Crowdsourcing 2.0: Why Putting the Slum on a Map is not Enough for A2J

By Christina Gossmann

There was a time—not too long ago—when informal settlements the size of small cities were basically invisible. Beige-gray fields, intercepted by thin blue lines, signifying water, and several thicker, windy white lines that stood for major roads, would pop up on the computer screen when searching for infamous slums such as “Kibera” on Google Maps. The information void stood in stark contrast to the hundreds of thousands of people living in Kibera, ironically tucked away between some of the city’s most valuable and celebrated resources: the Royal Nairobi Golf Club, Ngong Forest and the Nairobi dam.