Ark Arjun

Mapping efforts done in Kochi, India to map 25000KM of Transit data into OpenStreetMap. A project showcasing the possibilities of transforming commercial projects for the community benefits. In India, open data is not very widespread. Although the government has policies requiring the sharing of data under an open licence, even for public datasets, this rarely occurs. When it comes to solving larger, more challenging problems like city planning or transportation planning, transit data is extremely complex and quite useful. Around the world, different transit agencies used different methods to save data. As the world and technology developed, the necessity for transit data standardisation grew. Open data is a fantasy in a country of no data, just like transit data in Kochi. The session discusses the work done to use OpenStreetMap to construct transit data for Kochi. The project serves as an illustration of community empowerment because the mapper demonstrated how to use a commercial for the good of society while simultaneously benefiting from it. They also helped the development of open data. As a consequence, the initiative provided 25000+ km of transit lines in Kochi to OpenStreetMap, benefiting 15+ participants both financially and intellectually.