Mediating Voices and Communicating Realities: Using information crowdsourcing tools, open data initiatives and digital media to support and protect the vulnerable and marginalised

This report draws from original empirical research on Map Kibera, a community-based mapping project that takes full advantage of these technologies and similar initiatives, to present key insights and lessons on the challenges of reaching across the two worlds of open source and development to translate technological possibilities into realities. The study highlights issues concerning the sustainability and governance of initiatives relying on citizens as sources of information, particularly those that aim to make information available to others in a new information commons, a shared set of resources available to all. It provides a basis for considering their wider social benefits, the agendas and values of the actors that drive them, the types of partnerships that can sustain them into the future, and the risks introduced through the increased visibility of vulnerable communities supported through these tools.