food security, health and education needs by location. We’re also bringing innovative and accessible internet access solutions and communications tools to the communities we partner with.

Learn about our exciting mapping projects and how you help become a citizen reporter with just a few clicks!

Please register so we can stay in touch with our mapping news and projects in the Philippines.

We thank our generous supporters:

              

Map the Philippines

We’re partnering with local community leaders, colleges, government, business and NGOs to host OpenStreetMap workshops to help empower Filipinos from across the sectors to work together to help map the Philippines.

OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world and is supported and updated by 1.7 million registered users worldwide. During the Typhoon Yolanda response, as in other disasters, OpenStreetMap was widely used by the local and international aid community for its accuracy and accessibility with sharing and transferring data. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap community was critical in providing much needed imagery for unmapped areas devastated by Typhoon Yolanda.

Even businesses like Foursquare, Munch Punch, Craigslist and Mapquest also use OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap is a free, open data and open source platform, mapped by the community, for the community.

Our first step is to create a base layer map with roads, rivers and buildings mapped out, then we can then add additional layers like needed infrastructure and social programming like disaster risk and preparedness, health and education needs by location. We’re planning on deploying mapping kits with laptops, GPS and other tools needed for communities to continue updating their maps after our training workshop.

Our Goals:
1. To complete the mapping of the Philippines for its many diverse communities.
2. To have accurate mapping data ready and available for ongoing and future disaster, infrastructure and community needs.
3. To grow the current Philippine OpenStreetMap community to help update our maps.

We’ll be making some exciting announcements at our OpenStreetMap 10th Anniversary Party at the Mind Museum on December 4th from 11am to 2pm. I hope you can join us for our drone showcase, mapping demos and cupcakes!

Netsquared: Social Tech for Social Good

I co-organized Netsquared Toronto, one of 80 Netsquared city chapters in cities around the world. I was also a global advisor to Netsquared headquarters which is based in San Francisco. Netsquared makes it easy, meaningful, and fun for people and organizations to get the information, visibility and support they need to maximize technology for social good.

It was during this time, during Netsquared’s N2Y4 Mobile Challenge where I learned about crisismapping through Ushahidi and citizen reporting through SeeClickFix.

Here’s an excerpt on my organizer profile below. Read the full profile at Netsquared.

Every month, the NetSquared Community comes together offline at Net Tuesday events around the world to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and collaborate to help the local community. Our local organizers are volunteers dedicated to helping create local opportunities for learning, sharing and using technology to make a difference. In this Organizer Spotlight series we bring you interviews with organizers from around the world.

We’re happy to introduce: Celina Agaton!

Celina is a co-organizer of the Net Tuesday group in Toronto, ON, Canada. You can check out her profile and ways to connect on the Net Tuesday Organizer Team page. Are you in Toronto? Connect to the Net Tuesday group here!

Tell us who you are in less than 140 characters:
Celina Agaton was born and raised in Asia and studied studied psychology, equity studies and photography at the University of Toronto. In 2008, after nine years in marketing and advertising, she joined Volunteer Toronto, a government and United Way charity that helps people find great places to volunteer and supports 400 non-profits in Toronto. She speaks on social innovation and web 2.0 and has published articles in the Canadian Journal for Volunteer Resource Management. She developed a non-profit membership program that provides 21 benefits with community-friendly and sustainable organizations, and created Volunteer Toronto’s Free Movie Night, a community partnership program that screens free social change films.

How do you spend your time when you’re not organizing Net Tuesdays?
I’m working on some exciting projects with Don Tapscott and will be a panelist at the Social Tech Training for Net Change Week. I’m also excited to launch The Great Neighbourhood Food Drive, which is kind of like a food drive 2.0: part neighbourhood exploration, part food drive, part awareness campaign and part online media exhibit. All the tools will be free, replicable and scalable for other communities, so I can’t wait to share that.

What inspired you to organize local Net Tuesday events in your community?
Wanting to spread the word on the awesome social tech community in Toronto.

What’s the hardest part of the job?
We all seem to be launching several projects, so it’s been very busy. Social tech’s really taking off in Toronto, so it’s exciting to be part of the gravitational force.

Read the full profile at Netsquared.

Google ICT4Peace Crisis Mapping Fellowship

I’m grateful to be one of ten fellows selected to attend the 5th International Conference of Crisis Mappers (ICCM) in Nairobi, Kenya from November 18-22. The ICCM brings together the most engaged practitioners, scholars, software developers and policymakers at the cutting edge of crisis mapping and humanitarian technology.

I’ve been volunteering as a crisis mapper since the Haiti earthquake, and have helped with the Japan earthquake, Typhoon Pablo and the recent Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines. Having grown up in Jakarta and Manila, the cycle of devastation, international aid and corruption has been all too familiar. With the power of social media and the tools of crisis mapping, I believe we can develop a platform to track aid not only when it’s pledged in a press release, but through to when it is delivered at the village level. If citizens can participate in sending social media reports of aid delivery delays, then we can identify and track issues and the NGO, government and private sectors can collaborate more quickly and effectively to help communities.

A large part of the Philippines’ emergency response efforts are organized by a robust network of private citizens and their network of fixers who are able to act quickly through email, text and social media, and part of what I’m trying to do is help get their reports included in relief tracking initiatives. Through this network we have been able to update the disaster maps for under mapped and underserved areas. I’ve also connected with the Ateneo de Manila University who are currently using drones to map these areas, and am looking into the use of drones to verify data on aid delivery delays.

We’re also looking to fund the set up of a radio and SMS network in partnership with news networks to help communicate with remote communities.

I’m currently in Manila to help develop and launch this citizen reporting platform, and with anything else I can for the next little while. If you’re interested in donating to help Typhoon Yolanda victims, Gawad Kalinga and Tao Philippines are doing excellent work.

