I was recently introduced to Open Street Map – an open, community based (read “wiki style”), mapping project, that has the potential to be a Google Maps on steroids!
What gives this project the ‘edge’ over something like Google Maps is the fact that it is built based on community contribution. If a road or street in your area is not currently mapped, all you need is a GPS and you can map it yourself, and upload the data – it’s as simple as that. Cant find your favourite restaurant… Add it – and then share it with your friends.
The power of this project (as with most other open projects) is in its community. Anyone in the community can contribute, and its dead simple.
One of the main reasons I have started contributing to the project (by updating street names, adding places of interest, etc), is that I can see it may be a very useful resource when it comes to my book. The inclusion of maps within my book was something I was a little concerned about. I know Google Maps data is heavily licensed (read “expensive”) by the companies that provide it to Google.
Open Street Maps is licensed under creative commons meaning that it is typically free to use, providing you attribute the project as the source of the data. By updating their maps and becoming part of the community, I also feel that I am giving back a little to the project.
I have also installed the OSM (Open Street Maps) WordPress plugin into my blog so I can use it in future to present maps that relate to what I am writing about.
