The call for venues for State of the Map 2019 is now open:
State of the Map 2019 – Call for venues
Assemble your team and propose your city as host for the next OpenStreetmap conference. The State of the Map working group helps you. We encourage you to contact us on team@stateofthemap.org as early as possible so that we can provide guidance if required.
Submit your proposal by 6th May 2018.
We passed a milestone recently which deserves some celebration: OpenStreetMap has now reached 1 million map contributors. Over the lifetime of our project, 1,000,000 different users have created a user account and made edits to the map! 1 million is a big number, and the growth of our community continues apace.
“At its core, OpenStreetMap is all about humans sharing knowledge about the places they visit, live and work in. Our fantastic project is only possible thanks to over a million individuals who generously volunteer their time to help others find their way in the world.”
Peter Barth – OSMF board
If you haven’t tried contributing to OpenStreetMap yet, it’s not too late to join a million others! sign up today and map your neighbourhood!
You may remember we celebrated 1 million users way back in 2013, but that was the count of signed up users — an impressive number, but not everyone who signed up has yet contributed to the map (Why have users signed up but not contributed? The reasons for this have been described in various ways over the years but similar participation patterns are seen in many online communities)
Simon Poole has been crunching the changeset logs and watching the count of map contributors tick past 1 million:
Read Simon’s diary entry for more analysis including a look at recent editor software usage trends. Of course we are tracking many other stats on our ‘stats’ page too.
So let’s celebrate! One million and still growing!
Google Summer of Code Logo (CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 Google)
Community voting for State of the Map 2018 is now open! Inspired by the community that makes OpenStreetMap a reality we want your help in shaping this year’s program.
The People Speak! by saulalbert. Licence: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Thank you everyone for submitting session proposals for State of the Map 2018. We have a great line up of presentations this year, it is time to share your views and help shape the State of the Map 2018 program.
Please participate in our OpenStreetMap community survey. It’s open to all, whether you are planning a trip to Milan, attending virtually on the live streams, or just enjoying our session videos afterwards.
Once past the front page you will be presented with a long list of talks to rate, sorted at random. We don’t expect you to rate all 134 talks; if each person reading this just did 10 then we would end up with a large amount of valuable data. When you’ve got as far as you’d like, just scroll down, hit Next until you can Submit your answers. Just don’t leave the page open for too long, as your session might time out. Note: Use of OSM usernames helps us with spam detection – we won’t share them with anyone.
You matter in the creation of OpenStreetMap and we want your voice to be heard in the creation of its conference. The survey is only open until 20th March 2018, so go to the survey now!
The State of the Map (SotM) conference is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap. Organised by the OpenStreetMap Foundation it has been held each year since 2007 (except 2015). State of the Map 2018 will take place in Milan (July 28 – 30, 2018).
The OpenStreetMap Foundation has updated its Trademark Policy, as per January 1st 2018. The revised policy is the work of the OSMF volunteer Licensing Working Group.
Read the updated Trademark Policy
The OpenStreetMap magnifying glass logo. One of the marks covered by the new trademarks policy
Why does OpenStreetMap have marks?
The OpenStreetMap marks represent OpenStreetMap and its work to bring open map data to the entire world. When users see the OpenStreetMap name and logo, they should be confident that they are looking at a high quality map that is the result of the rigorous and comprehensive collaboration process of OpenStreetMap. Trademark protection helps reinforce that connection.
The goodwill supporting the OpenStreetMap marks has been generated by a prolific and passionate volunteer community. The OpenStreetMap Foundation has prepared this policy to preserve and protect that goodwill by ensuring that uses of the marks are consistent with OpenStreetMap’s mission and promote the OpenStreetMap movement.
This trademark policy seeks to make trademark licensing as easy as possible for the contributors who created OpenStreetMap, by making explicit that many uses do not require a trademark licence, and by empowering them to use OpenStreetMap’s marks without a trademark licence for community-focused events and outreach work. The OpenStreetMap Foundation hopes that this helps spread OpenStreetMap and encourage contribution while also ensuring that the mark remains a reliable signal of quality.
The updated Trademark Policy has information on:
Offer to register domain names for informal local groups
The OpenStreetMap Foundation now offers to register domain names for informal local groups. Once a domain has been registered, it will point to the groups website as long as the terms of the trademark policy are followed and this can be done without causing conflicts with other user groups. Please note that this is intended for informal local groups, not Local Chapters. Please read the Trademark Policy for more details.
Events and conferences
Please read the Trademark Policy if you are interested in organising an OpenStreetMap related event or Conference.
If you are not sure whether your use is in compliance with this policy or local trademark laws please don’t hesitate to contact OSMF at trademarks@osmfoundation.org
Join the legal-talk mailing list
The legal-tallk mailing list is focused on the discussion of all legal matters relating to OpenStreetMap, including licensing and copyright. Join or view the archives at https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk
About the Licencing Working Group
The Licencing Working Group is one of the seven volunteer Working Groups of the OSM Foundation, focused on the promotion of open geospatial data through practical, coherent and clear licensing. If you find that interesting we invite you to join us – just mail us at legal@osmfoundation.org
Tickets for State of the Map 2018 are now on sale. Come register for this international gathering of the OpenStreetMap community. Move fast in order to guarantee yourself the “Early Bird” discounted rate!
State of the Map offers value for anyone excited about open location data. Our main conference days will feature around 50 talks, open spaces for gatherings, and exhibition areas where individuals and organizations can meet. Hundreds of OpenStreetMap community members are expected to attend and we want you there!