 

A Heart to Art Chat at the Art Gallery of Ontario

A Heart to Art Chat was an unconference-style event I developed to co-create ideas for the Art Gallery of Ontario. 70 community leaders and participants from the arts, culture and events communities came together in the beautiful new 35,000 square foot Weston Family Learning Centre. Over a six month process, I led the strategic planning, digital and community strategy for the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and currently sit as an advisor to the AGO’s Education Committee.

I am currently developing a plan to create a sustainable infrastructure for youth and the arts through museum, NGO, government, and business partnerships and crowdfunding.

View the full gallery on Facebook.

Learn about the Weston Family Learning Centre at http://www.ago.net/weston-family-learning-centre.

Follow the AGO on Twitter at http://twitter.com/agotoronto

Photos courtesy Rannie Turingan Photography http://www.rannieturingan.com/

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Volunteer Toronto

During my two years as Communications Director at Volunteer Toronto, I led and developed a training curriculum on social media, cross sector collaboration and volunteer engagement for non-profit organizations. I created an online process to enhance the matching of non-profit needs with corporate volunteer interests and established a program to provide low cost and free technology tools and discounted program resources to support Volunteer Toronto’s community of 500 non-profit organizations. I created Volunteer Toronto’s ChariTee campaign which was sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, George Brown School of Design students, and youth social enterprise, Me to We Style.

I conceptualized and launched Volunteer Toronto’s Free Movie Night, a social change film series to bring together funders, non-profits, business, government and volunteers, and to connect them to social innovation events and collaboration opportunities. These free movie nights brought together audiences of 300 people at each screening.

I collaborated with volunteers to create Volunteer Connect, a Facebook application for volunteer opportunities, which was endorsed by the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.

I hosted Volunteer Toronto’s annual event, Toronto TimeRaiser, an event to connect people in their 20s and 30s to volunteer opportunities.

I also created and managed successful e-newsletters, social media content and campaigns. Highlights include using social media to recruit 200 volunteers in two weeks to attend an 8am volunteer program at Toronto Zoo.

Volunteer Connect Facebook App

In 2009, I worked with volunteers to develop Volunteer Connect, Toronto’s first Facebook application to connect volunteers to opportunities. Volunteer Connect was endorsed by Ontario’s Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration’s Youth Challenge Program.

National Volunteer Week ChariTee Design Contest

I created the ChariTee T-Shirt Design Contest in partnership with George Brown’s School of Design and social enterprise, Me to We Style to commemorate National Volunteer Week in Toronto in 2009. George Brown’s art foundations class produced t-shirt designs as part of their course curriculum, and we opened up the voting to the public to select the winning design.

Voting closed on Friday, April 10th with over 10,000 votes for the winning ChariTee design by Tlell Davidson. Her winning design was printed by Me to We Style and showcased on their site.

On April 15th, the ChariTee Design Contest exhibit and winner announcement took place at George Brown’s School of Design art gallery. Volunteer Toronto, Me to We Style and the School of Design awarded certificates and prizes for the top 20 designs, finalists and contest winner.

Volunteer Toronto’s Movie Night: Us Now

Us Now was the second film screening for the social change film series I created for Volunteer Toronto.

Volunteer Toronto, through generous partnerships with nGenera Insight and Bloor Cinema hosted a free screening of Us Now, a UK film about how the internet inspires participation and collaboration in communities.

After the screening, Don Tapscott, authour and technology strategist, and Christopher Wulff from Social Planning Toronto hosted a discussion and audience Q&A.

Twitter feeds from the event:http://tiny.cc/UsNowTweets

Event community partners:
http://www.ngenera.com/
http://www.bloorcinema.com/
http://www.getinvolved.ca/
http://www.tigweb.org/
http://www.rabble.ca/

Volunteer Toronto helps people find great places to volunteer, and provides training and resources to support a community of 400 member non-profit organizations. http://www.volunteertoronto.ca/

David Suzuki Foundation Ambassadors

I’m one of 10 Toronto ambassadors for David Suzuki Foundation’s At Work Program. We help organizations save cash, time and the planet by offering tips and tools to green the workplace.

Down our free tool kit, join the smart commuter challenge and take David Suzuki to work. Learn more about how to green your workplace with David Suzuki Foundation.

Toronto Non-Profit Open Data Launch

Listen to the audio recording of the event on rabble.ca

On May 5, 2009, I created an event to launch open data to the Toronto Non-Profit Community with Toronto Mayor David Miller. Toronto was one of the pioneering cities to first launch open data. I screened Us Now, a documentary on the power of the open web, and led a panel discussion with Mozilla Foundation Executive Director, Mark Surman, MaRS Discovery District Director of Social Entrepreneurship Allyson Hewitt, Family Assoc. for Mental Health Everywhere (FAME) Executive Director Christine Cooper, ChangeCamp Co-founder Mark Kuznicki, and Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) Online Capacity Development Coordinator Marco Campana.

Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike.

Lifted from the Open Data Handbook, the key benefits to open data include:

• Availability and Access: the data must be available as a whole and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably by downloading over the internet. The data must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form.
• Re-use and Redistribution: the data must be provided under terms that permit re-use and redistribution including the intermixing with other datasets.
• Universal Participation: everyone must be able to use, re-use and redistribute – there should be no discrimination against fields of endeavour or against persons or groups. For example, ‘non-commercial’ restrictions that would prevent ‘commercial’ use, or restrictions of use for certain purposes (e.g. only in education), are not allowed.

Open data formats enable the interoperability of datasets across various operating systems, and tax payer funded research should be saved in open data format to ensure its use and access by the public.