Crowd sourced mapping

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/openstreetmap-part-1-new-cartographers.php?ref=fpb

"OpenStreetMap, a free crowdsourced online world map started eight years ago, has seen its ranks swell to over 800,000 volunteer mapmakers around the world — 300,000 in the last year alone — rapidly becoming the go-to source of map data for successful tech brands including Apple, Foursquare and Wikipedia, as well as for government agencies like the National Parks Service, all of whom are wary of Google’s decision to begin charging for heavy use of its Maps API starting in January 2012.
But as the project grows and matures, it’s facing a whole new set of challenges, the biggest of which is the question of whether or not to commercialize and move away from its open source roots."

Hm. A simple (well, single) goal, anybody can help as much or as little as they want, but really no end to the project. Heck, it's  still ICA I think.  But when something gets this huge it's probably hard to stay simple.  It will be interesting to see where this goes.