the proposal, mod 01

Applicant seeks seed funding for mumbaiopendata.org a virtual repository for Mumbai data and information. The platform when completed is positioned as an information system built with the objective to facilitate ease of urban design, urban planning and architecture projects within regional limits of MMR [Mumbai Metropolitan Region]. For its pilot stage, the project trajectory builds expertise on the idea taking the city of Mumbai as sample to identify limits and parameters which can be transposed onto the other city boundaries which compose the Metropolitan Region. Most available, known repositories contain either data or locate information and never both under a consolidated mandate. With the creation of a singular content silo, the project facilitates application, understanding of material in the production of an urban project where to a degree ground work to the problem is partially complete. Over time as the repository builds, voids in existing knowledge base about the region becomes evident, future work emerging a result of information available would try and plug in the missing content evidently favouring both the platform and ideas in urbanism of a place.

_ 01 introduction #

Project evolved out of a fellowship award (2011–12) towards a research on urban knowledge construction from the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies. Earlier engagements in publishing the Mumbai Reader (an annual archive of writings on Mumbai) at Urban Design Research Institute and extended masters research at Sir J.J. College of Architecture helped give form to the state which the current iteration of the platform. Associations with varying degrees of collaboration could be recognised as the team of sorts. These include previous guides, subject experts, academic faculty members, NGO associations (mostly those involved in some degree with planning advocacy in the city), colleagues, critics and friends. As task the project is managed and funded until now by under single agency of the author. Networks, irrespective of the scale at which the project is performing is the source of change. Reactions, engagements and contributions all in various ways add in iteration to how the site shapes out. Though fluid at this point an anticipated permanent team will comprise of advisors, contributors, partner organisations and volunteers. This off-course scales in-accordance with city specific associations if there is sufficient interest.

_ 02 team #

Studies on the city could be argued to be around 40–45 years old. Emerging out of requirements of urban advocacy, projects has evolved over time and on basis of urgencies of production. Heritage conservation and area management proposals are seen as the main outcomes of the exercise. A surge in informality studies and open space discussions too have saturated ideas from and about the city. All these are located from a period of the city where information access on Mumbai is limited. An overview of what Mumbai is, is constricted by the data accessed. Studies therefore in its form are reflective of that and research products generated from within this time period read in the presented light. As the city moves into its third city planning phase more material about the city is available and accessed. mumbaiopendata.org as project tries to address the concerns in urban data polarisation and its resultant applicability for projects about urban areas. With consolidated provision of content, the objective is to generate newer visions for urban habitation distinct from the concerns raised from that of a generation. More time and resources to solve issues instead of time to assimilate data is the spiel.

_ 03 problem #

Recent years have seen an upsurge of architecture schools spurting in the Mumbai region and several of the older intuitions offering master’s degrees among their courses conducted. There is are definitely a lot more professional institutions producing, well specialists to engage actively with their immediate environments than previously available. Rather than just these, other design streams too are growing in numbers and use the city to draw inspiration for the products they produce. Engagement from non-design streams, mostly NGO’s, academic institutions conducting urban programs and advocacy groups engaging in city based initiatives are to on a visible rise. In this context the problem which presents itself is what and how knowledge on the city is created, who is creating it and the opportunities which exist. Being a technical database to a degree, it’s goal is to address preliminary data access on urban projects for academic, non-profit, independent research projects and citizen’s initiatives. Its sustainability trajectory is staging a controlled crowdsourced platform catering to requirements of an identified design community working in the region.

_ 04 market #

MMRHCS Heritage Information System | MCGM Planning Documents | Karmayog Mumbai Information Set | Rahul Mehrotra Mumbai Publications | PK Das Open Mumbai | KRVIA CityResource.in | Community GIS _ Jitendra Shah, Ronak Sutaria | OpenSource Mapping Workshop _ Shekhar Krishnan | Urban Design Research Institute Resource Centre | Centre for Education and Documentation _ are, to a degree projects, programs and places which can be called as competition to the project. These plots which either have been go to locations or newer imaginations for information centres are all individual mandates which are extensions of larger ideas. They all try to a degree act as information or data repositories, either physically or virtually but the sum total of their content is from self-generated assignments, hence most of the time cannot be considered to have material to build projects on. Rather than competing, to identify the strengths of each these locations and find methods to link available accessible material is goal of the service. If any other specialist urban activity which arise in the future could directly collaborate with the site, essentially to add to the larger city knowledge archive.

