Welcome to Open
Open means a lot of things these days. Open source – like Nokia and Intel’s new Meego platform for its smartphones and a bit like the Darwin layer that sits underneath the Macs that we use. Wikipedia, which totally isn’t the first port of call for us when we’re looking anything up. And now with OpenStreetMap, which with Stamen, we’re using as the basis for a lot of work that we’ve been doing with Nike Grid in London.
OpenStreetMap is a stupendously enormous collaborative project that’s creating a free, editable map of the world. It’s been something that’s been completely invaluable when we’ve been putting Nike Grid together – everything from the maps that you can see on the website that AKQA put together to the maps and packaging that formed part of the player pack to the designs on the phone boxes. And this time, on the daily data visualisation videos that we’ve been putting together and – for the first time – a TV ad that we turned around in less than 12 hours, based on live run data. That’s pretty awesome. How about that for building on the shoulders of giants?
Nike Grid Maps – MAP DATA © OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS, CC-BY-SA
Nike Grid TV Spot – MAP DATA © OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS, CC-BY-SA
Nike Grid Girls v Boys – MAP DATA © OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS, CC-BY-SA
And we couldn’t have done it without being able to work with a big open community.
You think Wikipedia’s amazing for everything people have contributed to it? Check out this video of a year of edits to OpenStreetMap. That’s awesome.
OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo.
So a big thumbs up for OpenStreetMap – a stupendously amazing project that’s helped everything from the Haiti earthquake to people running around London like mad things – Welcome to Open.