Following on from our 2016 research into the data that the common good land use sector needs, we were able to secure some seed funding from the Peter Sowerby Foundation to follow through on one of our key recommendations: that people trying to use land for the common good needed a mapping platform that worked for them. That platform became www.landexplorer.cc which brings together various data sets about land, and layers them on top of the Ordnance Survey base map. 

However we have both struggled to find funding to support the continued development of this kind of digital infrastructure, and also to find the time needed to develop Land Explorer in the way it needs.

In 2021, we joined forces with our friends at the Solidarity Economy Association to create Digital Commons, a mapping and data sharing cooperative. Digital Commons will be the new home of both Land Explorer, and SEA-map, SEA’s tool for uncovering and sharing more information about the social economy in an area.

Shared Assets and SEA will retain some control of Digital Commons as it develops. Find out more at www.digitalcommons.coop or on twitter @DigiCommonsCoop.