Race for Reuse: Shareabouts

“Put it on a map.” So often I hear this request when someone encounters an interesting set of civic data. Fortunately, that process has become fairly doable thanks to tools such as Google Fusion Tables, TileMill, and Esri. What about when you don’t have the data? How do you collect it and then map it? That’s where Shareabouts comes in.

Made by our friends over at OpenPlans, Shareabouts is a mapping tool to to collect suggested locations and comments in a simple, easy, and engaging way. That means that if you don’t have the locations of your city’s hydrants, or want to suggest locations for area bikeshares, you can simply drop a pin on a map (even while mobile), and gather that data. And that’s why it’s part of our Race for Reuse: it should be core part of a communities civic tech infrastructure, as core as a data catalog or community map.

Shareabouts has been used to map ATM surcharges, share local memories, and track community assests, but those are just a few of the ways in which you can deploy this generic platform. (Quite simply, if you can put it on a map, you can use it.) Check it out on GitHub, join the Race for Reuse, and let us know how you’re using it @codeforamerica.

Questions? Comments? Hit us up @codeforamerica.

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