Mapping out the way
OpenStreetMap is leveraging the community to produce geographical data. In many parts of the world, this data is not free, and is subject to ownership by government agencies (this is not true in the USA, where it is free). OpenStreetMap lets users freely edit maps online in a wiki fashion, sharing their knowledge and experience of local geographies.
Currently, the project is focused on European geographics, where places like Dublin and Glasgow are actively being mapped by users. They’re still early in their development, so coverage won’t be as good as the standard maps out there, but they hope to increase coverage as the project moves along.
Maps are draggable via a Google Maps style interface, and editing is done using a Java engine. The interface is a bit clunky and slow at this point, which I hope they’ll be able to resolve in the future. Zooming in and out takes way too much time, which could deter people from making extensive edits.
A major question that many people ask is, why not use Google Maps instead? They explain the intricacies in their FAQ:
Most hackers around the world are familiar with the difference between “free as in beer” and “free as in speech”. Google Maps are free as in beer, not as in speech.
If your project’s mapping needs can be served simply by using the Google Maps API, all to the good. But that’s not true of every project. We need a free dataset which will enable programmers, social activists, cartographers and the like to fulfil [sic] their plans without being limited either by Google’s API or by their Terms of Service
So really, the OpenStreetMap project aims to go beyond any mapping service in terms of freedom of use. The real question then is, will there be enough map geeks out there who have the skills to do this? They do provide a service where users can upload points taken on a GPS, but I don’t think I’ll ever trust myself to freehand any roads on a map.
