This blog post is the first of a blog series on anti-corruption and transparency mapping by Ushahidi’s Heather Leson. The series will discuss best practices and feature some of the strategies to connect policy and action with online savvy. Ushahidi’s community strategy is aimed to connect topical mappers to build and learn together. Resources and Research will live on the Wiki pages dedicated to Anti-Corruption and Transparency.
Ushahidians have been mapping corruption as either a category or their whole map mission since we launched. Online reporting via crisis maps of various shades and creeds are well known. Mapping anti-corruption and transparency actions is really a long-tail project. These slow burn projects take tremendous amounts of time and outreach to sustain. We’ve recognized a number of these as Deployments of the Week and included featured blog posts.
Last month I had the honour to meet and learn with Transparency International’s (TI) community at the very successful Speak Up Global event.
Milena Marin is Data and Technology Coordinator at Transparency International . She works with the community of Advocacy and Legal Advice Centers (ALACs). Transparency International is one of a number of NGOs targeting corruption and transparency issues. They started in 1993 and have chapters in over 100 countries. Their mission: A world in which government, politics, business, civil society and the daily lives of people are free of corruption.
From Milena about connecting our communities to support Online Reporting:
How can we support these amazing people who are trying to connect online and offline anti-corruption work? What tools, resources can we make available with our partners? What changes to Ushahidi software should occur to better support their efforts? Well, my first step was to collect as much data about the various mapping projects as possible. This is really a work in progress. I located and reviewed the maps for basic information such as categories and reports. Most of the maps are starter projects or tests. Then, there are the larger more programmatic projects that involve partners, strong mandates and a community. Some of these mapping projects were started by Transparency International ALAC members. Others are by passionate users trying to give voice to their community, their world.
Quick stats about Anti-Corruption Maps:
- Maps reviewed: 28
- Total reports across maps: 6780
- Number of categories used across all the maps: 463
- Country with the most maps: India (3)
- Projects that are using locations as categories for granularity: 4 – Colombia, Brasil, Albania, Kosovo
- Map with the most reports: Zabatak (Egypt), followed by Kallxo (Kosovo) and One De Olho Nas Emendas (Brasil)
Note: Some maps have a number of civil society mandates beyond corruption. There are also election monitoring maps that include “corruption” as a category. These have not been included in this analysis.
- More data: Includes map name, website link, country, number of reports, and category names.
- Global Visuals: I’ve updated some screenshots of Anti-Corruption and Transparency Maps on slideshare. (Part 1 and Part 2)
- The Corruption Mapper community have written a number of blog posts about their work
This blog post was first published on the Ushahidi blog
Connect with us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Add us to your circle on Google +