Why We Do Mapotic?
Have you ever thought about why you do what you do?
At Mapotic, we’ve been motivated by Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” methodology, which got us into a very interesting and thorough discussion about what we wanted to achieve. The quest and thinking behind our journey searching for the deeper “Why” was a very enlightening process and one we recommend to any organization or team.
Simon Sinek’s attitude isn’t about defining a product or an approach (i.e. “What” or “How”) but rather uncovering the genuine inner motivation that’ll help you and the whole team get up in the morning. One proposition while looking for a vision encourages to ask “Why” over and over again and come up with a general statement such as “For the Better World”. And then step back to find the right, broad, not limiting vision why invest your precious lifetime into something at all.
We believe that knowledge, mutual enrichment and power of community are pivotal for successful evolution of humankind.
That’s our driving force and vision and we hope it’ll captivate your heart too.
When expressing our vision, and combining it with our hunger to bring Mapotic to the world, we realized that the first Mapotic version had to be updated to fit with actual needs. The main heroes who can fulfill our vision are not only individuals, but also communities and organizations who are striving to change the world. These might be from different areas, such as environment, education, social innovations or socially responsible businesses. So, to provide more support to the development of community maps and projects, we decided to start undergoing a complex transformation. We’ll be introducing the most important changes one by one before the actual launch to ensure smooth transition for our users.
More Maps and Communities from All Over the World
Our focus on the global market will bring a wide range of users and maps from all corners of the planet: in other words, new worlds will open up that will empower people in their discovery of fascinating communities. We’ll communicate with you mainly through our website, our blog and social media channels – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
New Homepage
We have been working to update the homepage of the project. You can look forward to useful articles, features and an updated design – everything will be implemented step by step.
Here’s a little teaser where you can see the new homepage and the improved search bar. You’ll be able to filter the content on Mapotic according to places, maps, interests or communities.
The new homepage will now display updates using a dynamic map feed which can be a source of inspiration for new discoveries.
As you can see, all sorts of filters can be applied, according to your needs and location.
Contributors Role
Besides map owners and admins, contributors play an important role in the development of projects and communities. They can add new places, pictures, videos and ratings. They are the key players from the map owners and users perspectives because their involvement increases the value of each map for its operator, as well as for other users. This new version of Mapotic is geared towards recognizing the valuable contributions each member makes on maps and specific points of interest, displaying to users all of their work on the map, as well as what is possible.
Here’s one of the key updates to follow users activity.
My Mapotic
Once logged in, new users will be forwarded to a screen displaying a personalized map feed from all content, relevant maps and user activities. Contributors will be able see all of their activities in their places or maps where they have made contributions. Map admins will learn about recent activities concerning their projects, and users will see content of their interests or other content that might inspire them to discover new map worlds based on similar criteria.
Map Creation
After a year’s experience and more than a thousand maps which have been created on Mapotic, we have learned that the older map creation process wasn’t as simple as it should be. One of the biggest Mapotic assets – attributes and categories – are the trickiest for some users to navigate. In the new version, we’ve made the map creation process much easier.
Administration and Marketplace
The administration interface – where map owners manage their maps – will also change step by step. We have simplified the controls and made them more intuitive and user friendly.
One of the essential updates in the administration interface will be the Marketplace section. Thanks to Marketplace, map owners will be able to enhance their projects to add new features and enhancements to maps one after the other.
Mapotic remains free and you’ll always be able to control your maps without add-ons as you could before.
Here’s an example of what the Marketplace will offer:
Many more changes and features are in the pipeline. We’ll be informing you of the most significant ones as they get rolled out.
Thank you for being with us and we wish you good luck with mapping and discovering new or already existing worlds!
