Crowdsourcing, Constructing and Collaborating : Methods and Social Impacts of Mapping the World Today

Citizens around the world use crowdsourced platforms to hold governments accountable, to fill gaps in infrastructural and municipal services, and to call attention to issues that impact everyday lives, such as sexual violence and environmental injustice.

Crowdsourcing, Constructing and Collaborating brings together individuals and groups engaged in building and sustaining platforms for online collaboration and participation, to explore and reflect on the methods, challenges and potentials of the technology of crowdsourcing, and mapping of social impact. It brings together people directly involved in a range of projects from around the world—I Paid A Bribe, Environmental Justice Atlas, HarassMap, Intolerance Tracker, Visualizing Palestine, and Humanitarian Tracker—to critically reflect on the tactics, methods, challenges and opportunities of crowdsourcing and crowd-mapping as tools for social, environmental and political change.

In an accessible and visually engaging style, it shows how participatory digital media become crucial components of journalistic, scholarly and activist practices, addressing a range of topical challenges, including economic corruption, sexual harassment, political violence and environmental conflict, in diverse geographic contexts.