P2P Mapping

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Discussion

"Maps are not granted anymore by structures of power, they are built by individuals who, drawing on the ideas of the psychogeographical movements, redraw the urban space according to fresh new coordinates. People can now share with others a more personal vision of geographical data (as opposed to the one traditionally in the hands of power.) Personal information can be added to the presentation of a given territory and thus come to be part of the collective memory." -Alessandro Ludovico (http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009160.php)

Participatory mapping (read/write/fork/merge/create/curate) utilizes digital tools to improve map-based knowledge systems. P2P mapping enables new types of interactivity and personalization, while raising the challenge of synthesizing information from diverse sources and standpoints.

Maps are a visually rich form of graph data, with some technical challenges related to Semantic Web standards and protocol. A more fluid and distributed "wiki" style approach is emerging to serve collective understanding and the growth of Knowledge Commons.

Key Challenges

  • Legibility
  • Ontology
  • Interoperability
  • Contextualization
  • Permissions
  • Concurrency

Key Initiatives

Sample Tools for Resistance Mapping

Mapomatix at http://mapomatix.sourceforge.net/

"a free software developed by Hackitectura as a collaborative environment for creating and editing maps. The maps can contain physical elements (oil resources, telecomunication antennas,etc), abstract ones (such as human organisations, web servers) but they can also be used to emphasize relations between these entities. Behind this tool is the idea of editing and publishing tactical maps."

More examples at http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009160.php


More Information

Standardization for Topic Maps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_Maps
Microformats for data interoperability: http://microformats.org/wiki/Main_Page
Psychogeography is explained at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography