YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING”

Vacant NYC: Mapping the Homeless

By Curt Hopkins / September 10, 2010

The most exhilarating thing about social media to me is that it allows us to extend and amplify our dreams and concerns. One of the most bracing things that can be done with innovations in the social web is to take that innovation and turn it to uses the creators never thought of. An example of both these aspects of the web is Vacant NYC.

In a DIY response to a combination of homelessness, vacant properties that could be leveraged to ease that homelessness, and what they feel is a municipal disinterest in both, New York-based group Picture the Homeless, inspired by crisis-mapping outfit Ushahidi, are using crowdsource mapping to identify vacant property and lots in that city.