COMMUNITY MAPPING // PARTICIPATORY MAPPING // VERNACULAR MAPPING



***************************
Chris Perkins, "Community Mapping"



Reviews the state of the art of collaborative community mapping in the UK

Significance of local alternative cartographies :  parish mapping, green maps, artistic maps, open source mapping, and cycle mapping.



History of cartography : maps and power >>> maps have been done by the institutions in power and have been used to administer countries, reinforce property rights, plan military operations, create wars, colonize new worlds, build empires.

Usually people have used maps created by professional cartographers.



All human beings can map :: People have natural mapping abilities (Blaut 2003)

cartography has increasingly been democratized thanks to technology  and social change (Rood 2001)


emergence of critical approaches to mapping.


tools are availble for creating maps and express own mapping skills



"Community mapping plays a significan role in this process. It might be defined as local mapping, produced collaboratively, by local people and often incorporating alteranative local knowledge." 127



radical possibilities of community mapping

various authors have recognized the possibilities of local community mapping.
different kind of struggles that can be advanced with community mapping such as 

protesting against planners, advancing local claims to land, conserving landscapes, protecting local wildlife in face of development, reasserting indigenous people's rights, re-publishing the past for contemporary consumption, opposing military power, rejecting surveillance,


indigenous mapping and reassertion of proprietary rigts

counter mapping >>> participatory development using mapping to implement local based development


"Democratised mapping offers new possibilities for articulating social, economic, political or aesthetic claims. 127


voice to the margin groups



digital mapping and the internet >>> more possibilities :: the world wide web :: characteristics of the computer networks

data is available, more accessible and flexible, the web encourages collaborative participation and cost-effective dissemination
can be used as an effective medium to organise opposition, activits.



GIS: geographical information systems

GPS: geospatial technologies


participatory GIS>>> incorporation of local voices into maps produced by especialists (usually)




evaluation of the state of the art in the UK



relations between community mapping, power, and place >> depends of the country and society



"community mapping reflects and articulates contested and complex notions of place, mediated through politics, practices, technology, and aesthtetics." 128



bottom up initiatives and democratisation
non professional mapping


artistic mapping >>> situationists and "psycho-geography" >>> 
"derive" practice of Guy Debord in paris in 1950s
mapping drifts around paris
walking and mapping personal tracks  >> alternative maps that open view of other places, differents to the ones imposed.
walking the city in new ways, reclaiming places from comerce or suveillance




hacks and mashups of data with maps
Technical developments in recent years have made possible to create alternatives to commodified maps >>> still depend upon commercial provision of base map and image data

commercial base maps :: yahoo, google, mapquest


"open source alternatives" created to offer a fully sharable data




--OSM

OSM, founded in July 2004 by Steve Coast


CC licence

create a "free alternative map"


data are collected from diverse sources : pd imagery, donations

GPS tracks collected by volunteers with GPS receivers

local knowledge is important for street and feature naming

out of copyright mapping
satelite imagery


"The ethic is to oppose any non-public-domain sourcing of matieral that ends up in the database." 135


OSM website "facilitates access to collaboratively collected map data, by employing simple viewing softare, including a newly 'slippy' map." 135

Editing tools allow GPS tracks to be onverted into ways, support the feature coding of the database, and the creation of properly rendered mapping from SVG formatted data.


decentralized and strongly collaborative

a kind of wiki map shared among those who create it and those who visit the website


"Any user can amend any part of the map and the process of map creation explicitly relies upon sharing and participation."


This is a kind of "community mapping"

"shares a functional focus, rather than a necessary geographical propinquity." 135


"Shared identity is reinforced through mailing lists and a complex array of online tools. A real commmunity of interst is fostered through regular social events, notably 'map parties', which aim to fill in gaps in coverage." 135

partieis bring together novices with more experienced mappers and have become an important part of the open ethos

parties around the world
wikiprojects with specific local intentions


OSM is growing at an exponential rate

the map is far from complete

Data from OSM can be exported as SVG graphics, be output back to a GPS, and displayed on mobile devices.


commercial business are using the OSM data

tensions in the project
"OSM is run on a shoestring and relies strongly upon a small key group of activits who are essentially interested in developing the open source code and the funtionality of the system. The majority of users simply collect street data: few edit and code. The hardes work is in adding layers of data to the GPS tracks, lavelling the ways and adding value to the street data." 135

As the data becomes richer so there may well be increasing pressure to employ ti in ways that do not confrom to the initial collavoraive remit of the system.


"notion of wiki-mapping is strongly technology-dependent" 136

networks :: social possiblities which encourage mapping :: mailing lists, wikis, forum



OSM "facilitates local activity that feeds in to a potentionally global project" 136


most community mapping seeks to change the world >> the product is a tool that helps this process

OSM will grow to compete with commercial mapping



"mapping exercises are usually about an empowering process in their own right: local capacity is developed and social groups grow around a mapping event." 136



importantce of mapping as a set of practices and as an end goa

technological and social change >>> collaborative community mapping wil become increasingly significant.


people are mapping because they want to do it




**********************
Integrating GIS and Participatory Mapping in Community 
Development Planning 
Shalini P. Vajjhala*1 



Paper for the ESRI International User Conference, Sustainable Development and 
Humanitarian Affairs Track, San Diego, CA, July 2005. 






Geographic information and spatial data have played increasingly important roles 
in development planning and environmental decision making from top-down management to 
grass-roots participation.



combination of mapping media 



 variety of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for their potential 
to facilitate participatory development that is both inclusive and environmentally-sensitive.
1




Because decisions related to both development and the 
environment are inherently grounded in the physical locations of key populations, resources, 
and issues, spatial information is central to these choices



Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and technologies 



This paper argues that with the changing 
nature of development, the increasing emphasis on social and environmental sustainability, 
and the global attention to community-level planning, GIS need to move beyond conventional 
representations of where people live to describe more effectively the dynamics of how people 
live. 
2



 the potential of a GIS to illustrate collectively numerous aspects of 
a location has been its primary strength; however, with the emphasis on participatory 
information, this strength of the technology has also become a fundamental weakness of its 
output. 
2



a variety of existing methodologies for facilitating participation have 
emerged to fill this gap and promote equitable development (Chambers 1994; Cornwall and 
Jewkes 1995). One such popular tool for spatial data collection is participatory mapping. The 
term participatory mapping, as it is used here, is defined broadly as any combination of 
participation-based methods for eliciting and recording spatial data. Specific examples include 
sketch mapping, scale mapping, and transect walking, among others (Chambers 1994; World 
Bank 1996). 
3



participatory maps, in 
contrast to GIS, describe how people live, many of these methods are limited in their 
usefulness. Often the process of data collection is extremely time-consuming, and the resulting 
information is difficult to compile and unwieldy for effective use by decision makers
3



 complementary characteristics of participatory mapping and GIS

>> integrate GIS + participatory mapping  = participatory digital mapping

The combination of participatory methods and GIS is not new, but this research is unique in its 
collective focus on 1) the participatory inputs into GIS, 2) the direct users of GIS software, and 
3) the indirect users of GIS output. The goal of this work is to develop a medium for 
participation that retains the elaborate information storage and consolidation capacities of GIS 
while simplifying and tailoring the graphic display to different audiences using elements and 
attributes of traditional mapping. 
3


research combining participatory mapping and GIS is in its early stages. 


>> participation
all of the “building 
blocks” of participation, including: information collection, integration, and dissemination; 
stakeholder communication; and participatory decision making.2 
3




Collecting participatory 
information using traditional methods allows the focus of the dialogue to remain on social not 
spatial issues, while integrating the data into the GIS formalizes the spatial characteristics and 
maximizes the relevance and potential for integration with other related data. Striking this 
balance goes back to the differences between how and where people live and brings both types 
of information together. 
6


>>>differences

Participatory maps are largely subjective and focused on 
representing local perceptions and descriptive information. As a result, these maps are often 
small-scale and widely understood, like a sketch map one would use to give directions based 
on familiar routes and landmarks. On the other hand, GIS maps are designed to be objective 
depictions of reality and comprehensive sources of data, hence their visual complexity. 
7



strategies for integrating participatory mapping and GIS into 
participatory digital mapping.




bottom-up development planning have increasingly revolved 
around communities and neighborhoods.


