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OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is a community based project to create a set of mapping data and tools to render that data in an online map. Founded in 2004, OpenStreetMap has grown very quickly in the past two years and has reached near completeness in large parts of Europe and the United States.
History
OpenStreetMap was founded by Steve Coast in UK when he grew frustrated with the actions of the Ordinance Survey, the UK government agency responsible mapping who place their data under a very restrictive license. The creation of the project like OSM was made possible by the removal of GPS data fuzzing by the US government, allowing accuracies as good as 3 to 10m with consumer grade GPS units.
Free data and donations
OpenStreetMap has benefited from numerous data donations, the largest of which is the donation of the entire street network of the Netherlands from AND. A number of government mapping and geodata agencies release their data under a variety of free licenses, from the public domain TIGER data of the USGS to outright donations to OSM by local, usually municipal governments.
In 2007, after consultation with Yahoo, OSM now displays Yahoo's satellite and aerial imagery as a background to the online editors, allowing users to trace over this data to get basic geometry. This allows users who lacks GPSes to get involved, greatly broadening the potential user base.
Comparison to Google Maps
Like Google Maps, OpenStreetMap is free to use. The major advantage of OpenStreetMap is that the underlying data is free, unlike Google Maps and other similar online mapping providers, who purchase their data from Teleatlas, NAVTEQ or regional mapping agencies.
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ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
REFERENCES
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