Medialab Prado

Meipi is a map (wikimap) on which the user can leave multimedia files associated to a particular place in the city, so that the images, the personal impressions, the sounds, the stories and the landscapes as they are perceived by the inhabitants may be shared on an immediate and everyday basis with the neighbours themselves.

The intention is to develop processes by which the network becomes a catalyst and propitiates social relationships that allow us to get to know our neighbours better, thus strengthening the community and the sense of belonging to it.

It defines a new type of user that has another characteristic quality that differentiates it from the users of all the other web pages: a user that is interested in a real space, an actual physical space, which is what is represented in MEIPI. His/her possibilities and actions will always be linked to this place (neighbourhood, city).

To date, various different projects have been set up. The highlights are the Todo Sobre Mi Barrio (All About my Neighbourhood) project (www.todosobremibarrio.com), carried out in collaboration with the Laboratorio Urbano group and with the support of the new centre Intermediae and two others that have been enabled with the collaboration of the architecture studio Ecosistema Urbano: one in Madrid, in the Universidad neighbourhood (http://barriouniversidad.meipi.org) and another in Santiago de Compostela (http://santiago.meipi.org), supported by the Galicia Centre of Contemporary Art (CGAC).

We are working on creating a package with a Creative Commons license with the code used on the page so that those who know about programming can create their own customised meipi. Until now, and without the need to know anything about the code, it is possible to use meipimatic: a meipi creator. With meipimatic (www.meipimatic.org), any user can assemble a collaborative map (meipi) simply and on an instantaneous basis (as if it were a blog).