Originally developed to provide a free, open source map to the public, OpenStreetMap allows users to annotate locations in a way that promises to incorporate local landscape, history, and culture in a way lacking from most online maps. By glossing a basic physical map, contributors to the collaborative project can not only provide more detailed information about the terrain and logistics of travel (such as the location of of postal drop boxes and--for what it's worth--cattle grids) but have an opportunity to sketch out land use patterns and features that play a role in community life. Through user editing and annotation, maps display old town commons, historic homes, and other features, allowing travelers to get a quick overview of ...
categorized as hyperexperience, maps, perception.
Welcome to the Collaborative!
We're a small, nonprofit research and education group. If you are unfamiliar with us we encourage you to look around and subscribe to our feed to stay in touch. If you like what we do and the kind of things we talk about - please consider donating to support our work.
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Featured Projects
Call for Volunteers
- We're looking for a volunteer community manager to do some pretty fun 'public good from sharing research' projects. Paid in credit, resources and small stipends if needed.
- We're looking for students interested in doing research (either their own, or ours) for the Fall term. Paid in learning, resources and output ownership.
- We're looking for bloggers to write about fascinating things to learn (public oriented learning). Paid in credit, output ownership and ad revenue sharing.
Please contact us at apply@creativesynthesis.net if you're interested.
A Friendly Note
To support us, Make a Donation or Become a Member - we rely on donations for our operating costs, things like paying salaries and stipends, office space, and even post-its.
We're beginning serious fundraising initiatives.
Meet the Collaboratives
Creative TV (see all the channels)
alter doodles
No Robots Please! is an elementary school workshop by bioengineer Alan Outten where he introduced children to alternate design concepts and prompted them to invent their own. He began ...
city bits
Born out of the Rome Reborn project, CityEngine
is a powerful tool for modeling entire cities in perfect detail. Because of its roots in art history the aims ...
The Sound of Stone
Archaeologist and artist Steven Waller has spent the past two decades exploring a multisensory explanation for the location and design of Neolithic and Paleolithic art. Looking beyond visual ...
construction costs
Gavin Lee’s workshop group at Nightmarket ‘08 produced a Flash game highlighting the social costs of destruction. Using a Wii remote, users can drive a bulldozer through a ...
Open Forum on Research
The American Historical Association created the Archives Wiki as a clearinghouse for information on the process of archival research and details about individual collections. The initial entries cover ...
Conservation Tees
In 2007, fashion designer Beth Doane and graphic designer Bethany Armstrong merged their interests in human rights, biodiversity, and sustainable economic development to create the Rain Tee Collection for ...
ice cream lottery
As part of the nightmarket.web workshop here in Tainan, Team_less revealed the existence of a novel fast food distribution system: the ice cream lottery, a roulette wheel that ...
digital sweat
I recently watched Stephanie Rothenberg speak about her project doublehappinessjeans, a Second Life sweatshop that produces designer denim by the underpaid labor of virtual avatars; producing the ...
The Zone
The vision of the nonprofit group Zones of Peace International Foundation (ZOPIF) merges conflict-resolution, community-building, and preservation of cultural and historic sites. ZOPIF grew from a recognition of the ...
black tin 2
Tin Mining In Bangka Island - Click here for this week’s top video clips
I’ve talked about the devastation that illegal tin mining has wrought on ...