At NetSquared 3, Thomas and Wendy of Green Map System got to know more about the OpenStreetMap project and parties from Mikel Maron & Andrew Turner. This is a kind of wikipedia for maps - a free editable map of the world, and anyone can add roads, bike paths and other geographic data to it. What a useful resource!   We thought, let's participate, parties like this could also become a good way to get people involved in our forthcoming Open Green Map, the social mapping website for sustainable communities (preview at http://OpenGreenMap.org).  So we are pleased to provide the venue for NYC's first open mapping party, hosted by OpenStreetMap's initiator, Steve Coast, at our global office this weekend! Steve says:

As there seem to be so many projects at N2Y3 that involve a mapping component, I though I would introduce myself and make some connections.

My mind is rather blown with some of the latest developments in online mapping, having just returned from Where 2.0 in San Francisco.

My background is in Drupal development, and I've done a lot with the Google Map module. You can see some of the stuff at the beta of Green Map's project for N2Y3 - the Open Green Map. If anyone has questions about how to do this, I'd love to get a mapping session going in the hack room at N2Y3.

Here at Green Map System, we're tickled pink to be among the 21 featured projects for N2Y3! Thanks much to all who voted for us and are already connecting to share ideas, resources and advice! This project is getting better, day by day, with your involvement.

Our work on this project really began in Fall 2007. Among other things, we floated a few different names out to the Green Map network. Open Green Map was their top choice, but we decided to test out a few other options, including My Green Map, as working names. As we used the different names, we watched the reactions.