Spatial information is essential to understanding these local priorities, 
perceptions, and preferences and to making socially-acceptable decisions




>>>Familiar symbols :: user defined symbols

the simple addition of familiar symbols to a GIS map, 
dramatically transforms the map display and integrates the social accuracy of the original 
participatory maps with the spatial precision of the underlying GIS layers. 
13



>>> integrating sense of place into GIS

While traditional GIS maps convey information about a place, they do not provide a “sense of 
place.” This fundamental “feeling” about a place usually comes from visiting that place, seeing 
photographs, or hearing stories, and is essential to being able to make decisions or form 
opinions about a place. This study establishes participatory digital mapping as a medium that 
connects the sense of place captured by participatory maps with more objective GIS data.   
14



There are multiple 
strategies for collecting participatory maps, integrating the information into GIS, and 
generating additional maps based on the elicited participatory information. 
20

e.g. sketch maps later integrated into GIS



>>> relevant for

this approach is relevant to a variety of global development efforts including: 
community-based design and planning, infrastructure and facilities siting, trans-boundary 
natural resource management, health care service delivery, development-induced displacement 
and resettlement, environmental justice initiatives, and border and resource conflict resolution, 
among other worldwide programs.
21


**************************************

uses of maps : for orientation and navigation >> everyday
negotiation between the self and the map


***********************

Vernacular mappings  
affect, virtuality, performance  
 
PRS Upgrade Report  
 
Joe Gerlach 
Jesus College 
Supervisors: Professor Sarah Whatmore, Dr Derek McCormack 
School of Geography, University of Oxford 
2009 



new forms of participatory mapping, or 
what is termed here, ‘vernacular mappings’. Arguing that geographers need to pay closer attention 
to vernacular mappings, particularly to Web 2.0 assemblages


social and political potential of 
vernacular mapping for reconfiguring cartographic practices and geographic imaginations, 
suggesting that popular forms of participatory cartographies, inspired by prolific virtual geo- 
visualisations such as Google Earth have the capacity to alter perceptions of, and movements 
through space. 



ethnography of OpenStreetMap, a wiki- 
based participatory mapping organisation,



Facilitated to a large extent by the expansion of Web 2.0 (a perceived second generation of the 
internet which augments user-intervention and cyber-collaboration), participatory and ‘open-source’ 
mapping groups such as the wiki-based OpenStreetMap have re-ignited people’s enthusiasm for 
subaltern mappings, whether along pencil or digitalised lines 
3



the research demonstrates that vernacular 
mappings constitute a serious assemblage of performances, processes and humans/non-humans 
which are set to fundamentally change cartographic practices. These performances, as Deleuze and 
Guattari suggest, constitute a micro-politics; not a politics of resistance, but a quotidian politics; 
space-times of, and for, the everyday.  
4




can vernacular mappings contribute to efforts to develop more 
participatory cartographies/GIS and which resist subsumption by corporate or state-sponsored 
mappings? Where vernacular mappings are co-opted into institutional/business practices and 
knowledge generation, for example in the case of Google Earth, the research will investigate how 
the performances involved in vernacular mapping are appropriated by cartographic businesses and 
their attendant modes of (spatial) knowledge production.  
5



 GIS and corporate cartography




mapping which works through 
bodies as sensors, and one which traces the bodily movements of humans and non-humans.
7


the 
vernacular as an open-ended set of lively, bodily and co-produced performances
7




>> open source cartographies

examples of participatory 
mapping projects, OpenStreetMap and Greenmap, the review suggests that the hybrid practices and 
performances of similar organisations highlight the intrinsically vernacular nature and output of 
these emergent open-source cartographies; explicitly, that whilst their practices rely on particular 
idioms and literacies, they are based on co-performances and that their outputs (knowledges, 
materials, waste) are co-produced – with actants not exclusively human.
8




