Missing Maps: what is Baraka ... and how can you help map it?

A huge number of human settlements remain unmapped. Tomorrow, the Missing Maps project sets out to fix that, with an unprecedented plan to map the world’s forgotten places.

A collaboration between the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the British and American Red Cross, Missing Maps aims to use remote mapping to develop free, open-source maps for every settlement on Earth – particularly those areas prone to disaster and diseases such as Ebola. It’s a kind of human genome project for the world’s cities.

To coincide with the launch, Guardian Cities is hosting a live Missing Maps event. Eighty readers will come to our headquarters in London, and more than 100 will join in remotely. Our goal is to map Baraka, a city of 120,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Baraka is a French-speaking trading city of about 120,000 people on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. It has swelled in size as residents who fled the recent war in the Congo start to return, to take up work in trade, fishing and gold mining, which is beginning to kick off in earnest.

Baraka largely dodged the fighting: it is a commercial town with a long history of trading, and prefers to keep its nose down – a city of businessmen, and of many nationalities. There is a large Methodist community; the hospital used to be a convent. Che Guevara also kicked around the area: a small town across the bay is still named after him.

Motorbikes weave between the large mining trucks and NGO vehicles, as locals make their way to the huge market; the airstrip is in the middle of the town, making for some scary landings. The houses are made variously of brick and mud with metal roofs, and extremely tall mango trees give the town a relaxed and picturesque atmosphere. For a big place, it’s relatively calm, especially because most of the fishing activity takes places at night – with many locals half-asleep during the day.

Although peaceful, the city struggles with health concerns: it is in a malarial region, and prone to cholera, tuberculosis and HIV. An accurate, free, open-source, digital map will help Baraka fight diseases, for instance by helping organise the spraying of insecticide to control malaria.

How can you help map it?

On Friday 7 November, Guardian Cities readers like yourself will set out to map Baraka. You can join in from your bedroom – all you need is a laptop. But you won’t be alone: about 80 people will be mapping in person at Guardian HQ in London, and there are eight other simultaneous events around the world, from San Francisco to Jakarta.

But how do you actually map?

1. Set up an account at OpenStreetMap.

2. Watch this video and follow along.

The video will talk you through the process of mapping, and you will practice mapping a place you’ve never visited.

3. Choose a mapping task.

Our task will be Baraka. It will go live on Friday 7 November at 7.00pm GMT, at which point you’ll be able to start mapping the city.

The guide is also are available here, and below are two other helpful resources:

• Another excellent guide from LearnOSM.
• The Missing Maps London launch wiki, with links to other resources.

Good luck, and do please join our mapping party on Twitter using #missingmaps – we’ll tweet photos and updates as the evening progresses, and encourage you to do the same.

• Missing Maps: the human genome project for cities