openstreetmap 101
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Contents
• A Brief History • Around the World • Contributing • Mapping Parties • Companies • State of the Map • Special Versions
A Brief History
• OSM is a “Wikipedia” of map data – Also a website displaying particular renders
of the data – http://osm.org/ • Started by Steve Coast in July 2004
– While doing an MSc here at UCL • Anyone can edit
– Data under a Creative Commons licence • OpenStreetMap Foundation
A Brief History
OSM Around the World
• UK – Fairly rapid growth – Lack of free data (pre-April 2010)
• US – Growth has been more recent – Import of TIGER dataset
• Holland – 1st “complete” country (AND data donation)
• Germany – Very detailed – most active community
Forbidden City, China
Contributing
• The best data is your own data – GPS tracklogs – Yahoo aerial imagery – Historic (out-of-copyright) mapping – Ordnance Survey Open Data
• Editing – Potlatch
• Minutely updates
Scottish Popular Edition
Mapping Parties
• Get the community working together
Milton Keynes Animation
Link
Atlanta Mapping Party
• Over 3 Days in October 2009 • Coverage on FOX News
Atlanta vs Buffalo
Project Haiti
• 12 January 2010 – Copyright-free high-res
aerial imagery made available very quickly afterwards by providers
– Overseas volunteers traced what they could see and packaged the data
– Used by disaster relief teams on the ground
Companies
• Cloudmade (U.S.) – Developer APIs and custom renders
• Geofabrik (Germany) – Regularly updated per-country shapefiles
• ITO World (UK) – Provides some useful tools to detect and
fix missing data in the UK
State of the Map
• The OpenStreetMap Conference – Three so far, all in Europe – StateOfTheMap U.S. takes place in Atlanta
this weekend • http://www.sotm.us/
Special Versions
• Get the data – XML to PostgreSQL, or as shapefiles
• Build a map – Mapnik, or in a GIS
• Show it to the world – OpenLayers, or a printed map
OpenCycleMap
• http://www.opencyclemap.org/ – Signposted cycle routes – Cycle shops – Cycle parking – Contours – Toilets – Pubs
OpenOrienteeringMap
Some More Uses of OSM Data
Best of OSM
• http://bestofosm.org/
