Major project to improve accessibility to OpenStreetMap data initiated

10 October 2012 Geoff Zeiss

I have blogged on several occasions about OpenStreetMap (OSM), which is the world’s largest volunteered, crowd-sourced database of geospatial information. Apparently, August 9th 2004 was the day that the first user registered the domain and started the project.  The first time I blogged about OSM was just shortly after March 16th 2009 the day that the 100 000th user registered
on OpenStreetMap.  Since then the amount of data and the number of registered users has continued to increase exponentially.  Currently OSM has about 750,000 registered users.

April 1 of this year OpenStreetMap moved to a new license. The ODbL license is comprised of an Open Database License (ODbL), a Database Contents License (DbCL) covering the database itself and its contents, and a set of upgraded Contributor Terms covering submissions to the database.

MapBox Knight Foundation OpenStreetMapOne of the challenges for the OSM community is that although there are 750,000 registered users, only about 24,000 of these are active mappers who regularly create maps using OSM data,  Today on an Eclipse Foundation Locationtech teleconference, Alex Barth of MapBox presented an overview of a major project awarded to Development Seed and MapBox by the Knight Foundation that is designed to improve accessibility to OSM data.  The focus of the project is to improve the core infrastructure of OpenStreetMap to make

  • it easier to add data to OpenStreetMap
  • OpenStreetMap.org more social to support the community as it continues its rapid growth
  • it easier for people to access OpenStreetMap data to make their own maps.

The intention is that all of these tools will be open source, with open  licensing, built transparently on open development platforms like GitHub, and worked on collaboratively with the larger OpenStreetMap community.  The technical priorities as outlined by Alex include

  • Data API for editors and data consumers (Javascript API) and supporting libraries
  • Improved editors using the new API including browser-based editors
  • More social OpenStreetMap,org site

The project will begin ramping up over the next weeks and Alex is asking for as much community participation as possible.  The best place to follow the project as it unfolds is the MapBox blog.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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