Spotted in SE Portland, OR during a three day whirlwind visit. If you’re in the hood, make it a point to check out Meat Bread Cheese.

Taken with the IPhone and edited with Instagram and Snapseed.

A number of teams and organizations have been instrumental in pushing OSM out to a large audience, including (improbably) MapQuest. Another group that has played a major role in accelerating the widespread use and adoption of OSM is Development Seed, a DC-based team that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. The hard work and creativity of Development Seed and their Mapbox brand of open source mapping tools have made it easier than ever to leverage OSM data to create visually appealing, data-rich maps that serve a variety of purposes, from supporting foursquare’s check-in service to helping us understand U.S. census data to making it possible to do in-depth analysis of Afghan election results.

I’m excited about OSM because while working in the developing world I’ve attempted to use commercial mapping services like Google Maps to analyze development data, manage operations, and understand the geographic context of my work. In many places, the data offered by Google Maps is woefully inadequate for those tasks or, worse, simply unavailable. In some cases, OSM offers superior data (a number of people have favorably compared OSM to Google Maps in places like Kabul, Port-au-Prince, Cairo, and Kibera in Kenya). In other cases, where OSM data is incomplete, we see the difference that OSM can make in the world of online mapping.

Instead of waiting for a massive corporation to acquire and integrate data in the places we care about, thanks to OSM we have the ability to add the data ourselves. The results are impressive: the data is better, everyone can use it for free, there are no onerous or expensive terms of use, and the addition of data doesn’t benefit one corporation competing against others (it benefits everyone). One of my concerns with OSM has been that the tools for adding new data to OSM are built for mapping enthusiasts and technical specialists rather than the general public. To contribute to OSM, individuals must have a high degree of computer literacy and the patience to work through OSM’s toolset. In the developing world, this often means that rigorous training is required before local individuals possess the knowledge and skills to contribute data.

Fortunately, Development Seed is hard at work on this problem. They’ve submitted an application to the Knight Foundation that details their plans for creating contribution tools for the average person. It is my belief that these tools will help accelerate the contribution of data to OSM, much in the same way that Development Seed’s Mapbox ecosystem has helped accelerate the adoption of OSM in mainstream consumer web applications. With TileMill, they’ve lowered the barrier to creating maps. With these contribution tools, they will lower the barrier to adding data to OSM. We’ll all benefit.

I encourage you to take a look at their application and to support them by getting the word out via social media. Help make 2012 the year of OSM!

The view out of Berkeley’s South Hall. Edited with snapseed.

San Miguel de Allende is a city of contrasts. There are many, of course, but the one most visible to me in my weekend trip was the contrast between Mexicans living and working in the city and the huge number of American residents and visitors. Where better to experience this contrast than at the city’s annual dog show?  I found the contrasts jarring but maybe you’ll have a different reaction. See the photos below and feel free to click through the slide show at bottom.

Slideshow:

Spotted in Redwood Regional Park in the East Bay.

Today I had the opportunity to check out Taller Lenateros, a small workshop that takes recycled materials and produces incredible paper, books, and art. From their website:

A publishing collective operated by contemporary Mayan artists in Chiapas, Mexico. Founded in 1975 by poet Ámbar Past, the Workshop has created the first books to be written, illustrated, printed, bound (in paper of their own making) by Mayan people in over 400 years. Among its multiple objectives are those of documentation, praise and dissemination of Amerindian cultural values: song, literature, plastic arts, and the ancient Mesoamerican tradition of painted books.

The Leñateros’ rescue of old and endangered techniques such as the extraction of dyes from wild plants, contributes to the conservation of Native American languages, and benefits the ecology by recycling agricultural and industrial wastes, transforming them into art and beautiful books.

I’m wrapping up a fantastic in Chiapas, Mexico, where Ariel Chait and I participated in the annual meeting of CoopSol. Small scale coffee producers from around Latin America got together with the roasters and retailers of Cooperative Coffees to talk about the current state of Fair Trade, best practices in Fair Trade and organic coffee production, and where the future of specialty coffee is headed. Based in San Cristobal de las Casas, we held meetings at CEDECI, a training center for local indigenous people; in the mountains near Acteal, the home of Maya Vinic coffee; and around the picturesque city of San Cris. For Ariel and me, it was a great opportunity to meet a lot of good people and talk about Acopio Movil, the project we’ve been working on at Cal.

Check out the gallery below for some pictures from the week and a video featuring fellow participants.

Video:

Cafe Campesino and FECAFEB in Chiapas, Mexico from Paul G on Vimeo.

A short conversation with Tripp Pomeroy and Elias Chocanapi in the coffee fields of Maya Vinic near Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico.