please excuse me if this is inappropriate to comment on. it is wondered if there may be any corollary to ideas of 'community building' and 'community mapping' that are mentioned elsewhere (grass roots/citizen initiatives, also chamber-of-commerce (like) aspects for tourism)...

 it has been thought (by myself, probably others) that architecture students, planners/students, and citizens could do a lot in these areas, locally (here in the .US), for public information about a place can facilitate a lot of things, flows, networks, connections. here it is still the domain of 'yellow pages' for locating businesses by way of a huge yellow paper book given out freely that is bigger than a Bible (the other ubiquitous book of this size, though not given out publicly) and yellow pages are a pathway for a lot of resource based and other information as it migrates online. thus, it has an institutional character, and things organize around it. for instance, data may find its way into geographic systems for consumption- whether maps of special interests (parks, hotels, restaurants) in addition to using these for in-car GPS navigation/entertainment/ 'guides' with placemarkers (forget what their official name is called). in any case, there are traditional mapmakers, huge corporations dealing with GIS (geographic information systems) and tying this to GPS handsets, pre-loaded with geographic- type information, which eventually reaches the consumer market at some point, in some way. entirely limited in my view, of what is possible.

 that is, by reversal of these tools, allowing people to map their own environments, a decentralized mapping project could take place, much like a census, that could have many data fields which could range from infrastructure conditions, to housing conditions, zoning, street life, qualities, and with GPS and a laptop computer to upload data from, 3D (including height) could be taken of the space, of which the 'resolution' of the GIS satellites could help define certain patterns or zones, close enough to provide a rough first mapping of otherwise difficult '3 dimensional' environments (say, something on the 5th floor of a building.) things may not be here yet, in terms of technology to do indoor mapping yet zoning and city planners are using GIS/GPS for such purposes, and architectural students are the ones with the basic skillset to be able to carry out such projects. the scale of what is given below is unknown, maybe it is so hugely complex. yet it makes me wonder if GIS/GPS, in addition to a data-set (what is of value, what is to be mapped, what is missed, what are the questions faced in the built/natural environment, what disciplines may want to participate, such as geographers, planners, economists, others, (tourism)(business)(etc)).

 it is something i've been wanting to do here for years. still cannot get a basic unit (GPS) nor GIS software, and really, it would take many to make a large map (with database of potentially infinite fields, which could be refined over years). these tools have yet to be used to 'make maps' rather than display them, it seems. they have huge potential to open up diverse ways of seeing places, experiencing many levels/ways of interacting. plus, the leverage is in the realm of content, the technical aspects are efficient, it would seem, compared to yesteryear when the rendering was so tied to the data, now it is almost automatic, it would seem, given what data one is to present and the best method for doing so (or ideas)-- visualizing the ideas (ala Edward Tufte). in any case, wanted to do this as it seems a way the community could be a part of a large project, help with issues of literacy related to technology, give a sense of place and community by helping make and define it, and increase the networking of the peoples and environments, creating a living map/cartography. again, i am unaware of the potential different sense of this idea, as it may be opposite. here, it is problematic, as no one is able to see a community as one thing, it is all divided many times over. other places, a community exists, but without a sense of itself as it is so rich yet humble. people could even be part of an initiative to train for this (or others) and receive some income, creating job skills. then, the data can be used by all, say for the tourism industry (in whatever ways are best, if at all), for city services, for census data if taken, for myriad things requiring space/place data for real-enough time applications. brian 

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=71847

NEWSLINE ANCHOR: Losing Old City without a map

Prarthana Gahilote New Delhi, December 28:

IT'S literally a maze. That too without documentation. Despite all the talk about heritage and conservation, there's no map to guide you through Walled City.... According to conservation architect Ratish Nanda, ''There is no count of the number of buildings and roads in Old Delhi so far. A thorough documentation is the basic to any development there. Even though the MCD works in Old Delhi, the results are handicapped because of lack of information.''

 brian thomas carroll: research-design-development architecture, education, electromagnetism http://www.electronetwork.org/bc/