MapTiming is about publishing event schedules on a map. Does that make it an ‘event management system’? No, not really… but then, what is it? A ‘map-based event publication platform’, perhaps?
MapTiming is not an event management system
Search google for ‘event management system’, and you’ll find a whole range of web services, software packages and plug-ins to manage the organization of an event, loaded with features like webhosting, room and resource planning, participant subscription, ticket shops, etc…
Maybe there’s nothing of the sort yet, or maybe I’m just searching with the wrong keywords, but I find nothing quite similar to what MapTiming is going to be. MapTiming won’t have any of the features of an ‘event management system’. It looks like the concept doesn’t have an agreed upon name yet, so let’s just make one up: MapTiming is a ‘map-based event publication platform’.
A full-blown event management system is the right choice for professional organizations who have a company website, a centralized administration, a dedicated event organization team,… and a budget.
MapTiming is rather going to be… decentralized and open
But what if your organization is rather informal? If your information on the web is spread over multiple locally managed websites? If there is no central database of events (yet)? If your organization is very disperse or relies on volunteers? If you’ve got hardly any budget? Then you’ll probably find out that the average ‘event management system’ is too rigid, too complicated and too costly for your organization. But you still want your audience to be able to find you!
MapTiming answers all of these questions:
Informal organization? MapTiming is in principle an open platform for sharing event data based on the principles of crowdsourcing. Only if needed, you want to configure dedicated maps and workflows, to take control over the scope of published events.
Multiple local websites? MapTming is basically a map and the browser url reflects the area that is viewed and the filters that are applied. You can direct users to maptiming.com or a custom domain via a simple link or embed the map on your webpage using the same link in an iframe. It’s a one-fits-all.
No central event database? The core of MapTiming is a table with just that: event data. The data can be queried and filtered based on location and time and presented in different views. No need to store the same data in more than one system.
Disperse organization? MapTiming requires no user account management or special user training. The system is open to anyone and to prevent abuse, confirmation and moderation workflows are implemented based on email messages.
Low budget? MapTiming HASH and MapTiming OPEN are free plans. Only if you want full control on which events are added to your map, a commercial plan is required. The cost is proportional to the number of published events.
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