Open Street Map
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an application that uses an open geographic database which is updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via Open collaboration.
OpenStreetMap is freely licensed under the Open Database License and it's commonly used to make electronic maps, turn-by-turn navigation, assist in humanitarian aid and data visualisation. OpenStreetMap uses its own topology to store geographical objects which can then be exported into other GIS file formats.
History
The whole project started in 2004, when Steve Coast founded the base project, initially focusing on mapping the United Kingdom. In April 2006, the OpenStreetMap Foundation was established to encourage the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and provide geospatial data for anybody to use and share. The turning point came in 2012, when Google Maps charged for its services. In response, several prominent services switched to using OpenStreetMap and other competitors.
What can you add on map?
Map features range in scale from international boundaries to hyperlocal details such as shops and street furniture. Although historically significant features and ongoing construction projects are routinely included in the database, the project's scope is generally limited to the present day, as opposed to the past or future.
In general, every map object is modelled as one of three geometric primitives:
- node or point
- way or polyline
- relation is an ordered list of nodes and/or ways
Every feature, or object can also holds its own metadata. Each object contains key-value pairs, called tags, that identify and describe the feature. In addition, due to its high level of coverage, timeliness and detail, OSM often performs better than commercial or government mapping services.
Licence
OpenStreetMap data and derived tiles were originally published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (CC BY-SA) with the intention of promoting free use and redistribution of the data. Currently, all data added to a project must be licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL), which in practice means that "©OpenStreetMap Contributors" with link to ODbL copyright page as attribution requirement is used on the your site.
Where are OSM used
- Cartography - The official OSM website features an interactive slippy map interface so that users can efficiently edit maps and view changesets. Beyond this reference implementation, community-maintained map applications focus on alternative cartographic representations and specialised use cases.
- Geospatial analysis - OSM is often a source for realistic, large-scale transport network analyses because the raw road network data is freely available or because of aspects of coverage that are uncommon in proprietary alternatives. OSM is also used in conservation and land-use planning research.
- Navigation - Some public transportation providers rely on OpenStreetMap data in their route planning services and for other analysis needs. OSM data appears in the driver or rider application or powers backend operations for ridesharing companies.
- Humanitarian aid - Humanitarian aid agencies use OSM data both proactively and reactively. OSM's road and building coverage allow them to discover patterns of disease outbreaks and target interventions such as antimalarial medications toward remote villages. After a disaster occurs, they produce large-format printed maps and downloadable maps for GPS tracking units for aid workers to use in the field.
- Gaming - OSM is a map data source for many location-based games that require broad coverage of local details such as streets and buildings. Flight simulators combine OSM's coverage of roads and structures with other sources of natural environment data, acting as sophisticated 3D map renderers, in order to add realism to the ground below. City-building games use a subset of OSM data as a base layer to take advantage of the player's familiarity with their surroundings. Alternate reality games rely on OSM data to determine where rewards and other elements of the game spawn in the player's presence.
Where to start
The map data can be edited from a number of editing applications that provide aids including satellite and aerial imagery, street-level imagery, GPS traces, and photo and voice annotations. So feel free to sign up and help keep OSM up to date in your area. Or you can try plotting different data on the map, or create your own editor, e.g. using the Leaflet library.