_ 05 competition #

mumbaiopendata.org acts as a virtual archive of city/ regional projects and encourages newer projects within its defined area of operation. A central coordinating centre for available research material, at its onset acts as a monitor to gather and audit available material with the identified content sources. As part of the earlier conducted research nine specific content strategies was identified via which information on an urban area can be categorised as. These are which follows with subsequent descriptions about each of them. INSTITUTIONS collect organizations and acts working in the city this is further extended in PROJECTS specific pages. BLOGS explore city writers and their collected body of work while READS list writings. DATASETS, MAPS, REGULATIONS and IMAGES deal with material which become part of exercises, tasks and projects produced. Those which aren’t typically used against or in research are contained in ETCS. To a degree these are the anticipated patterns found from urban information and interatrial component tested in the current stage of the platform. Site in its form is fluid and poised to change according to anticipated forces over iterations.

_ 06 solution #

The author under various capacities is involved in several research projects on the city. Over a span of five years via several institutional associations various types of urban exercises has resulted in the formation of the platform as published today. This too is a stage/ phase in pursuit of revision. Form of the site, its current iteration is a sum total of ground work from earlier tasks, meaning reference material from other city projects form the initial information accessed. Because of extended city engagements, particularly of a diverse nature there is a familiarity with the knowledge production landscape, that makes this task a natural outcome of sorts. Having a definitive understanding of content and form of urban research, in addition to making access of source material there is also via platform an encouragement in participation in the production of ideas for the region. A clear mandate all throughout is staging past projects and ideas irrespective to the level of availability so as to build others using previous work as reference.

_ 07 uniqueness of your proposition #

Significance of the urban environment in architectural design is having a deliberate understanding of context and cultures which are responsible in the production of buildings. This frame of thinking is academically introduced while problem solving and when consistently pursued requires a database of reference. There are two kinds of customers which requires services of the database. First is anyone who is interested in conducting research in the context and second are those who may need services in either data gathering, analysis of existing datasets/ synthesis of information archived. Tire one generally is any student conducting bonafide research from an institution. Bringing them to engage and participate with the archive is through exhibitions, lectures, studios, and workshops. Ideal customer from this engagement are prosumers who while consuming also contribute back to the database. Second tire customers are anticipated as institutions or agencies who invite those directly involved with the projects on assignments which can be considered mutually beneficial. Either via financial contributions or content submissions, sustainability of the association will be pursued.

_ 08 customer acquisition #

Knowledge entrepreneurship, is what the project would ideally be classified as. The exercise promotes urban data and information towards leveraging it as a tool to regenerate or add to an existing knowledge base. It operates within premises of an archive, database, repository or for that matter the library. The trust for project to sustain is via partnerships and associations with researchers conducting research on Mumbai. The platform will predominantly specialise in contemporary work, while provision of assistance to those who wish to conduct period studies. Crowd sourced material is the most viable mechanism available to add to the database. How it can be leveraged into a technical database is still being tested out. Mostly in the form of associations and how each of these can add to the exercise. To see the project is both as a service as well as a platform conducting ongoing research about the city. Conventional research agencies have existed from project to project and disbanded soon after projects have depleted. The model here is an unwrapping of past agency formulas in anticipation of working with a sustainable template in engagement with the city and the ideas about her.

_ 09 business model #

The project generated out of fellowship award and city projects, both which is instrumental in its current form submitted. With this funding claim it is trying to move out from institutional support systems. In immediacy the site will be iterated upon to a degree till completion of some working projects contributing to building of the database. Funding when accessed, will be used to upgrade the existing platform, hire associate planners and institute a managing board, to further content specific to the city/ region. Conduct of alternate projects via institutional partnerships could potentially to add to the information bank and exhibitions for the same act canvassing stages, while encouraging further projects on the city. Predominant energies lie in laying an adequate platform which can act as interface between those involved with the project and those who would like to participate in it. Three distinct sections of core content, curated content and submitted material needs framing both at information dissemination and task administrative levels.

_ 10 investment requirements #