Did you know that Canberra was Australia’s original sharing city, where all the revenue generated by the capital of the Commonwealth was designed to be to be distributed for the betterment of all the newly federated States?

Returning to that pioneering spirit of social change, the Share Canberra MapJam 2014 hosted by ChangeMakers CBR is being held 26 October to coincide with the Sharing Cities Network 2nd Annual Global #MapJam to build community and bring people together in cities around the world.

Join host David Pecotic from the ChangeMakers CBR coordinating team to begin collaboratively mapping all the sharing goodness in Canberra like coworking, community gardens, public parks, lending libraries, carsharing, food co-ops and more. Here’s a few examples of the kind of results that have already been achieved during or built upon by previous MapJam’s around Australia:

• Melbourne Sharing City Map
• Share’n’Save Adelaide

By the end of the session Canberra will have a basic editable OpenStreetMap of the city's sharable assets that will be mashable - check out: https://pad.okfn.org/p/cbrmapjam

In the first hour we’ll also be joined by representatives of this new economy from across Australia to help introduce the policy implications and set the scene, including:

• the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals
• CollaborativeConsumption.com
• Darren Sharp, Managing Director of Social Surplus and Australian editor at Shareable
  
• Michelle Maloney, National Convenor of the Australian Sharing Law Network (Facebook group)
• James Moody, CEO of the Australian ‘sharing economy’ success story TuShare
• Airbnb Australia
• The Food Coop, ANU
• Rob Crocitti, co-founder of the Australian online ‘sharing economy’ parking space broker Parkhound (currently making headlines in Canberra since the introduction of paid parking in the Parliamentary Triangle this month)

Mapping all of the sharing services in Canberra is a great way to connect the dots between all the sharing services, people and groups that already exist.

Not to mention that asset maps are powerful organising tools. They make community assets more visible which creates a foundation for further community development.

Higher awareness of shared assets can lead to more collaborations between sharing projects and new project ideas to fill in the gaps.

Sharing also strengthens community connections and can help us live more sustainable lifestyles by using less resources.

Wifi (and basic drinks) will be provided by the wonderful INSPIRE Centre at the University of Canberra – and in the spirit of the day we ask each attendee to bring a plate of food to share!

Feel free to bring your smartphone, tablet or laptops to help the group map all the great sharing resources in Canberra.

Hope to see you there and please share with your networks!