Mapathon Keralam; a crowd sourcing mapping initiative on 23rd November 2019 addressing volunteers of National Service Scheme (NSS) who participated from various engineering colleges in Kerala.
Mapathon Keralam is being implemented by Kerala State IT Mission, which has utilised advanced technologies to effectively address the floods in the State. Mapathon Keralam, implemented with the concept of ‘Let Us Make Our Map’, is meant to be implemented the benefits of e-Governance with public participation. Through the Mapathon Keralam, the Government of Kerala aims to create extensive local maps of Kerala including physical infrastructure, natural resources and other information that are useful for planning and other developments.
The free online map, Open Street Map, is used for this mapping event as part of Kerala government policy to strengthen activities focused on free knowledge and Free and Open Source Software. The project is being led by the Kerala State Spatial Data Infrastructure (KSDI) under the Kerala State IT Mission and supported by other institutions such as International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) and National Service Scheme (NSS). As a pre-campaign program, a crowd sourced mapping of government offices in the state was launched called Map My Office was launched with the participation of government employees.
Students under the NSS will be taking leadership in organising local mapping session at various colleges and develop skilled volunteers who can carry out mapping activities. Selected faculties from nearly 80 colleges underwent the master training program and training of colleges. It is expected that more organisations, communities and individuals shall take up this campaign and hold programs of their own developing local maps.
You can map all your locality and it’s minute and detailed information using this platform. The maps are intended to be created online with public participation. Anyone with a computer/mobile phone and an internet connection can participate in Mapathon Keralam. Students, NGOs, governmental, non-governmental organisations, labour organisations and private sector employees can participate in this endeavour. With this kind of mapping, locals can know and mark all the features of their locality. When a person marks their known area, that information will be highly accurate. These maps are being built all over the world with the participation of local people. This mapping will also be useful in the post-flood reconstruction of Kerala.
For more details visit: https://mapathonkeralam.in/