WorldMap is an open source, collaborative mapping platform designed to lower technology barriers for researchers across disciplines who want to discover, share, and use geospatial data. WorldMap is not about creating one large comprehensive dataset as Open Street Maps is, but is rather a collaboration space which allows users to bring datasets together from multiple sources to explore, collaborate, and create new knowledge. WorldMap currently makes about 28,000 map layers users have contributed available, and is expanding that collection through a new initiative. With initial funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the CGA is extending WorldMap to provide access to potentially any web map layer on any server in the world through the development of a service registry and fast visual search capability. This new service orchestration system will soon enable maps across thousands of web servers to be discovered and used within WorldMap as well as in other systems outside WorldMap via an open API.
Field Papers is a set of web mapping tools, created by Stamen Design, that bridges the digital and physical aspects of modern mapmaking. Field Papers marries digital and analog technology. You start by printing out maps and marking them up in the field. Then they’re photographed (or scanned) and auto-georeferenced. The resulting images can be used in any GIS software as a reference layer for tracing, or manual verification. This process embraces mapping’s analog past and the role that field enumeration plays when creating new maps. The project is a core component of Portable OpenStreetMap (POS), a collaboration between the American Red Cross, Stamen Design, and Spatial Development International. POSM gathers best-of-breed OpenStreetMap-related tools and adapts them for use where Internet access is unreliable, like informal settlements and remote areas. It’s used to train local volunteers on data collection using OpenDataKit and Open-MapKit on Android phones, Field Papers, and the iD and JOSM OpenStreetMap editors.