Participatory mapping groups such as OpenStreetMap (OSM) run along and evoke the routines of 
day-to-day movements. Founded in July 2004, OpenStreetMap defies facile categorisation as an 
institution, non-governmental organisation or pressure group. At its core is a global collective of 
amateur mappers who using handheld GPS devices and open-source wiki-style software, map (and 
generate) spaces. Even labelling OSM as a ‘collective’ is overstating the case, such are its diffuse and 
networked characteristics. Whilst the mappers are plugged into to a hybrid assemblage of satellites, 
relay-circuits, fibre-optic cables and concrete, the bodily performances which ‘do’ the sensing are 
seemingly (and literally) pedestrian; walking, pointing, pressing, sketching, discussing, sometimes 
over a pint after the day’s mapping has been done. The ‘output’ of OSM is arguably no-less 
significant than that of cartographic behemoths such as Ordnance Survey and may in time even 
surpass the relevance of such institutions, but it is the vernacular character and practices of OSM 
which distinguish it from its corporate counterparts.  
9




Participatory mapping and particularly projects which rely on Web 2.0 and other free-open-source 
software (FOSS) packages enshrine particular idioms and literacie
9



It differs too, from traditional GIS, in that the motivations and methods of OSM are not commercially 
aligned, although that is not to argue that there are not issues of technical literacy and access which 
need to be addressed.
10




*****************************************
Good practices 
in participatory 
mapping 
A review prepared for the 
International Fund for 
Agricultural Development (IFAD) 

© 2009 by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)




What is participatory mapping? 



Participatory 
mapping is, in its broadest sense, the creation 
of maps by local communities – often with 
the involvement of supporting organizations 
including governments (at various levels), 
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 
universities and other actors engaged in 
development and land-related planning. 
4


since the 1990s explosion of participatory mapping projects


Participatory maps provide a valuable 
visual representation of what a community 
perceives as its place and the significant 
features within it. These include depictions of 
natural physical features and resources and 
socio-cultural features known by the 
community. Participatory mapping is 
multidisciplinary. What makes it significantly 
different from traditional cartography and 
map-making is the process by which the 
maps are created and the uses to which they 
are subsequently put.
4




 The participatory mapping 
process can influence the internal dynamics 
of a community. This process can contribute 
to building community cohesion, help 
stimulate community members to engage in 
land-related decision-making, raise awareness 
about pressing land-related issues and 
ultimately contribute to empowering local 
communities and their members. 
4


The general aims and specific objectives of 
participatory mapping initiatives vary 
significantly. This variation is directly related 
to the end-use to which these maps will be 
put, which in turn is influenced by the 
audience that will view and make decisions 
about the content of these maps.
4


Participatory mapping projects can also 
take on an advocacy role and actively seek 
recognition for community spaces
4


Often participatory mapping initiatives are 
initiated by outsider groups and the maps 
produced will contribute to an outsider’s 
agenda.
5


Participatory mapping applications 


Participatory mapping tools:


Participatory mapping uses a range of tools 
including data collection tools that are 
commonly associated with Participatory 
Learning and Action (PLA) initiatives. These 
tools include mental mapping, ground 
mapping, participatory sketch mapping, 
transect mapping and participatory 
3-dimensional modelling. Recently 
participatory mapping initiatives have begun 
to use more technically advanced geographic 
information technologies including Global 
Positioning Systems (GPS), aerial photos 
and remote-sensed images (from satellites), 
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and 
other digital computer-based technologies. 
5




Hands-on mapping 13 
Participatory mapping using scale maps and images 14 
Participatory 3-D models (P3DM) 15 
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 17 
Multimedia and Internet-based mapping 



***************************
Web Mapping 2.0: The Neogeography of the GeoWeb 

by Muki Haklay1*, Alex Singleton1 and Chris Parker2 





 map mash-ups, crowdsourcing, mapping application 
programming interfaces (API), neogeography, geostack, tags, geotechnologies 
and folksonomies. 



Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the 
move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. (O’Reilly 2006) 



Web 2.0 is a bi-directional collaboration in which users are able to interact with and provide information to central sites, and to see that information collated and made available to others.



 across the globe, but several 
important activities have occurred in the UK over the past few years. 



On this day, the US 
President, Bill Clinton, announced the removal of selective availability of 
the GPS signal (Clinton 2000), and by so doing provided an improved 
accuracy for simple, low-cost GPS receivers.



