It wasn’t until a group called Transparent Chennai decided to digitally map the sprawling city’s slums that the local government even realized these half a million impoverished souls existed. Using open source software, Google Maps and good old-fashioned shoe leather, this collective of maptivists set out to draw a brutally honest portrait of their city in the hope of persuading politicians to make decisions that would improve the lives of the urban poor. What they achieved in the past year has already influenced anti-poverty groups across India, but some American academics want to see their ideas implemented across the world. Could this tiny group of social cartographers teach the West a thing or two about running a city? Read More
