Don’t get us wrong — at 5,000 Cities we are all in favor of open-source and global partnerships. But we equally call for the time spent/value generated mentality when decentralized, no-strings-attached teams of innovation vigilantes hit the streets and back alleys of our cities as they try to provide hyperlocal guidance to innovation practitioners and entrepreneurs around the globe. 

Whether it’s Finding Manufacturing Sites for Open-Source Projects (like in the case of a fablab and hacker space mapping tool by Internet of Production) or a more personalized collection by a French NGO that sometimes has bugs non-commercial mapping efforts often end up being too generic to give us a really clear picture of what’s happening on the ground in specific cities.

There may be a tendency of such maps to lump a bunch of different types of innovation spaces together under the same “innovation hub” label. You’ll have co-working spaces listed right alongside big research universities or even established corporations, and that doesn’t give one a sense of how these places actually work. And more importantly — how to engage them specifically for YOUR business growth.

Open-source maps don’t always tell you about the context of the city itself. You know, the local economy, the culture, the history – that kind of stuff, tailored specifically to your business endeavours. You would still need someone like 5,000 Cities to decipher all the moving parts between the open-source visualization on the maps and Your next strategic move as a business.

Finally, one could also talk about how these googlable maps might not be up-to-date. Things change fast in cities, especially with these kinds of innovation spaces. So, by the time a map is published, it might not be a totally accurate picture anymore. Madison, Wisconsin or Bangalore, Karnataka? Get in touch with us now for your tailored and up-to-date solution!