What Happens When Everyone Makes Maps?

Laura Mallonee in the Atlantic: “On a spring Sunday in a Soho penthouse, ten people have gathered for a digital mapping “Edit-A-Thon.” Potted plants grow to the ceiling and soft cork carpets the floor. At a long wooden table, an energetic woman named Liz Barry is showing me how to map my neighborhood. “This is what you’ll see when you look at OpenStreetMap,” she says.

Though visually similar to Google’s, the map on the screen gives users unfettered access to its underlying data — anyone can edit it. Barry lives in Williamsburg, and she’s added many of the neighborhood’s boutiques and restaurants herself. “Sometimes when I’m tired at the end of the day and can’t work anymore, I just edit OpenStreetMap,” she says. “Kind of a weird habit.” Barry then shows me the map’s “guts.” I naively assume it will be something technical and daunting, but it’s just an editable version of the same map, with tools that let you draw roads, identify landmarks, and even label your own house.”