Blank canvas? No more!

We will be concentrating on mapping the Serengeti district around Mugumu during our Triple Mapping Day on May 7th.

Thanks to some nifty tools recently developed in the OSM community, we’ll be able to visualize our impact with OSM analytics!

Playing about with it just now, I discovered that already a noticeable amount of work has been done in 2016, partially thanks to our mapping volunteers!! Blank canvas is already turning into something resembling a map, see for yourself:

Roads before 2016:

and now (4 months into 2016!):

Buildings around Mugumubefore 2016:

and now (4 months into 2016!):

We hope our Mapping Party will paint that into a multitude of colours!

Which team will map the most? Vilnius? London? Dar? 

Join us & be one of the Crowd2Map !

EpiCollect+ platform

Crowd2Map used to be run via EpiCollect+ platform, which allows locals to install an app on smartphones or tablets and register various resources and villages through a simple data collection form. By setting coordinates, attaching a photo and answering a few questions, each point can be registered in minutes.

The data is then sent to the central server, and all the data points can immediately be visualised on a map via the browser:

map view tanzania

In December 2015, Janet took some donated tablets and smartphones to several schools in Tanzania and kicked-off the data collection. Several months past, we already have over 200 points!

[update 2016-04-10] We now have nearly 1500 points on EpiCollect+!

Switching ground mapping to Maps.me app!

Janet is currently travelling and doing important work on the ground in Tanzania- including mapping more essential points of interest, and interacting with our dedicated local mappers!

While there, Janet has discovered the magic of Maps.me app, which allows one to: 1) download OSM maps of the area to your phone; 2) mark points of interest (schools, dispensaries, shops etc.) directly on the map as you go; 3) upload the points directly to OpenStreetMap once you have broadband connection & log in with your OSM username.

Here’s only some of the points Janet mapped in Kibirizi yesterday, which I accessed directly from openstreetmap.org:

kibirizi maps me
Therefore we encourage everyone to switch from collecting data points on EpiCollect+ to Maps.me!

Note that for anyone participating in Mapping Competition in Tanzania, points added to Maps.me will count exactly the same as they did in EpiCollect+ – just let us know your username using this form: http://goo.gl/forms/CufyKMe576.

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Here’s how you add a point via Maps.me:


1. Open the app and click the menu button at the bottom right corner.

2. Click on the  +  icon at the bottom.

3. Drag the map so the  +  location marker is exactly at the location you want to map; click Done at the top right corner.

4. Select the type of point it is (e.g. School, a type of Shop etc.).

To send the points you added to openstreetmap.org, and this is very important!

5. Click on the menu button on the main screen again; then click Settings.

6. Click on Profile.

7. If there are any “Not sent” points, click on the -> icon at the top right corner. You will have to log in with your OpenStreetMap username or register for a new one.

The points will then be sent directly to publicly accessible map, which you can check on openstreetmap.org!