In keeping with the map-related theme of my post the other day, I attended the launch party for OpenStreetMap Brighton this evening.

OpenStreetMap is a project I first heard about last year at the reboot conference in Copenhagen. It essentially involves people going out with hand-held GPS devices and mapping places by walking/cycling/driving around, with the resulting maps being offered for free to the general public to be used in any way anyone likes.

This is remarkable because, in the UK and a lot of other countries, there are serious restrictions (and fees) associated with using maps, even when those maps consist of public sector information provided by government agencies for the taxpayers who fund them (you can find out more about this in the OpenStreetMap FAQs ).

So OpenStreetMap is fabulous in a “data wants to be free” sort of way, and it’s also a fantastic example of what can be achieved when people cooperate to do something for the common good. Take the Brighton map, for example. Just over a year ago, the free map data available for Brighton was extremely sparse, covering only a few of the main roads in the town. But right after the dconstruct conference last year, OpenStreetMap held a workshop in Brighton, and just one day of mapping produced an amazing amount of raw map data.

One year on, and the OpenStreetMap map of Brighton is finished and looks like this (zoom in on that—it’s just as detailed as anything you’ll find on Google Maps, and it’s free!). I think that’s wonderful. It’s mapping of the people, by the people and for the people. It’s geography and community. It’s where old-fashioned cartography meets cutting-edge satellite technology. It’s the type of decentralized, collaborative knowledge production that the Web was made for, and it reminds me that when we aren’t wasting time being completely stupid, humans can do some pretty cool things.