These receivers enabled more people than ever before to collect 
information about different locations and upload this information to their 
computers. However, until 2002, when an interchange standard (GPX) 
was published, the sharing of this information was a complicated task that 
required computing and data manipulation knowledge.






GPX belongs to a class of standards and technologies that provides 
the infrastructure for what came to be known as Web 2.0. The impacts 
of Web 2.0 can be considered in terms of the underpinning technologies 
and the characteristics of application development and use they enable.



according to Turner: 
Neogeography means ‘new geography’ and consists of a set of techniques and 
tools that fall outside the realm of traditional GIS, Geographic Information 
Systems. Where historically a professional cartographer might use ArcGIS, talk 
of Mercator versus Mollweide projections, and resolve land area disputes, a 
neogeographer uses a mapping API like Google Maps, talks about GPX versus 
KML, and geotags his photos to make a map of his summer vacation. 



 ‘crowd-sourcing’ 
 ‘in many peer production 
communities, productive activities are voluntary and non-monetary’; 
content is created for free, for the development of the community. 



OSM is a project to create a set of map data that are 
free to use, editable and licensed under new copyright schemes (Figure6). 
A key motivation for this project is to enable free access to current
geographic information in European countries where geographic infor- 
mation is considered to be expensive.


In the USA, where basic road data 
are available through the US Census Bureau TIGER/Line programme, the 
details that are provided are limited (streets and roads only) and do not include 
green space, landmarks and the like. 




The OSM 
data are stored in servers at University College London (UCL) and Bytemark 
which contributes the bandwidth for this project.
p.2027


it is a core group of about 
40 volunteers who dedicate their time to create a viable data collection 
service. This includes the maintenance of the server, writing the core 
software that handles the transactions with the server in adding and editing 
geographic information, and creating cartographical outputs. 
2028


OSM is a knowledge collective that is creating a meaningful geographic data 
collection as its main objective. At the same time, it includes a peer production 
network, as different groups within the organisation are focusing on the 
development of different aspects of the project – digitising tools, rendering 
software to display the maps, server software to host and coordinate the 
production and delivery, and running activities such as mapping parties. It 
is utilising community computing grids in the process of rendering the 
various tiles through the programme Tiles@home, in which about 100 
volunteers use their computers to render OSM tiles. 
2028


the API for downloading the data is very simple – all 
that is required is latitude and longitude coordinates.
2028


OSM data are not complete or consistent across the world, or 
even across London, where the project has started. The accuracy of the 
data is unknown, as there are no systemic and comprehensive quality 
assurance processes integral to the data collection.
2028


no intention of universal coverage or social equality



>>> participatory model of production of content >> provision of info

As with other media content providers (e.g. music and news media), the 
general information provision model has now changed. It has changed 
from a linear, publishing ‘push’ model where data and information is 
collected and brought together centrally, turned into product and published 
to an inter-networked, participatory model where users also collaboratively 
create, share and mash-up data and where information can be accessed 
through many channels, almost anywhere, when the user wants it.
2033



The increased prevalence of user-generated content (including 
products and services) is blurring the difference between producers and 
consumers in what is sometimes termed prosumer. There is also a realisation 
of users as innovators, experimenting with new products and services on 
open innovation platforms, 
2033



When all can potentially capture and distribute data through 
access to GPS, the Internet and mobile devices, what information can 
users trust? 


mass collaboration based on the principles of openness, peer 
production, sharing and acting globally. 




>>> strong techno-libertarian politics :: high-tech and Internet culture 

the concepts of collaboration, cooperation, sharing and 
openness should be seen within a context of a capitalist mode of production 
where the collaboration is done from personal motives and in advancement 
of personal wealth, and less as an altruistic activity. 
2034







Web Mapping 2.0 and neogeography have added 
more and made the former easier to use and information easier to access 
and convey to millions. The potential of these open, collaborative tech- 
niques to address challenges, be they local or global, is very significant.
2035



large pool of enthusiastic amateurs with significant interest 
and willingness to invest their time and effort into the use of these 
technologies.
2035