Cartogrammm

Maps Made by Many

Cartogramapsmade bymany

A digital participatory mapping platform that helps communities, researchers, local authorities and civic organisations document place-based knowledge.

Questions? Contact Support

cartogrammm@gmail.com

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01 - The Vision

What is Cartogrammm?

A place-based mapping tool designed to make lived experience visible.

Conventional maps often show streets, buildings, infrastructure and administrative boundaries. Cartogrammm maps what is harder to see: local knowledge, memories, informal networks, everyday practices, feelings of belonging, care, safety, exclusion and possibility.

By gathering these situated forms of knowledge in a shared digital map, Cartogrammm supports more inclusive conversations about places and their futures.

02 - Purpose

Why it matters

Too often, the knowledge people hold about their own places is excluded from formal systems of planning, research and governance.

Cartogrammm responds to this gap by creating a simple way for communities to record and share what they know: the spaces they value, the resources they rely on, the changes they experience, and the futures they imagine.

03 - Methodology

How it works

PHASE - 01

Capture what matters

Participants add geo-tagged entries using photographs, short texts, tags and observations.

PHASE - 02

Build a collective map

Individual contributions come together to form a shared picture of a neighbourhood, site or community.

PHASE - 03

Identify patterns

Mapped entries can reveal recurring themes, local priorities, overlooked assets and everyday challenges.

PHASE - 04

Support action

The map can inform community projects, research, planning conversations, policy discussions and local decision-making.

04 - Interface Showcase

Watch how we do it.

Creating a Workspace

Submitting a Spatial Entry

05 - Applications

What can Cartogrammm be used for?

Whether you are a community organisation, researcher, local authority, planner or civic initiative, Cartogrammm can help you gather and visualise place-based knowledge.

Resource Mapping

Community resource mapping

Identify local assets, services, networks, spaces of care and everyday infrastructures.

Participatory Planning

Participatory planning

Support more grounded consultation processes by connecting lived experience to specific places.

Research & Co-Production

Research and co-production

Gather qualitative spatial data for community-engaged, place-based and participatory research.

Heritage & Memories

Heritage and memory mapping

Document intangible heritage, local histories, memories and attachments to place.

Urban Regeneration

Regeneration and urban change

Make visible how communities experience development, displacement, infrastructure and environmental change.

Climate Action

Resilience and climate action

Map local resources, vulnerabilities, environmental concerns and collective capacities.

06 - Case Studies

North Woolwich + Silvertown: The Resilient Map

The Resilient Map Poster

Data Disclosure

Cartogrammm is an open platform where geolocated maps are collaboratively built. Contributed observations, files, and commentary are authored solely by volunteers and community organizers, and do not represent endorsements of accuracy by the Cartogrammm platform. We prioritize privacy; personal identifiers are kept separate from public datasets according to our Privacy Policy.

Cartogrammm

Community Pilot Workshop

Mapping the island together

A pilot community mapping project to build a richer picture of North Woolwich + Silvertown from the ground up.

The Resilient Map

Making local knowledge visible

The Resilient Map is a shared digital map of the places, resources, relationships and everyday practices that help support local life in North Woolwich + Silvertown. It starts from the idea that resilience is not only found in formal services or infrastructure, but also in the knowledge people build through their everyday experience of place.

This knowledge is often missing from conventional maps: the routes people rely on, the places they value, the spaces where they find support, the barriers they encounter, and the possibilities they imagine. Making it visible helps build a richer understanding of what already sustains the area, what needs attention, and what could be strengthened.

What are we mapping?

Key Mapping Areas

Participants will be invited to document places, resources, issues and stories across North Woolwich + Silvertown connected to these 12 resilient mapping categories:

Care

Places, people, services, informal networks or everyday practices that help people feel supported.

Movement

Paths, shortcuts, walking routes, school runs, commutes and everyday movement patterns.

Belonging

Places linked to memory, identity, attachment, heritage or emotional meaning.

Gathering

Places where people meet, linger, talk, play, worship, celebrate or spend time together.

Assets

Visible or hidden local assets, including amenities, facilities, skills, knowledge, organisations, useful places and everyday infrastructures.

Exchange

Informal economies, sharing, lending, gifting, trading, favours, food networks, skills exchange and local everyday transactions.

Barriers

Physical, social, economic or institutional obstacles that make places harder to use, reach, enter or benefit from.

Safety

Places associated with comfort, risk, fear, poor lighting, danger, protection, trust or perceived security.

