froscon2008 - 1.1
FrOSCon
Free and Open Source Software Conference
| Speakers | |
|---|---|
|
Andy Robinson |
| Schedule | |
|---|---|
| Day | Day 2 (2008-08-24) |
| Room | HS1 |
| Start time | 15:15 |
| Duration | 01:00 |
| Info | |
| ID | 159 |
| Event type | lecture |
| Track | Open Geodata |
| Language used for presentation | en |
| Feedback | |
|---|---|
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OpenStreetMap
The Wiki World Map
OpenStreetMap is a wiki map of the world created by the public. Started in August 2004 in England, OSM has spread around the world and as of writing has over 50,000 users with 5,000 or more contributing per month. Contributors use GPS devices to 'trace' roads and other features whilst recording details such as street names, locations of post boxes and so on. These are then uploaded to openstreetmap.org to create a map of the world. Traditional maps typically have restrictions on them such as copyright and use-case contract restrictions (say, no use on mobile phones). OSM aims to be Free, Open and Global
OpenStreetMap is a wiki map of the world created by the public. Started in August 2004 in England, OSM has spread around the world and as of writing has over 50,000 users with 5,000 or more contributing per month. These users are mostly in Europe and the Western world although growth in other countries is growing rapidly.
Traditional maps typically have restrictions on them such as copyright and use-case contract restrictions (say, no use on mobile phones). Traditional proprietary map companies place 'trap streets' in their data which are features which don't actually exist in reality. If you copy such a map then they know you must have copied their data. Traditional maps tend to be out of date also, as the expense and time required to re-map a country is so prohibitive that it is typically done on a yearly or less frequent basis. Many maps are owned by governments or monopolies, futher increasing their price.
Contributors use aerial imagery or GPS devices to 'trace' roads and other features whilst recording details such as street names, locations of post boxes and so on. These are then uploaded to openstreetmap.org to create a map of the world using open source tools. These tools speak to an open source server using easy to learn RESTful XML APIs. The data is processed and turned in to familiar 'slippy map' tiles for viewing much like Google/Yahoo/Microsoft Maps using the open source Mapnik map rendering library. OpenStreetMap is primarily written in Ruby on Rails with open source components written in Java, Flash, Python and so on.
OSMs lively community mainly exists on its many mailing lists where processes decide on things such as recommended 'tags'. Tags are key/value pairs associated with any object in the OSM database. A street may have 'highway:residential' and 'name:Baker Street' for example. The simple model of nodes (points in space) and ways (ordered lists of nodes) ensures a low barrier to entry when editing the data. The community also communicate over a forum, wiki and blog (opengeoedata.org)
This talk explores the beginnings and progress of OSM and casts a windward eye to the future of opengeo data in all forms.