Rachel Dobbs on Mapping out Local Resources
Rachel Dobbs shares a range of useful tools and resources from the perspective of a serial freelancer.
If you are trying to work out what resources you and your group can tap into in your area (e.g. venues for hire, sharing organisations and green spaces), I would highly recommend making a map together. You can do this in a number of ways – here are two that I particularly like!
You can work remotely by creating a shared, collaborative Google map and adding pins and info around whatever your focus is – here’s an example. You can also work face-to-face by setting up an easy-to-organize event (a MapJam) where a small, dedicated group of people get together for a few hours to map as many resources in their city or town as possible - here’s a guide on how to host a MapJam.
If you also get interested in how the place where you live has changed over time, I would recommend this side-by-side geo-referenced maps viewer by the National Library of Scotland.