Mapping Your World Different forms of maps are appearing.They allow independent travelers to get local knowledge of places they are visiting, from the official to the unusual.Meanwhile, hi-tech developments are creating new ways for us to map the world.Here are two of our favorites: Green Maps Green Maps allows people to share with the world their knowledge of environmentally friendly places and attractions in the local areas.Users add information with a set of icons , making it easy to read any map, whatever the nationalities of those who produce it.At present there are over five hundred map projects being developed in 54 countries.Green Maps' advertised idea is "think global, map local".It is a wonderful way of gaining all sorts of information of a place, ranging from community gardens to good places of birdwatching. Green Maps is not specifically intended for travelers.Not all of its maps are online, so it may be necessary for some users to communicate with the producers through the Green Maps website. Maps Mashups Many people use online maps developed by Google, but not many know about the mashups of them.Working in a similar way to Green Maps, Map Mashups allows people to add icons of their own to existing maps to express a certain topic.The mashups is so called because it combines all the knowledge you could ever need.It ranges from the extremely useful, such as where all the World Heritage Sites are, to the most bizarre  ,such as where America's drunkest cities are.With the mashups added to the basic Google Maps, a multi-layered   map can be created. Map Mashups is named with the word "mashups" because  _
it is produced by users all over the world it is a branch of Google Maps it shares icons with Green Maps it gathers various kinds of information