Ecology

Green spaces, trees, water, biodiversity, shade, air quality, environmental care and places of environmental wellbeing.

Change

Regeneration, development, displacement, closure, uncertainty, loss or places under transformation.

Repair

Places, infrastructures, relationships or conditions that need fixing, maintaining, caring for or improving.

Possibility

Ideas, aspirations, proposals, imagined uses, improvements or collective hopes for the future.

The map may include: community spaces, local services, green spaces, walking routes, informal meeting places, places of care, cultural memories, environmental concerns, barriers to access, and ideas for improvement.

Participation

Why take part?

Representing your neighborhood's true character

By taking part, you help build a richer, authentic picture of North Woolwich + Silvertown seen through the eyes of the people who live, work, care, gather, and spend time here. Your contributions will document everyday local knowledge, stories, and community assets that are often completely left off official planning maps.

This map is not just about pointing out problems or identifying areas that need attention, care, and investment. It is equally about recognizing and celebrating what already exists—the spaces, relationships, practices, and local memories that sustain daily life in North Woolwich + Silvertown.

Driving community action and testing new civic tools

Your participation directly supports conversations about local resilience, priorities, and advocacy. By documenting these spaces, you help strengthen connections between local residents, community organisations, and academic researchers, creating a shared foundation for future initiatives.

Additionally, you will help test a pioneering, community-led digital mapping platform. Evaluating its accessibility and usefulness now will shape how future civic participation tools are built to empower other communities.

Do I need technical skills?

No. The platform is being tested precisely to understand how easy, useful and accessible it is for community mapping. No experience is needed.

Participants will be guided through the process. You can take part using a smartphone, and support will be available during the workshops. If you are not confident using digital tools, you are still very welcome to join. Just bring your phone!

How will the info be used?

The information gathered through the pilot will be used to create a shared community map of North Woolwich + Silvertown for the benefit of the local community and to evaluate how the Cartogrammm platform works in practice.

The project team will look at the map to understand what kinds of local knowledge emerge, how people use the platform, and how digital mapping might support community conversations, research and future planning processes. The pilot is not a formal planning consultation. However, it may help generate useful insights for future community projects, local advocacy, research, and conversations with organisations working in the area.

Privacy and consent

Participation is voluntary. Before contributing, participants will receive information about the project and how their data will be used. Only the information that participants choose to submit will appear in to the map. The project will not track people's movements. Location information will only be attached to specific map entries that participants decide to create.

The project team will review contributions and may moderate entries before they are shared more widely, particularly where entries include sensitive information, identifiable people, or inappropriate content. Participants will not be asked to share private personal information. Contributions should focus on places, everyday experiences and local knowledge rather than personal details. Please avoid uploading images of identifiable people unless they have clearly agreed to be photographed and included.

Organisation & Funding

Who is organising the project?

CP

Project Leadership

Dr. Catalina Pollak Williamson & the Cartogrammm Team

This community mapping pilot is led by lead researcher and organizer Dr. Catalina Pollak Williamson alongside the Cartogrammm team.

RS

Collaboration Partner

Re-Space at REinSTATE

Developed in direct partnership with Re-Space at REinSTATE, transforming vacant spaces into community hubs for social, cultural, and environmental resilience in North Woolwich + Silvertown.

UEL

Supported & Funded By

Institute for Connected Communities

Funded by the Institute for Connected Communities at the University of East London through the Public Engagement Award.

The project forms part of wider research into participatory mapping, civic data, local knowledge, and community-led approaches to urban resilience.

Version 1.0
Effective Date: July 2026

1. Welcome

Welcome to Cartogrammm.

Cartogrammm is a digital participatory mapping platform that enables people to document, share and explore Place-based Knowledge through geolocated photographs and short narratives.

These Terms of Use govern your access to and use of the Cartogrammm Platform. They establish the legal relationship between you and Cartogrammm while also setting out the principles that support respectful participation, responsible stewardship of community knowledge and collaboration between contributors, Project Organisers and partner organisations.

By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms.

Please also read our Privacy Policy and Data & Knowledge Policy, which explain how we handle personal information and steward Place-based Knowledge.

2. Definitions

Throughout these Terms:

Platform means the Cartogrammm website, applications and associated services.
User means anyone who creates an account or accesses the Platform.
Contributor means a User who submits content to a Project.
Project means any mapping initiative created using the Platform.
Project Organiser means the individual or organisation responsible for creating and managing a Project.
Commissioner means an organisation that funds or commissions a Project.
Contribution means any photograph, location, text, category, tag or other material submitted to the Platform.
Place-based Knowledge refers to the knowledge people develop through living, working, learning, caring for others and moving through a place.

