FreeMap West Bank

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JumpStart International has initiated FreeMap, a program to produce complete, free, and open public-domain street maps in developing countries. JumpStart’s FreeMap project is being piloted in the Palestinian West Bank, where participants are being trained in GIS surveying and cartography skills and techniques to produce a data set for a street map of the West Bank using web-based open source software. Participants are gaining practical technical skills in mapping and connecting with a rapidly growing international community of mapping enthusiasts and experts using new web communication technologies.

By creating free and open maps for governments, NGOs, educational institutions, and the private sector, the FreeMap progam will serve as an economic multiplier for local development by creating:

• better transparency in government planning for civil services
• better relief and reporting for humanitarian efforts
• better fluidity in private markets
• the potential to generate job opportunities that enable businesses to enhance their services
  

Although the primary goal of this initiative is to create a high quality geographic data set in a cost-effective way, as with previous projects implemented by JumpStart International the FreeMap project offers local participants income-generating opportunities as well as practical training to build skills through applied service-learning activities, and aims to be a stimulus for economic development and job creation. Thus the focus is less on building local capacity through employment initiatives and more on efficiency and productivity to achieve high quality, cost effective results.

JumpStart intends to plan future mapping projects based on the general protocols developed during the course of this pilot project.