These are some notes from memory:
We had Steve Coast from OpenStreetMap at a Guardian TechTalk on Friday 13th February 2009. Steve Coast now lives in San Francisco, and works with a couple of developers there, plus a couple more in Russia. He talked about the OpenStreetMap Foundation, of which he is the Chairman. OpenStreetMap has no employees, Steve Coast spends most of his time getting one volunteer to interact with another.
Google Maps, Windows Live maps and other big online maps use costly data bought from big mapping companies like NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas, who in turn also purchse mapping info from people like Ordnance Survey. You mostly cannot reuse or derive products from this data. They map using big trucks driving around collecting GPS data, and that data is updated every 18 months – almost exactly the lifespan of your average TomTom, so the purchase of a new one goes directly to fund a new round of mapping. They can’t map where the trucks can’t go. And they’re not interested in OpenStreetMaps free data.
OpenStreetMap operates on a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license – you are free to use the data, edit and update it, as long as you attribute OpenStreetMap as the original source of the data and also share your edits back into the community.
Dealing with conflict – in more than one sense of the word. Maps, as everyone knows, are power. Areas of conflict have a tendency for people to redraw the borders. Steve Coast plainly has better things to do, and other things to worry about – he basically doesn’t care how people use the service, and only once so far have they had to ban users.
On the subject of China – Steve is fairly resigned. He sees any action on his part to persuade China to allows its citizens to freely access OpenStreetMap as futile. Google bent over backwards to get access to China,
‘and they’re not evil, right?’
he says,
’so what difference can I make’.
His philosophy boils down to ‘I made a thing which makes a map. so either use it to make a map, or don’t. I don’t make money out of it, so what do I care?‘
Aerial magery used includes some provided under federal law by the US Government. Yahoo also kindly allow their aerial imagery to be used. Most people start by tracing this into a map. The Netherlands’ biggest mapping company donated all their Netherlands map data — when they looked at it to check all was working shortly after they donated it, it had been updated and edited so heavily they no longer recognised it!
Mapping parties organise groups of people with small GPS devices to map an area. Handheld device is about the same size as a chunky mobile phone. OpenStreetMap loans the deices out so people can contribute mapping data, or you can use your own devices. Data is then uploaded by computer and converted into bitmapped map tiles.
All mapping data by each user is recorded. In the event of someone copying data illegally by tracing copyrighted maps, OpenStreetMap’s policy is to ‘fail quickly and remove all the offending person’s data.’
Mpping data is incremented every night. The map data file is currently about 5Gb.
Everything is hosted at University College, London, where the project was started. Asked how they felt about hosting it, or if they even knew it was there, Steve Coast said,
‘the right people know it’s there’.
You can map anything – pubs, postboxes, roads, footpaths. He shows an example where the OpenStreetMap data is more current and more accurate than Google’s – university campuses, for example – buildings, footpaths are all mapped, where Google shows just a grey area.
Is currently involved in looking for sponsorship, is willing to talk to anyone. Had their first fundraising drive in 2008 for new hardware, made $17,000 in 2 days.
Steve talked to Ordnance Survey, advised us, ‘don’t invest in them if they ever go public’.
Good graphical presentation on updates around the globe over a year-long period. Uptake follows the pattern of a large increase following mapping party, dropping by about 10% soon afterwards and from there continuing at that flat level. They haven’t generally see nmuch drop off after that anywhere.
When asked several tricky questions, Steve Coast repeats the mantra, ‘you fix it.’ The software is open source – if you want something done, do it, or find someone who can do it for you.
Finally, he mentions FreeThePostcode, a campaign to get a free, public database of UK postcodes to rival the Royal Mail’s paid-for model. There is an iPhone app – the idea is that you upload an accurate GPS point and the correct postcode for that point, which is then added to the database and will eventually be made available freely.
Lots of this information, and more, is available at the OpenStreetMap wiki.
