<div dir="ltr"><div class="entry-content">
<div><div class="entry-content"><p><b>Mapping the World through Commoning for the Federated Commons</b></p><p>by Silke Helfrich originally posted <a href="https://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/mapping-as-a-commons/">https://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/mapping-as-a-commons/</a></p> <p>Maps
shape our perception, they direct our transitions and they inform our
decisions. Who doubts the power of mapping, might think of google-maps‘
impact on the lifes of the many; not all, because there is an
alternative: Open Street Map. The difference between the two becomes
cristallclear when asking: Who owns the maps? Who owns the data? And who
reaps the benefit?</p> <p>Open Street Map is based on free software. It is owned and governed <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/FAQ">by you</a>.
It is constantly in the making, and open to all those who wish to
contribute to it on the basis of the collective
Open-Street-Map-community-criteria. Open Street Map is the topographic
sister of Wikipedia.</p> <p>When TransforMap was initiated, back in
2014, the community was seeking to combine the Open Street Map approach
with the ambition of making the plethora of socio-economic alternatives –
TAPAS: There Are Plenty of AlternativeS – visible. We wanted to add to
the many crowdsourced maps a possibility to see TAPAs unfolding at a
glance, all at once, at people’s devices, in a userfriendly way without
being patronizing nor concentrating data. That was and still is
TransforMap’s ambition: to challenge both: the dictatorship of
corporate-owned data and the cultural hegemony of a an economy stuck in a
neoliberal or neoclassical Market-State framework through bringing
plenty of Alternatives to everybodie’s attention, among them: the
Commons.</p> <p>Countless mapping projects around the world have similar
ambitions. Just as TransforMap they are committed to enhance the
visibility and impact of all those projects, initiatives and enterprises
who contribute to a free, fair and sustainable future. However, most of
them receive only small attention in mainstream media and general
culture, because they are</p> <p># utterly disconnected from each other<br> # partly enclosed on proprietary platforms – like google maps<br> # built on different taxonomies and<br> # (luckily) highly diverse in their mapping approach</p> <p>In short: not interoperable.</p> <p>Working
towards interoperability of the countless alter-maps is widely
perceived as a key element for enhancing their impact. Thus, the need
for a convergence and for atlassing maps based on a ‚Mapping <i>as a </i><i>C</i><i>ommons</i><i>‚</i> as opposed to ‚Mapping <i>the</i>
Commons‘. The former is a mapping-philosophy and crucial for destilling
the governance principle of emancipatory mapping projects, the latter
is just one out of many ‚objects‘ or ‚items“ to be mapped.</p> <p>The following lines roughly sketch out our understanding of ‚Mapping <i>as</i> a Commons“. Later on, they might turn into a manifesto for ‚M<em>apping </em><em><i>as</i></em> <em>C</em><em>ommoning</em><em>‚</em><em> for </em><em>many many maps </em><em>and through </em><em>a multitude of </em><em>mappers. </em><em>They are</em><em> written in an </em>inimperative
manifesto form, to be used from now on as a guideline or quick
analytical tool to evaluate the own mapping practices.</p> <p><b>Mapping as a Commons, what does it mean? (0.2)<br> </b></p> <p>The following is based on the <a href="http://jon.2016.wsf.federated.wiki/view/welcome-visitors/view/mapping-for-transformation/view/mapping-as-a-commons">raw notes from </a><a href="http://jon.2016.wsf.federated.wiki/view/welcome-visitors/view/mapping-for-transformation/view/mapping-as-a-commons"><span><span>Commons Space at </span></span></a><a href="http://jon.2016.wsf.federated.wiki/view/welcome-visitors/view/mapping-for-transformation/view/mapping-as-a-commons">WSF 2016</a> and an initial summary by<a href="https://discourse.transformap.co/t/mapping-as-a-commons-article-project/1181"> @almereyda</a>.
