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Do you want to invest in a powerful openeducational resource that promotes learning inscience, technology, engineering, artsand math (STEAM)?

Do you care about the geographic literacy of the next generation?

Do you believe in empowering life-long learning, bringing people of allages together to learn about our world?

Are you fascinated by the power of open data to help uscollectively improve our understanding of our world?

MapStory quietly opened a public prototype in January 2013 with the goal of answering a basic

question: What would it look like to enable human beings to easily and eectively organize and

share what they know about the world, as it has changed over space (that is, geographically) and

time? MapStory was designed to be a new dimension to the global data commons that lets peopleshare their understanding of how our world changes over time - both in data, and narrative.

For the past two years weve worked to answer that question in an open collaborative

development process. In total, 1,200 people experimented with uploading data and creatingMapStories on the prototype MapStory.org platform, all while providing feedback on how they

want the platform to evolve. Their work was viewed more than 100 million times on six continents,and has been featured in major publications like the Washington Post, Vox, Business Insider, and

National Geographic Education.

RECRUITING CORE SUPPORTERS TO IGNITE A RE-LAUNCHIn early 2015 we will re-launch a newly designed MapStory platform based on all of this user

feedback - bringing their thinking to life. Specically, the new platform will introduce the world toa new paradigm of collaborative spatiotemporal data development (crowd editing) and data-

driven MapStorytelling. Crowd-editing will enable everyone on earth to contribute even the mostgranular insight to the global data commons by editing the work of others within the browser.

HELP THE NEW MAPSTORY PLATFORM TAKE OFF IN 2015

JOIN THE MAPSTORY

LAUNCH CIRCLE

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To learn more, visit mapstory.orgor email info@mapstory.org

The newly designed MapStorytelling composer will enable folks with few technical skills to tellcompelling MapStories based on the StoryLayer data published by others.

The upshot of these enhancements is that non-technical individuals who know something about

various issues, places and times will be able to easily share that knowledge with the world.The possibilities this enables, from a technical perspective, are really endless. But without an

engaged community that sees value in the platform and puts it to use for the common good, itwont have much of have the real-world impact we seek.

For example, with enough support we are well positioned to:

Expand the pilot partnership we have with the DC Public Library and work withlibraries worldwide to pool their digitized print maps and archival data into MapStory

so that local residents can map neighborhood history

Expand our work with K-12 teachers to create standards-aligned lesson and student

project templates so that students can themselves become curators and creators of

knowledge, rather than passive recipients Provide seed funding for data initiatives like the one launched by Karl Phillips and

now funded by the Sunlight Foundation that maps the borders of cities as they evolve

over time (see a recent piece in the Washington Post about Karls project - www.

washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/11/a-brief-animated-history-of-urban-annexation/)

Help humanitarian organizations worldwide use spatial-temporal data collection andMapStorytelling to make their work more evidence-based and eective. Weve already

seen projects emerge that have great potential, such as: trends in sea ice melt,decline of public art, the increase of incarceration, the spread of disease, changes in

student test scores, human tracking supply chains, etc.

If the big idea of MapStory, and the many practical actions it could spawn, intrigue you, we invite

you to join us this fall as a Launch Circle member. Your tax deductable donation of $5,000 or

more will help us ensure that basic server and administration costs are covered for 2015, andthat we are positioned to inspire new users and projects once the platform redesign launches.

In exchange for your support, we will highlight you or your organization as a sponsor on the newMapStory.org homepage.

If you're interesting in stepping up this fallas a Launch Circle member, contact:

JONATHAN MARINOMARINO@MAPSTORY.ORG

(815) 222-9088