JumpStart Georgia team at work
JumpStart Georgia
JumpStart Georgia, based in Tbilisi, is a registered non-governmental organization that applies open-source technologies to open up public data and shed light on important issues. JumpStart Georgia uses data and design to make complex issues easier for people to understand, equipping them for fact-based discussions and decision-making.
JumpStart Georgia was founded in 2009 as Open Maps Caucasus and seeded with funding from JumpStart International. At the time, public street data for Georgia did not exist and tools like Google Maps and OpenStreetMap were empty of any data. In under a year, JumpStart led a successful community-driven campaign to map all the streets in the country. Following its success, JumpStart submitted the data to Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and Nokia, thus seeding common digital mapping platforms with a comprehensive dataset, and allowing Georgians to begin using these now ubiquitous tools.
JumpStart Georgia today is the leading innovator in the South Caucasus in data journalism, advocating for open data and building data-driven tools to inform and engage Georgians on important issues. JumpStart Georgia is a lab for the development of twenty-first century storytelling through data and design, and works with people and organizations to help them use data effectively.