Wikimapa is a collaborative mapping project launched in 2009 that allows residents of low-income areas in Brazil to document points of interest in their communities. It was created to address the problem that official maps often do not include information about slums and their resources. The project trains young residents to map their communities using mobile phones and an online mapping platform. Wikimapa has expanded geographic coverage, increased its userbase, and partnered with other organizations. It aims to empower youth, appreciate local communities, and improve access to services through collaborative mapping.

1. localização para todos

2. About
Wikimapa is a collaborative map focused on registering public Points Of Interest (POIS) in low income
areas launched in 2009. Through an integrated mobile application to the virtual map residents enters and
have access to geo information products and services offered locally until then unknown by most social
organizations , government and companies .
Wikimapa relies on local knowledge and basic technologies to deal with the severe problem of having an
official online geography different from reality. Original Idea was to use an existent cartographic base and
stimulate the use of mobile by residents from slums of Brazil for tagging POIs and develop a wiki system
that allows content edition and collaborative construction. However project scope had to increase when
Rede found out a bigger challenge than only ensuring visibility of existent opportunities within poor
areas: the technical restraint for tagging places due the fact that slums do not exist on the official online
cartography.
After this acknowledgement we increased the goals to be accomplished with Wikimapa ensuring the
creation of a new online cartography by adding streets before the tagging work of places could be started.
All mapping activities are under the responsibility of young residents from selected slums trained by Rede
Jovem.

3. Scenario of socioeconomic development
in Brazilian slums
Brazil has today , 12 billion people living in slums , which handle 56.1 billion per year , a result of the
income distribution policies adopted by the federal government, which took 28% of that population to
ascend to the middle class in the last 10 years .
Asset ownership by this population reported a significant growth in the last 10 years , among which stand
out the cell phone and the computer with an increase of 256 % and 1,333 % respectively .
Much of the financial transactions carried out by slum residents circulates within the community in where
they live especially in regards to convenience shopping. 82% of prepaid mobile top up are done within the
community. 74 % of spending on market purchases and 62% of spending on beauty products circulates
internally.
*Sources: Data Popular e and Fundação Getúlio Vargas

4. Regarding the connectivity rates of slum residents draws attention to the high rate
of digital inclusion in communities of Rio de Janeiro . Even in communities less
connected as Jacarézinho ( 54.5% ) , Complexo da Maré ( 55.9% ) and Rocinha (
57.5% ) it is possible to find rates higher than the national average, which shows
51.2 % of Brazilians connected and the world average , with 49.1 % of people
connected .
With regard to cell phone usage, specifically, Brazil is in 74th place with 87% of
individuals with access to cell phones .
Scenario of socioeconomic development
in Brazilian slums
“Mobile is a technology that's where the poor are . It is a
platform that generates social inclusion” Marcelo Neri (Getulio Vargas
Foundation Researcher)

5. Our map

6. Android
Wikimapa App for Android is available for free download on our website and next steps includes
developing app version for IOS

7. Outcomes

8. Awards and Recognition

9. Currently
In 2013 Wikimapa passed through a geographic expansion towards scaling up and
consequentely increasing the number of registered users and mapped information.
Wikimapa was totally redrawed in a new shape that relies on interaction between users and in
the system attractiveness offering new ma´pping possibilities. Kick off and launching happened in
May of 2014.
Wikimapa optimizes the use of smartphones in slums and creates new forms of social
and economic investment in marginalized areas going against the maps created illustrating
slums which strengthen the stigma of violence and increase social distance between these
communities and the rest of the cities.
Estrategical partnerships established includes a geomarketing company from Brasil called GeoFusion.
This company offers its marketing structure and is planning to allocate workers to help us improve wikimapa
and build the gamefication process in order to ensure interaction and user experience increase.
Another partnership is GEOEduc composed by professionals from MundoGeo. The institute will offer
its distance education platform to ensure Rede Jovem will promote training events to anyone interested
on collaborative mapping. The partnership also represents a possiility of content production about
wikimapa project to brasillian geocommunity.

10. • Maps popularization
• Youth empowerment
• local appreciation
• content production/data on areas without reliable sources and
information
• Access to public services and citizenship through the mapping work of
streets never registered before
Advocacy: Wikimapa now may be used to report
problems and identify solutions
Impact: Social Change

11. In others words
““Rede Jovem is effectively showing how mobile phones can be used by young people, for socia
inclusion, and for their social and political expression. “
(Katrin Veras – Director of Mobile Active)
Winner on the economic development category of Stockholm Challenge 2010, Wikimapa was
referred by the jury as a project that meets all empowerment and development criteria.
"It reaches out and in into the poverty areas. The grass roots approach with young people and
their familiar ICT environment is a unique aspect of the project. It has the high potential of
making "invisible" areas more visible. It does so by distributing knowledge. Wikimapa has a
model that can be used elsewhere for similar communities.
It can be duplicated in many other countries. Wikimapa has the potential of opening doors and
creating new opportunity/jobs by empowering low-income youth. This will be the next step.
Wikimapa has the clear vision to bring value added to the low-income groups.
Wikimapa does what Brazil, and the world, needs - to contribute to the great wealth distribution".