Last week in Nairobi was TEDxChange@TEDxKibera, a program of talks and discussion in the Kibera slums with a group of action-oriented people who are focused on changing the status quo. Many interesting people were in the room—from some of the mappers I’ve come to know from the MapKibera initiative to people from Slum Dwellers International.

Melinda Gates spoke about how geographic information can be used to empower individuals and change the way a community sees itself and how it acts. Ushahidi, my nonprofit tech company, is three years old this month, and we’ve seen firsthand how this is true. From the citizens who organized around the Russian fires last year to the Chilean communities who used OpenStreetMap even before their earthquake, we’ve borne witness to communities self-organizing and becoming more effective due to maps.

What we’re learning, though, is that maps aren’t enough. Incentives for participation in “hot flash” crises will always be there, but for long-term civic engagement, we need to think deeply about why someone would use geographic information and how it is of benefit. 

One way that we’re working on that here in Kenya is by exploring the ways that ordinary citizens can report on service delivery issues, and how the leadership in the service delivery organizations can be held accountable.   

MapKibera is a group that I find extremely interesting. They’re here in our own backyard in Kibera, Kenya. We’ve watched them start from nothing and work up to the most densely mapped area on OpenStreetMap. That’s exceptional work, but their big success will come when they figure out how to continually engage people in Kibera.

It’s exciting when geographic data is overlaid with other information (such as funding details, responsible party information, and historical data) and where the public has an easy way to read and make sense of that information. However, it’s most useful when the platforms are open for response from the public and information flow from ordinary citizens drives the debate.

We’re reaching a new level of interaction with platforms that are accessible on all devices. This ranges from sending reports about power outages via SMS (text messages), to using data overlays to deeply analyze just how many schools were built in one rich constituency while the other poor one was left with far fewer schools.

The future of open, accessible, and usable information is upon us, and if we can figure out how to use this information to enable ordinary people to have a dialogue with service delivery organizations and governments (and vice versa), then we’re entering a completely new realm.