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Mapture is a online mobile community for people to anonymously share photos. All of the uploaded content is tagged with the date, time and location of the shooting. All the users remain anonymous. The service comes in the form of an iOS app that allows users to upload their captured images. The service will then tag the photos with the timing and location of the shot. This is done automatically - location is captured from the device’s GPS while the date and time are pulled from the web. This means that users cannot create or alter tags as they are not allowed to input the location themselves. Fiddling around with the phone’s clock or date setting will not affect the timestamp either. All the resulting photos are displayed on a map for easy viewing and access.

What’s the point?

The point is clear, simple and smart. Mapture’s Twitter account perhaps captures it best. Its bio states that Mapture is about “Bringing credibility to the world's photos.” Since the service does not allow for user profiles, the photos are untraceable. That rids the photographer of any feelings of guilt, shyness or fear while they share what they capture. It also rids the viewer of any preconceived notion of they might have of the shooter and delivers content in its purest form. And since the date and time tags are automated, they are always genuine. What we end up with is an honest and unfiltered view of the world. The photos could be about anything. From an exotic travel destination or a global sporting event, to mass demonstrations, war zones, or even something as mundane as a traffic jam or just bad weather. You can use the app to report a health hazard in a restaurant or use it to expose any kind of harassment, theft, or a human rights violation.

Who will benefit from such a service? Anyone and everyone really, but one can’t help but think that the news industry will be particularly interested in this. Think  individual reporters, citizen journalists, bloggers, photographers and photojournalists.

The service does allow for users to their own add descriptive tags to help categorise pictures. That would make finding specific content easier and the UI definitely cleaner as it gives users the ability unclutter the map and filter pictures based on a subject. The service also offers allows for filtering based on a specific time or a period.

Mapture is not a social network

Keeping users anonymous inevitably means that you can’t friend or follow anyone in the community, but Mapture does include sharing features. You can share any picture, after it gets watermarked with the location and time, using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, email or iMessage as well. “We let your phone take care of the posting and we don’t get any credentials from you. We believe in people’s privacy and we believe that Mapture should allow you to remain anonymous if you want,” explained Bahaa Hashem, one of the three cofounders behind Mapture.

The next Version of Mapture will introduce a new concept called “Collections”. Collections groups images that are related to each other. The service would showcase interesting collections of photos that have a common theme.

It is not a social network, “however, we will always work hard on making it easier and easier to share the cool stuff you see on Mapture to your favourite social network  and carry on the conversation there,” he continued.

Mapture was founded by Zeyad Salloum - current CEO and Belal Eid alongside Bahaa. The three had been friends since around 2006. Belal and Zeyad had known each other for longer than that. Bahaa later met them through common friends. “Our groups meshed and we became one large 'gang' that hung out with each other from Maadi, Cairo since we all live there.”

Zeyad and Bahaa also went to AUC together for a year and a half before he moved to the US. Zeyad holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the American University in Cairo. He graduated in 2012 and worked as a mobile developer and an Information Security Engineer before he decided to quit and take up Mapture full-time. Belal holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Helwan University. He graduated in 2010 and is already a co-founder and partner of Geeqshop, a co-founder of Tebadel.com, and currently works in the marketing department at Vodafone Egypt and as a part timer at Mapture. Bahaa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. He graduated in May 2011 and immediately returned to Cairo to get involved in the revolution. He worked as assistant to George Ishaq, then as program coordinator at Idrak - Misr El Kheir. He then tried his hand in media planning before resigning to co-found Mapture.

The idea for Mapture initially came during a heated political debate some time in August in light of the events of June 30, 2013. Each of founders was trying to prove a point but soon realized that most of the graphic evidence that they were providing  - which came from either news outlets or tweets from activists - was either falsified or impossible to verify.

“Essentially the problem was trusting the content being show to us and not having a solid way of verifying or proving its authenticity,” added Bahaa. It was Zeyad then that came up with the idea for an app that tags the date, time and location to a photo or video, stamps it with the Mapture icon -  so that the viewer knows it was verified by them -  then displays it on a map. They started to work on the idea, unhurriedly at first, before they applied to Flat 6 Labs. Soon after they got accepted in their spring cycle, Zeyad and Bahaa took to the project on a full-time basis while Belal continues to work as a part-timer, pending further expansion of the project. The app was launched in mid-March on the Apple App Store.

The team is already working on version 2.0 which will add different tabs at the bottom. One for the camera, one for the map, one that shows you to the pictures you’ve taken, and the last one displays images in a horizontal fashion classified under events, popular, location, Mapture of the week, and other categories. The latter was designed to make it easier for users to explore and discover new content.

“Our plan is to steadily gain user traffic that will allow us to fine-tune the product according to customer feedback and engagement.” At the moment, Mapture is only available on iOS but the team has plans to launch on Android soon. They are also working on tweaking the website to provide the user with a better experience where he can view and download or purchase verified content. “Mapture is a global application intended for a global audience and we are determined to keep it that way, so any further expansion plans will very much be based on that ethos.”

The app is available on the App Store for free. The plan is to pursue the freemium model for revenues and offer in-app purchases for additional features. “We have yet to implement the in-app purchases, since the app is in its very early phase, and we are still studying the different features that we plan to offer based to our customer feedback and analysis.”