Boost your ‘karma’ by mapping rural Goa via app

PANAJI: Borrowing a concept from Google Maps and Reddit, ActforGoa — a community initiative program — wants locals and visitors to the state to map Goa’s rich diversity as well as community issues to enhance their ‘karma’. The move is part of a program to help Goa’s 191 panchayats, and NGOs, identify local resources and help with the grassroots planning process.
In order to accomplish the mapping process, ActforGoa collaborated with NineStack to develop a mobile app PinIt, which allows anyone to tag pothole-ridden roads, garbage black spots, heritage sites, even recycling spots or water bodies in Goa on a map.
Jill Ferguson, the co-founder of ActforGoa says that the community-driven app is designed as a tool to help citizens collect data about their locality and help panchayats make informed decisions.
“In general we lack data in the social sector,” said Ferguson, an American who has created roots in Goa. “There isn’t enough data about the local community and when you have that data, the potential to create a strategy or plan is so much more possible,” she said.
In Goa the panchayats are supposed to have village development committees which draw up the gram panchayat development plans for the year based on which the panchayat can avail of funds from the state and the Centre. Lack of data and delay in completing the plans often leaves panchayats without access to these funds.
NineStack developed the app as a CSR initiative, said co-founder Aaron Fernandez. He said that they are talking to the Google developers group to explore if Google can support the app.
“Part of the planning process is a mapping exercise. Most village panchayats struggle with this,” said Ferguson. She says that with the app, which is integrated with Google Maps, it is much easier to map village resources as well as concerns.
To keep things interesting, the app offers karma points whenever a user pins something on the map. “The idea is that we want to encourage people to do good by giving them karma points. You will get points as you pin things. You get three points if you pin a place or an expert, and you get one point if you pin an issue,” said Ferguson. Eventually, ActforGoa hopes to integrate the karma points with freebies offered by restaurants and experts so that users can exchange the karma points for a free surfing lesson or other giveaways.