Mapping the globe…in a collaborative way

Talking about maps and localized services ( as Yahoo, Msn Local, or Google do ) there is an interesting initiative that brings together several areas and ideas: it’s the OpenStreetMap project that, as from the source, “aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them.

The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways”.

The whole project to me offer several new interesting scenario:

– in terms of web2.0: it’s a social, collaborative, web based project

– in terms of crossmedia and devices involved: maps are created by the users ( using their own gps devcices and some openSource or free softwares ) and then collected in a free browsable common archive ( of meta-data ) that could be used in any other context and/or on any device ( the cross-media process is bi-directional ).

– in terms of infovis related aspects: free GPS data based maps could offer a new increasing amount of information pollution and in this way they could open a wide range of business opportunities. For instance it should be possibile to design/develop new tools to integrate non-geografical data ( also collected by users ) into them ( as a sort of openStreetMap mash-ups ) and/or provide end-users tools to join to the data production process in a partecipative way.