Making An Impact With OpenStreetMap
The description can best be viewed at http://netsquared.org/blog/claire-sale/making-impact-openstreetmap-netsquared-c OpenStreetMap was started in 2004 with the grand intention of mapping the world from scratch, free from the copyright encumbrances of conventional maps, restrictions which were holding back the development of geographical information on the internet. Founder Steve Coast had the vision that ordinary people would be their own surveyors, using recently affordable GPS technology and a lot of pedal power. And 300,000 people did just that. The aim was not simply to repeat what others had done commercially, but to effect a change in attitudes from the big players, many of them governments. One of the most conservative was Britain's Ordnance Survey. They charged huge amounts to use maps in online applications making business models non-viable. Ordnance Survey pooh-poohed the idea that ordinary people could collectively produce anything comparable to their efforts over a hundred years. At conferences they would hold up maps of London showing theirs compared with OSM. The first time, there was just a skeleton on OSM. But each time after that there was less and less difference. Using GPS, bikes, cameras and foot leather, OSM now has the level of detail in many places to rival and in some cases exceed what Ordnance Survey can provide, in just six years. And change it has produced. In April 2010, the British Government released Ordnance Survey data to 1:10,000 scale and less on much the same terms as OSM. Many maps were freed from the tight embrace of Government. Result! In some ways this was an amazing achievement, a vindication of OSMs goals. But in some ways it was also a bit of a let down: why would we finish our map now? I joined OSM six months or so after mapping started in earnest, in September 2006. Increasingly frustrated by the difficulty of publishing maps in Cambridge Cycling Campaign's newsletter, I set out to make an alternative. It took three months, and along with Chester was one of the first cities in the UK to be mapped to street and point-of-interest level. Since then, with others, I've mapped most of our County and elsewhere. But while in Cambridge our maps are a matter of cost and convenience, in some parts of the world maps may be a matter of life and death. These are often the places where maps are least adequate. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) was set up to see how people could help. Mikel Maron is the inspiring and inspired mapper behind this effort. Using often remote sources, they mapped Bagdhad during the war and Gaza at the time of the Israeli incursions. The project is best known for its work during the Haiti earthquake in 2009, where timely crowd-sourcing most definitely saved lives. Perhaps the most inspiring project is, however, the mapping the shanty city of Kibera on the edge of Nairobi, Kenya, at the time a blank on every commercial offering yet home to a million people.
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Making An Impact With OpenStreetMap
- 1. Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
- 2. A grand project to map the world Using volunteer resources Free from the restrictions imposed by conventional maps
- 4. 2004 Founded by Steve Coast 2005 Servers and primitive software 2006 I joined. Cambridge desert. 2007 First OSM conference 2008 TIGER data 2009 Haiti earthquake 2010 Ordnance Survey released 2011 Cambridgeshire 98% “done”
- 6. What’s the problem? All to do with copyright Can’t reproduce a map Can’t access raw data The ‘derived work’ problem
- 7. The license Terms of use central to project CCbySA2.0 OdBL1.0 Freedom to do what you want But you must share… … and attribute
- 8. How is it done? Burn rubber Sanitise and connect data Upload data Use data
- 9. The technology Affordable, accurate GPS Collect a journey Make notes about features Combine them in an editor Upload to OSM
- 10. The technology Satellite, aerial photography Reference existing map (walking papers) Data sets
- 11. API RESTful Upload/download XML files Via conventional HTTP Remote database
- 12. Using the data Data model: vectors, not rasters (points and lines, not pictures) To make a picture, render the vectors Different renderings for different applications Not just pictures • Tactile • Voice • Routing (CycleStreets)
- 13. Simple data model Node: point location on planet Way: ordered sequence of nodes Relation: abstract group ways/nodes Tags: properties of node/way/relation area: closed loop of nodes
- 14. Simple data model Node: post box, junction Way: linear features – roads, rivers Relation: bus route, turn restrictions unique ID Tags: “this is a B-road B1302 called `High Street’.” highway=secondary; ref=B1302; name=High Street area: car parks, buildings, parks
- 17. Community 300,000 mappers ~10% active in any month Collective endeavour “Surprising ways”
- 18. Enabling and promoting change Pushed Government into open data Projects involving disability Humanitarian OSM Team (‘HOT’)
- 19. Open geo-data in the UK 2004 Ordnance Survey only game in town… 2005 OS pooh-pooh the idea the 2006 “ordinary people” could 2007 make maps… 2008 OS starts to get nervous… 2009 Govt announces open OS… 2010 It happens… 2011 LA’s no longer have to pay…
- 20. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. (Ghandi) (Still not solved the derivation problem)
- 21. A couple of things I’ve been able to do locally with OpenStreetMap
- 22. Cambridgeshire County Council, licensed CCbySA2.0
- 23. Cambridgeshire County Council, licensed CCbySA2.0
- 24. Maps for disability Blind and partially sighted: renderings Wheelchair accessibility: the data Limited commercial imperative Limited data Costly to source DIY maps
- 25. Tactile maps
- 26. Amenities, kerbs, pavements Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
- 27. Humanitarian OSM Team Set up to respond to crises Largely initiative of Mikel Maron Photo: Harry Wood CCbySA Now constituted
- 28. Baghdad: experiment Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
- 29. Gaza: relief organisations Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
- 30. Haiti: emergency Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
- 31. Haiti: emergency
- 33. Kibera: community project Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
- 35. For me… Brings together interests in one place • Cycling • Photography • Design • Cartography • Technology
- 36. For the world… Brings together technology – community – license to make maps that allow innovation in unexpected ways Puts maps in the hands of ordinary people Democratises access to information