Mass Collaboration

Definition

When a keystroke logs a digital representation of an analog action, actions are converted into text and numbers. Once converted, it is possible to begin examining the trails of collaboration on a very large scale. One example is the OpenStreetMap.org project, a wiki-style map of the world. The project’s goal is to allow anyone to upload map data and save it to the server. While, “some edits are a result of a physical local survey by a contributor with a GPS unit and taking notes,” says the OSM Project, “other edits are done remotely using aerial photography or out-of-copyright maps, and some are bulk imports of official data”.

Each time a piece of data was saved to the server, it contributed to a trail of data that was used to make an animation of the edits over time. Entitled OSM 2008, the video made its debut on several social video sharing sites, including Vimeo, and attracted many interested viewers. The video compressed a year of edits into 1 minute of footage. It showed a map, and a white flash each time a path was entered or updated. As the amount of edits increased over time, the view slowly zoomed out of to a slowly spinning globe, the edits crisscrossing over it like lighting.

OSM was an example of visualizing the collaborative efforts of multiple contributors over time. To create an animation like that before the era of digital footprints would be tedious and expensive. Instead, itoworld.com was able to quickly grab the database data and turn it into an informative and intriguing experience (Link: http://vimeo.com/2598878).