Crowdmap

Overview

Crowdmap was a cloud-hosted crowdsourcing and interactive mapping platform created by Ushahidi. It allowed users to instantly launch public or private interactive maps to collect, organize, and visualize geolocated information without setting up server infrastructure. By ingesting reports via social media, SMS, email, and web forms, Crowdmap enabled humanitarian groups, journalists, and civic activists to track real-time events. The service was officially sunsetted by Ushahidi in January 2021 as operations consolidated into the unified Ushahidi platform.

Founder story

Crowdmap was launched in 2010 by Ushahidi, an open-source non-profit tech organization co-founded by Ory Okolloh, Erik Hersman, David Kobia, and Juliana Rotich. After building the original Ushahidi engine during the 2007–2008 Kenyan election crisis, the team created Crowdmap as a hosted, zero-code cloud platform to democratize crisis mapping globally. Crowdmap operated until its official retirement in January 2021.

What it does

• Generates cloud-hosted interactive digital maps for collaborative crowdsourced data collection
• Ingests geotagged reports and multimedia posts across Twitter, SMS, email, and web forms
• Offers category filtering and interactive visual timelines to analyze incoming event reports
• Enables community members to publish localized observations and media directly onto a central map.

Who it's for

• Humanitarian & Crisis Response Teams
• Civic Organizations & Activists
• Investigative Journalists
• Community Event Coordinators

Why it works

• Eliminated server setup barriers by offering a fully hosted cloud version of the Ushahidi engine
• Supported flexible multi-channel data ingestion across social media feeds and mobile SMS gateways
• Provided immediate visual spatial insights through automated categorization and map pins
• Made crowdmapping accessible to non-technical users via an intuitive web interface.

Growth strategies

• Freemium hosted SaaS model providing instant map deployment for global non- profit initiatives
• Open- source community cross-promotion through the core Ushahidi software ecosystem
• Grassroots adoption during major natural disasters, civic movements, and elections
• Media coverage and academic partnerships focusing on open data and crisis mapping

Alternatives

• Ushahidi Platform
• Mapbox
• ArcGIS Online
• KoboToolbox

Comparison overview

• Crowdmap provided a zero-configuration, fully hosted cloud environment for crowdmapping, whereas the original core Ushahidi platform required self-hosting and manual server setup.
• It focused on lightweight social collaborative mapping rather than complex enterprise GIS spatial analysis.