Emma wishes to stress that this article is a collaborative effort by the San Francisco Bay Area OpenStreetMap team - Editor.

Have you every felt like the people putting together maps just aren’t speaking for you?  Most traditional map companies that produce and provide maps, protect their data with restrictive copyrights.  In order to access the data, there are expensive licensing fees and further restrictions.  Many non-profits, businesses, and the general public cannot afford such costs.

Now, what if there was a map that was just for your community that you created and that didn’t have these restrictions? OpenStreetMap (OSM) allows just that, and makes you the author of your own map!  You can enter in all the spatial information that is valuable to you, whether it is the name of a street or where a local business is located.

OSM was founded by Steve Coast in July 2004.  The idea of an open source map quickly blossomed, and by the end of 2005 the 1000th user was registered.  As OSM expanded in Europe, it hopped over the Atlantic and spread its wings in the United States.  One of the events that helped to add to the US map was the bulk upload of the public domain US Census TIGER data.  The TIGER data is map data that includes street names and locations to county and city boundaries, and is provided free of charge by the US Federal Government.  This data is not perfect though, and has a number of errors including imprecision with curves and locations offset by several feet.  We are fortunate to have such a large amount of data available for the US map considering many other countries do not provide map data in the public domain.  This is precisely the reason OSM began and why its has an open source license.

OSM is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license, one is allowed to share and remix the map data as long as the tenants of share alike and attribution are followed. To share alike means that "if you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one." (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0).  This means you are allowed to copy, distribute, and transmit the map, and while remixing it you are allowed to adapt the work.  Attribution means "you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor." (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0).  This license makes it possible for many different people to use, add or edit data in the map.  This results in a much more open, accurate, and beneficial map for your community.

While some of the technology required to use OpenStreetMap can be expensive, mainly computers and GPS devices, the software is free. Potlatch, which was implemented in May 2007, is OpenStreetMaps main online editor.  Potlatch is intended as an easy-to-learn editing tool for drawing in features and adding information to existing data. A clear, uncluttered user interface is paramount for accurate editing, and the layout draws on the familiar conventions of the existing Slippy Map.  Aerial imagery is available while editing, so its not necessary to own a GPS unit to contribute.  You can easily access the site, view the aerial imagery and contribute on top of it.

Potlatch is best for quick edits, while JOSM, a Java based desktop based editor, is best for more in depth mapping for experienced contributors.  JOSM is feature rich with many optional plugins available, which range from geotagging photos to embedding audio.

Today, OSM has over 130,000 users, in over 100 countries, which have created over 360 million nodes and 28 million ways. More and more people are inspired to use OSM and are continuing to add and edit spatial information. In the US there are Community Ambassadors helping the community to grow in every region by providing an educational workshops are social and casual. These events are available all over the world for all members of a community. They vary from intensive mapping workshops, to  energy filled bike rides and hikes, as well as an occasional happy hour.

At Mapping Party events, attendees learn how to use a GPS device to collect map data in the form of traces and waypoints.  They are loaned a GPS device for a couple of hours,  and then head out to explore their community on foot, bike or car by marking points of interest along the route they take.  When they return, they learn how to upload and correct this data with the OSM editors.  This data is then stored in the OSM servers, and rendered onto the map.

There are other more specialized mapping events as well.  The Bike Map Days are similar to the Mapping Parties but with a focus on gathering relevant data to enter into the Cycle Map layer.  There have been several outdoor excursions as well where people hike and collect trail data.  OSM is working hard at helping the community find ways of enjoying their favorite hobbies while collecting map data and adding it to their local Map.

OpenStreetMap data is then processed to produce detailed street-level maps, which can be published freely on sites such as Wikipedia, used to create handheld or in-car navigation devices, or printed and copied without restriction.  Many organizations are working on expanding access to open geo data through a range of simple yet powerful tools, APIs, and even iPhone apps like Trails, Motion X GPS, and OSMTrack.  The question is, what will you do with free map data?

The OpenStreetMap team in the San Francisco Bay Area is working hard at improving the areas map.  This article is a collaborative effort on their pa 72 544x376 Normal 0 false false false rt.

OpenStreetMap Home Page:  http://www.openstreetmap.org/

OpenStreetMap Wiki: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page