Mapping Cambodia

Heritage buildings in Phnom Penh, from Urban Voice

Much has been made about the prospects of using data in government, development and business. The statistician is the next hot career. Buzzwords like 'indicators' and 'data visualization' are quickly joining the ranks of more established jargon. Since my last trip to Cambodia, the number of wifi cafés, iPhones and even LAN gaming centers has skyrocketed. So I was happy to stumble upon OpenDevelopment, mainland Southeast Asia's first public interest 'open data' site. I was particularly impressed by the maps section, where users can layer information about government land concessions, officially protected areas, and even the broadcast range of local radio stations. Cambodia and the development community would be wise to use these tools to improve public services and promote transparency in decision making.

Also worth checking out is UrbanWatch, a regularly updated community mapping site for Phnom Penh, documenting urban poor communities, heritage architecture, locations of recent news events and more.