Over the past 20 years, less-than accurate geographic maps have been developed at enormous cost with no system in place to keep them up to date. Without this kind of realtime progress, people are at the mercy of these often outdated and unreliable maps, even on their GPS devices. To counteract the effect of faceless control over this integral facet of social infrastructure, people are beginning to... [read more]

Over the past 20 years, less-than accurate geographic maps have been developed at enormous cost with no system in place to keep them up to date. Without this kind of realtime progress, people are at the mercy of these often outdated and unreliable maps, even on their GPS devices. To counteract the effect of faceless control over this integral facet of social infrastructure, people are beginning to turn to one another to collaborate and remap the world for themselves. How do they doing this? The trifecta of mobile devices, wheels, and the power to revitalize maps into a dynamic, living subculture.

The phenomena of crowdsourced GPS has given rise to an era of self-motivated cartographers, helping each other map out the world for for the good and safety of all-- in real time. But street maps are only the beginning. These pioneers of the wild web are laying the foundation for the future of crowd-sourced geography, where everyone's input is needed to keep maps alive.