The principles are the condensate of globally dispersed, locally found
initiatives which collaborate for building and maintaining a shared
mapping commons.</p> <p><strong>1. Stick to the Commons: as a goal and a practice</strong><br>
The challenge is twofold: contribute to the Commons as a shared
resource and do it through commoning. Your mapping project is not a
deliverable, nor a service-product to compete on the map-market. Hence,
it is paramount to systematically <a href="https://discourse.transformap.co/t/separate-commons-and-commerce-to-make-it-work-for-the-commons/625%20separate%20commons%20from%20commerce">separate commons and commerce</a> <i>and</i>
to integrate the insigths (patterns?) of successful commoning-practices
into your mapping initiative. Strive for coherence at any moment!</p> <p><strong>2. Create syntony on the goal</strong><br>
Discuss your common goal and your understanding of „mapping as
commoning“ again and again. And again! Everybody involved should
resonate on the essentials and feel in syntony with mapping for the
Commons through commoning at any time.</p> <p><strong>3. People’s needs first</strong><br>
Maps provide orientation to common people but also visibility of power
and policy-driven agendas. Make sure your map doesn’t feed the
power-imbalances. People’s needs trump desires of institutions, donors
or clients.</p> <p><strong>4. Keep an eye on interoperability and use web technology</strong><br>
To map as a commoner implies caring for other mappers needs and
concerns. You will take them into account through dialogue with
partner-mappers and make sure interoperability is a shared goal.</p> <p><strong>[5.Contribute to the Federated Commons</strong><br>
Mapping the World through Commoning is a double contribution: among
commons projects and initiatives toward a Federate Commons and between
Commons projects, solutions or initiatives and other socio-economic
alternatives.]</p> <p><strong>6. Provide open access</strong><br> Always. To everything.</p> <p><strong>7. Use free software</strong><br>
Work with free software at all levels is critical, as it is not about
the freedom of the software, but about your freedom to further develop
your mapping projects according to your own needs.</p> <p><strong>8. Self-host your infrastructure</strong><br>
Only use technology which allows to be replicated quickly as for
instance [@almereyda ?]. Eat your own dogfood [@almereyda, what does it
mean?], and document transparently, how you do it. Transparent
documentation means understandable documentation.</p> <p><strong>9. Build on open technology standards</strong><br>
Ensure your map(s), its data and associated mapping applications can be
reused on a wide diversity of media and devices. Ergo: hands off
proprietarian technologies and their standards. Don’t think about them
not even as interim solution. If you do, you risk to add one interim to
another and get trapped into dependencies.</p> <p><strong>10. Make sure you really own your data</strong><br> ‚Mapping as a Commons‘ strives for <b>mapping souvereignity</b>
at all levels. In the short run, it seems to be a nightmare to refrain
from importing data for geolocation or copying & pasting what you
are not legally entitled to. In the long run, it is the only way to
prevent you being sued or your data being enclosed. Make sure you really
own your data. It prevents you from the real nightmare of at some point
loosing your data without being able to do something against.</p> <p><strong>11. Use free open data licenses</strong><br>
To own your data is important, but not enough. Make sure nobody dumps
your common data back into the world of marketization and enclosures.
What is in the Commons must remain in the Commons. Free licences protect
the result of your collective work at any moment. Make use of them.
It’s simple.</p> <p><strong>12. Guarantee the openness of taxonomies</strong><br>
A taxonomy is incomplete as a matter of fact. It is one out of many
entry points to complex social worlds. The more you learn about these
worlds the better you can adjust your taxonomy. An open taxonomy allows
your peer mappers and users to search it for a concept, link them -via
tag- to a parent category, to add missing concepts if you allow for or
to merge tag structures.</p> <p><strong>13. Make the Data Commons thrive </strong><b>through your usage<br> </b>Link
to WikiData and OpenStreetMap from the beginning! It’s just nonsense to
maintain your single data set. There is so much to benefit from and
contribute to the data commons. Explore abundance and contribute loads
to our shared data.<b> </b></p> <p><strong>14. Care for your Data Commons</strong><br> Strive for accuracy and remember at the same time, that there is always subjectivity in data.</p> <p><strong>15. Protect the ‚maps & atlasses commons‘ legally as commons</strong><br>
Remember: each commons needs protection. Innovative legal forms help to
prevent cooptation. Make sure the resulting maps and atlasses own
themselves instead of being owned by any specific person or
organization.</p> <p><strong>16. Crowdsource your mapping</strong><br> Do so whenever you can and for whatever is needed: money, time, knowledge, storing space, hardware, monitoring etc.</p> <p><strong>Last resort</strong></p> <p><strong>17. Remember</strong>
always why you are making the map and who you are making it for.
Remember that everyone is a mapmaker. Share what you can and if
everything looks dark: take a break, keep calm and continue commoning.</p> <p><strong>18. Archive the map</strong> when it doesn’t work anymore for you. Others might want to build on it, somewhen.</p> <p>PLEASE HELP US TESTING AND IMPROVING THESE PRINCIPLES.</p> </div> </div>
</div></div>