Platial’s CEO Di-Ann Eisnor says, “When you get to spend a week (or several) focused just on the content to be found on Platial, you realize how much depth is there. Last year, Baostar won our Mapper of The Year award because he inspired us to see mapmaking in a new way. He took neogeography and created a new way to share the world around him. He illustrated a new genre called Mapumentary and it defined Platial in 2006. While mapumentarists continue to inspire us, this year we realized Platial was defined by something different, more collaborative, more active, more urgent---Movement Mapping."
This year, most of the 26 winners have offered a very generous resource to their community or the world at large. They are movement makers, using online and social tools to do important work and spread critical messages, making it easier for people to make life-changing decisions. There are guides to buying local food, guides to avoiding waste, guides to downshifting, local citizen journalism, and global justice issues.
Map of the year, Gentilly, was created by a group of Berkeley students who, through citizen journalism, are overseeing reconstruction efforts in New Orleans post Katrina. Mapper of the year was very difficult. There are so many people creating important geographic works and who have taken a very deep investment in their projects. Palo Alto History has won that award. Palo Alto History, whose roots in mapping come from a desire to educate, has created the best Local History resource we've seen.
"Platial is a better service to every single visitor with these folks mapping here. They are using community mapping in ways that have never before been possible. We're thrilled to be a part of all these new movements that are literally reshaping our new world, a single world united through action instead of boundary. That's why we started Platial. Being part of these movements and a resource for community action is what we hoped we could do. We see maps as an important and pervasive tool. Thank you to all the movement makers who are using social maps and using Platial. Some of our favorites are Frappr's downshifting, Platial's Glean the planet, and New England Grown but you'll find there are a lot more winners out there," concluded Di-Ann Eisnor.
