mappingthis

mappingthis is a collaborative mapping platform designed to empower communities to create, edit, and share geospatial data. It emphasizes openness, user-friendly mapping tools, and interoperability with established GIS standards.

Users can create maps by adding points, lines, and polygons; features may include attributes. The system supports real-time collaboration, revision history, change-sets, conflict resolution, basemaps, and offline editing.

Data is organized into projects and layers. Each feature carries geometry in standard coordinate reference system formats and properties. The platform supports common interchange formats such as GeoJSON, KML, and Shapefile, and provides APIs for developers.

Licensing and governance: data created on mappingthis is typically released under open licenses to facilitate reuse, with community moderation and clearly defined roles for mappers, editors, and administrators. Privacy controls allow redaction or restricted access for sensitive locations.

Impact and usage: adopted by local NGOs, municipal planning initiatives, and disaster response groups; advantages include rapid data generation and transparency, while criticisms focus on data quality, coverage gaps, and privacy concerns.