CloudMade/OSM
I went to my first Open Street Map mapping party this past weekend and gotta say that I am impressed with the effort the Cloudmade/OSM folks are putting forth to making a better Geoweb. I didn’t really know all that much about OSM prior to this weekend’s event other than it being another “slippy” map that folks can use as a backdrop in their mapping applications. It is true that it is another slippy map but it’s much more than that to the untrained eye. I automatically see the potential in OSM in that anyone with the proper know-how can edit it with their own data to make it better. For example, if I am forester working in a remote location in Alaska and need to reference a map to help me make better decisions the chances of there being quality data already available is slim. I can, however, collect data from my hand held GPS device while out in the field and then upload it to OSM at the end of the day.
This does several things for us.
- Provides quality base data that is as accurate as our GPS device.
- Permanently archives the road network for that area so that others can use it.
The cool thing about OSM is that it’s completely free and open to use where as Google and Microsoft have restrictions that might prohibit the widespread use of their data. In fact, Cloudmade/OSM encourages that everyone use their data in hopes of getting people to create more of it. The idea behind Cloudmade is simple and really pretty cool…
CloudMade helps you make the most of map data. We source our maps from OpenStreetMap, the community mapping project which is making a free map of the world. Our aim is to continue the democratization of geo data and to expand access to open geo data through a range of simple yet powerful tools and APIs.
Our tools and APIs allow developers to create rich interactive experiences on the web and mobile.
I think that one of the things that bothers me the most about the Googles and Microsofts of the world is that you can’t take their data with you unless you’ve got some serious $$$. With Open Street Map you can literally download a snapshot of the available OSM Planet and use it completely disconnected from the world wide web if needbe.
The thing I liked the most about the Mapping Party was the fact that Russ took the time to show us how to make edits to the map. There are a few ways to do this and I am going to use my personal blog as a way to share with other folks how to do it! Please stay tuned for more posts on how to do this!!!
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