If a picture is worth a thousand words, a map may be worth a thousand pictures. Since 2010, hundreds of commons mapping projects have sprung to life.

By depicting thousands of innovative social, environmental and economic initiatives, these maps reveal the complex stories of new systems emerging through the cracks of the old, like dandelions through broken concrete.

The maps serve many purposes at once. They help amass new groups of commoners by giving them shared digital platforms. As the maps become dense with user-contributed information, they show the growth of horizontal, participatory power, especially in reclaiming rights to manage shared resources. These resources include everything from valuable urban spaces and lakes to fruit orchards accessible to anyone, environmental projects and hackerspaces.

Source: Patterns of Commoning: Mapping Our Shared Wealth: The Cartography of the Commons | P2P Foundation