Mapunity (short for MAP for commUNITY) is a social entrepreneurship venture that is creating a Geographic Information System focused on socio-economic change. The company is developing a web based GIS solution that allows specific communities (or groups) to create, organize, manage, analyze and share map-linked information. Mapunity is incubated at IIM Bangalore, and is run by a seven member team. Their platform is targeted at government departments, civil society organizations, teachers, students, social development professionals etc. Intended uses of the system could be community oriented ICT initiatives like urban transport management, energy mapping, biodiversity or water management, public health monitoring platform etc.

Based on open source, the GIS platform allows you to spatially represent different attributes on a GoogleMap. Using it you could answer questions such as- How well are city localities served by public transport? How much property tax is collected in each ward of your city? Which are the most vulnerable areas to the next epidemic of chikungunya? These answers are difficult to grasp if they are merely presented in tabular form. Spatial representation (using interactive maps) can quickly disseminate such information and help in policy advocacy and managerial or administrative decision making.

So how does it work? Users can create their own on-line communities, invite others or join others’ communities (subject to its membership rules). Members of a particular community can all be peers or given various levels of data-access permissions according to some specified hierarchy. A community can keep all or part of its data, private or public. Three kinds of inputs are needed to weave together a community in the system (a) the map itself (typically using GoogleMaps but you can use your own map as well) (b) the geo coded attribute data that has to be laid out spatially (c) membership levels of the community, so that that data sharing follows a particular function & structure.

The entire system is built to be flexible and extensible. Since Mapunity’s GIS platform is potentially useful to many development organizations, it is built so that its application interfaces can be integrated with third party applications. Ashwin Mahesh (Mapunity’s CEO) says that their objective is to create generic software that can be adaptable to the common elements of diverse needs.

Some examples- Mapunity is collaborating with Airtel for rolling out a urban transport information system in Bangalore (snapshot above). This will generate a real time ‘speed map’ of the city, which can be used to estimate travel times between locations, alert road-users to congestion points, and provide dynamic information about alternatives. Another application being developed is the Passenger Information System for the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation; this system will offers route information, expected bus arrival times, and other public transport information through billboards located at bus stops, and also through SMS alerts and requests. Also, check out a sample map (on the left) showing the wind energy development potential in the state of Chattisgarh.