3. Eligibility and Accounts

To use Cartogrammm you must:

be at least 16 years old;
provide accurate registration information;
keep your account credentials secure;
comply with these Terms and all applicable laws.

Registration currently requires a User ID, name, email address, password and age confirmation. You may also register using an approved authentication service such as Google.

You are responsible for all activity undertaken using your account.

4. Projects

Cartogrammm supports community, research, educational, public sector and commercial Projects.

Projects may be Public or Private.

Each Project is managed by a Project Organiser, who is responsible for:

defining the Project’s purpose and participation arrangements;
providing any Project-specific information or consent materials;
ensuring compliance with applicable legal, ethical and regulatory requirements;
obtaining any approvals or permissions required to conduct the Project.

Cartogrammm provides the digital infrastructure for Projects. Responsibility for the lawful and ethical conduct of each Project rests with the relevant Project Organiser.

5. Contributions and Contributors’ Rights

Contributors may upload geolocated photographs, descriptions, categories and tags to document Place-based Knowledge.

By contributing, you confirm that:

your Contribution reflects your own observations or experiences to the best of your knowledge;
you have the right to upload the material;
your Contribution does not knowingly infringe the rights of others.

You retain copyright in the photographs and written material you upload.

By submitting a Contribution, you grant Cartogrammm a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, analyse, reproduce, archive and publish your Contribution for the purposes of operating the Platform, supporting Projects, research, education, public engagement and related communications.

Where reasonably practicable, Contributions will be attributed using your User ID.

Project Organisers and Commissioners may receive licences to use Project outputs, but they do not acquire ownership of Contributors’ original work or of the collective Place-based Knowledge generated through participation.

6. Community Guidelines

Cartogrammm is built on respectful participation and responsible sharing of Place-based Knowledge.

When using the Platform, you agree to:

contribute honestly and in good faith;
respect the privacy and dignity of others;
avoid photographing identifiable individuals without appropriate permission;
avoid sharing another person’s personal information;
upload only material you own or have permission to use;
avoid abusive, discriminatory, threatening, unlawful or deliberately misleading content;
respect private property, cultural sensitivities and community norms;
avoid revealing locations where publication could place people, communities, cultural heritage or the natural environment at risk;
avoid placing yourself or others in danger while making Contributions.

Good Contributions help explain why a place matters, not simply where it is.

7. Moderation and Protection of People and Places

Cartogrammm and authorised Project Organisers may review, restrict, hide or remove Contributions that:

reach these Terms;
are unlawful or abusive;
infringe copyright or privacy;
expose vulnerable people or sensitive locations to unreasonable risk;
deliberately misrepresent places or events;
threaten the integrity or safe operation of the Platform.

Where appropriate, Cartogrammm may reduce the precision of displayed locations or restrict access to Contributions in order to protect people, communities, cultural heritage or environmentally sensitive places.

Serious or repeated breaches may result in suspension or termination of a User account.

8. Artificial Intelligence

Cartogrammm uses Artificial Intelligence to support selected Platform functions, including Project setup, thematic analysis, clustering, reporting and visualisation.

AI-generated outputs are intended to support human interpretation and decision-making. They should not be regarded as authoritative conclusions.

Contributor content is not used to train third-party foundation AI models without explicit consent.

9. Platform Availability and Liability

We aim to provide a reliable and secure Platform but cannot guarantee uninterrupted availability.

Cartogrammm may modify, suspend or discontinue parts of the Platform for maintenance, development, security or legal reasons.

The Platform provides tools to support the documentation and exploration of Place-based Knowledge. Cartogrammm does not verify every Contribution and cannot guarantee that user-generated content is complete, accurate or suitable for every purpose.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cartogrammm shall not be liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from the use of the Platform. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

10. Suspension, Changes and Contact

You may close your account at any time.

Cartogrammm may suspend or terminate accounts where these Terms are seriously or repeatedly breached.

We may update these Terms from time to time. The latest version will always be published on the Cartogrammm website, and continued use of the Platform constitutes acceptance of any revisions.

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

For questions about these Terms, please contact:
Email: info@cartogrammm.com

Version History

Version	Date	Description
1.0	July 2026	Initial publication.