The Charter has been drafted for the co-creation of a powerful Data Commons – through mapping, coding, data or modelling. It has been previously called: "Charter for Building a Data Commons of Alternative Economies" or "Mapping for the Commons Manifesto".
The Charter was edited by participants of the "Intermapping" meeting html 
in 2017 hoping to provide orientation to the countless mapping processes for a free, fair and sustainable world.
It "does not describe the vision, scope or values of a specific mapping project. It is rather an expression of Data Commons principles. It will help you reimagine how you protect the animating spirit of your mapping project and prevent your data from being co-opted or enclosed.”
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# Version 0.6 (March 2017) # 1. Reflect your ambition together. Discuss the core of your project again and again. Everybody involved should always feel in resonance with the direction in which it’s heading. # 2. Make your community thrive. For the project to be successful, a reliable community is more important than anything else. Care for those who might support you when you need them most. # 3. Separate commons and commerce. Mapping for the commons is different from producing services or products to compete on the map-market. Make sure you don’t feed power-imbalances or profit-driven agendas and learn how to systematically separate commons from commerce. # 4. Design for interoperability. Think of your map as a node in a network of many maps. Talk with other contributors to the Data Commons to find out if you can use the same data model, licence and approach to mapping. # 5. Care for a living vocabulary. Vocabularies as entry points to complex social worlds are always incomplete. Learn from other mappers’ vocabularies. Make sure your vocabulary can be adjusted. Make it explicit and publish it openly, so that others can learn from it too. # 6. Document transparently. Sharing your working process, learnings and failures allow others to replicate, join and contribute. Don’t leave documentation for after. Do it often and make it understandable. Use technologies designed for open cooperation. # 7. Crowdsource what you can. Sustain your project whenever possible with money, time, knowledge, storing space, hardware or monitoring from your community or public support. Stay independent! # 8. Use FLOSS tools. It gives you the freedom to further develop your own project and software according to your needs. And it enables you to contribute to the development of these tools. # 9. Build upon the open web platform. Open web standards ensure your map, its data and associated applications cannot be enclosed and are prepared for later remixing and integration with other sources. # 10. Own your data. In the short run, it seems to be a nightmare to refrain from importing or copying what you are not legally entitled to. In the long run, it is the only way to prevent you from being sued or your data being enclosed. Ban Google. # 11. Protect your data. To own your data is important, but not enough. Make sure nobody dumps your data back into the world of marketization and enclosures. Use appropriate licenses to protect your collective work! # 12. Archive your project. When it doesn’t work anymore for you, others still might want to build on it in the future. (Earlier versions of the document can be found here and here.)
# See also: Charter, Constituting Tools, Data Commons Cooperative