Interactive maps are digital tools that make information available to people in a visual way, in a single set. In addition, they offer the necessary flexibility so that each person can access the information of their interest. These characteristics make these maps an optimal tool to promote citizen participation. A successful example of the use of these maps as a tool to encourage citizen participation is the Mapa Infoparticipa Project, which,with these tools, socializes the transparency levels of local governments in countries such as Spain, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. This article presents what interactive maps are and argues how they are a tool to encourage citizen participation, based on the experience of Mapa Infoparticipa Project.

Interactive maps are digital tools that make information available to people in a visual way, in a single set. In addition, they offer the necessary flexibility so that each person can access the information of their interest. These characteristics make these maps an optimal tool to promote citizen participation. A successful example of the use of these maps as a tool to encourage citizen participation is the Mapa Infoparticipa Project, which,with these tools, socializes the transparency levels of local governments in countries such as Spain, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. This article presents what interactive maps are and argues how they are a tool to encourage citizen participation, based on the experience of Mapa Infoparticipa Project.

Interactivity is a factor on which cyber journalism is based and summarizes participation options between a user and the medium, a user with other users, and a user with editors. In this study, we focus on the latter in three countries-Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador-, which have been identified owing to their technological gap and the emerging importance of online communication for their respective societies. Through 35 in-depth interviews with journalists from these countries, we analyzed the concept of interactivity of these professionals and their relationship with users. The results revealed that the journalists positively valued civic contributions as a space for diagnosis, although they do not perceive its informational value, as they relate them to the context of opinions. These results verify the prevalence of journalism as strongly influenced by conventional offline production rout...