About
About OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is a community of people like you who want to make a free map of the world.
The project was started because maps are not free, almost never open and never current. Most maps you find on the internet cost a lot to produce and license. Many companies recover the cost of map data by including adverts on websites or by charging businesses to use them. In most countries, mapping is funded by the tax payer and carried out by large government agencies who then sell the maps onto commercial organizations. Once you have bought one of these maps you are restricted in the way you can use it. For example, you are not allowed to scan a paper map and put it up on a website or photocopy it and use it to show the location of your home or business to your friends. What's worse, maps that you find on the Internet, in a Sat-nav or at a book store are all out of date. It takes such a long time for most mapping companies to complete mapping a country and produce the final maps that by the time they have finished new roads have been built and names have been changed. Out of date maps aren't very useful.
OpenStreetMap solves these problems by putting its maps into a wiki. A wiki is technology that lets anyone create, edit and remove information in a collaborative way. One of the most famous examples of a wiki is "Wikipedia", the online encyclopedia which lets anyone create and edit articles. OpenStreetMap lets you create and edit maps. When the project was started in 2004 the map was completely blank, no rivers, no roads, not even a coastline.
All of the map data you can see at OpenStreetMap.org is free and open. You don't have to pay anything to look at the map or to use the underlying map data. Its also free of the kind of copyright restrictions imposed by other mapping providers, so you can take an OpenStreetMap map and put it on your website or use it in your book. If your book sells a million copies then good for you! You won't owe any money to OpenStreetMap. You are truly free to use the map in anyway you like, so long as you allow others to do the same. So you must allow me to scan your book and put it on my website, or allow me to turn you book into a film and take it to Hollywood.
Using OpenStreetMap
CloudMade are here to make it easy for you to use OpenStreetMap maps. If you run a website CloudMade can help you put OSM maps on it using our Web Map API. If you are a mobile application developer you can use our Mobile Maps API to add maps to your mobile application.
Making OSM Maps
Anyone can make OpenStreetMap maps. There are 35,000 people across the world who spend their free time making maps for OSM. On any weekend in the year, there will be hundreds of OSMers (OpenStreetMappers) walking, cycling, driving and sailing the footpaths, roads, rivers and canals of the world. OSM holds regular "Mapping Parties" - events during which a group of OSMers meet up and intensively map an area over a day or weekend. The first mapping party was held on the Isle of White in 2006 and attracted 30 people who between them mapped all of the roads, railways and footpaths of the island in one weekend. Mapping Parties are a great way for newcomers to OSM to get acquainted with map making. There are always experienced OSMers on hand to show people how to use a GPS unit and how to make maps. There are even GPS units available to lend out.
Most people use small, readily available GPS units to record their tracks, along with a digital camera and a notebook to makes notes about the environment around them.
Finding out more
To find out more about OpenStreetMap, take a look at the project's wiki.
OpenStreetMap and Quality
All maps have mistakes in them, often because a building or road has changed since the map was made. OpenStreetMap maps also have mistakes, but unlike other maps, you can fix them.
We think that OpenStreetMap maps will be better than other maps. Take a look at this map of central London and remember that just a few years ago there was no data here at all. Now the map is far more detailed than other maps of London, with footpaths, parks, buildings, pubs and car parks, as well as all the roads you find on most maps.