The early bird catches the worm. Or “chi primo arriva, meglio alloggia.” The world of OpenStreetMap belong to those who get (tickets) early.
Photo by cosheahan on flickr. Licence: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
The OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) Operations Working Group (OWG) is looking for proposals to provision space in a data centre to continue to run the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project’s infrastructure.
OSMF is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to supporting, but not controlling, the OpenStreetMap project. OSMF created the OWG in order to support OSM’s technical infrastructure, including the main website, API, data distribution, community sites, and manage them for the benefit of the project.
The map data created by OpenStreetMap and distributed through OSMF is the best free global map available. It powers services all over the world, including for companies such as Apple, Foursquare, Craigslist and Mapbox. Please see https://www.openstreetmap.org/about for more background information.
The data centre provider must meet the requirements set out below.
● The data centre must be in the EU.
● One rack (at least 40U) of space, at industry standard rack dimensions.
● Power capacity at least 3kW w/ dual redundant supplies.
● Cooling to keep the servers suitably cool, e.g: under 35 degrees celsius.
● Secure cages, so that only access authorised by the data centre or OSMF is possible.
● On-site “remote hands” to be able to receive and replace HDDs and press power buttons during weekday business hours and at least some service weekends and holidays.
● Network connection capable of 1Gbit/s peak traffic and 500Mbit/s sustained.
● Control over the configuration of any upstream firewalls for the purposes of ensuring necessary ports are open.
● Good peering connection to major European backbone network. Ideally within 20ms of our existing sites on JANET.
Please provide detailed information on:
● The procedure for shipping parts to the data centre, and
● The procedure for raising a ticket for “remote hands” work, and
● Whether “remote hands” would be available outside of business hours, and
● The site’s uptime and network reachability over the past year, and
● The procedure for an OSMF representative to visit and access the data centre.
The agreement would start on or before 1st April 2018 and run for a minimum of 3 years (at
OSMF’s option), preferably renewable annually or on a longer basis after that. Any renewal or
cancellation on either side would need a minimum notice period of 3 months.
If you have Terms and conditions or Acceptable Use Policies then you should submit them in editable form for legal review, where possible. T&C/AUP changes should be expected to ensure we meet the privacy and security commitments required for our users.
This RFP is expected to be open until 28th February 2018. Only applications received prior to this date can be considered for this RFP. All proposals will be received in confidence and will be kept private.
After the date above, all proposals will be evaluated by the OWG against the requirements set out above, after which OWG may contact candidate sites with follow-up questions or to arrange site visits. The final agreement will require legal review and approval by the OSMF board.
OSMF particularly welcomes responses from anyone willing to support the work of the foundation at minimal cost.
The successful candidate will be publicly thanked on the main OSM project website as well as OWG websites in accordance with OWG’s Hosting Provider Credit Policy.
Many thanks for your interest. If you have any questions or proposals, please send them to
operations@osmfoundation.org.
Castello Sforzesco – Fedewild on Flickr cc-by-sa 2.0
In July the OpenStreetMap community will be coming together for our annual State of the Map conference, this year in Milan, Italy. With planning well under way it is set to be as exciting as ever. Here is a gentle reminder of some upcoming deadlines so that you don’t miss out on the fun.
The deadline to apply for a scholarship is Wednesday, 14th February 2018.
We don’t want high travel costs to get in the way of talented individuals joining the fun. Thanks to the support of our sponsors, scholarships will help bring us together. Apply now for a scholarship to join us.
The deadline to submit your session proposal is Sunday, 18th February 2018.
You are encouraged to submit proposals for 20 minute talks, 5 minute lightning talks, and 75 minute workshops that will result in progress and excitement in the world of OpenStreetMap.
Please apply here!
The deadline for academic track proposals is Sunday, 4th March 2018.
In parallel to the standard sessions, this year State of the Map will run an Academic Track session to showcase the great importance OpenStreetMap has gained within the scientific and academic communities. If you’d like to propose an academic talk you have an extra two weeks.
If you have any questions, please contact us at team@stateofthemap.org.
Thank you,
Your State of the Map team
In parallel to the standard sessions, this year State of the Map will run an Academic Track session to showcase the great importance OpenStreetMap has gained within the scientific and academic communities. The Academic Track aims to bring together and foster interactions between OpenStreetMap contributors and scientific researchers from all over the world. Consequently this will demonstrate both the potential and maturity of scientific investigations based on OpenStreetMap to the whole community and stimulate a beneficial discussion among the attendees. Contributions are expected to address any scientific aspect related to OpenStreetMap, in particular, but not limited, to the following:
The maximum length of the abstract is 2500 characters. Abstracts must be scientifically rigorous and structured as follows: introduction/background, where the problem addressed is introduced; main aim or purpose of the study; brief description of the methodology and findings achieved; final discussion highlighting the scientific contribution of the study and its practical benefits/implications. Abstracts describing the use, analysis and processing of OpenStreetMap data for new and unconventional applications/disciplines are particularly encouraged.
Abstracts will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to give an oral presentation during the Academic Track sessions at the conference. In addition, authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper for the Special Issue “Open Source Geospatial Software” of the journal Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards.
Scientific Committee
The application form for State of the Map 2018 grants and scholarships is now open.
OpenStreetMap is a world map of many people and places. And we want you all there for our upcoming State of the Map conference in Milan. We can provide financial support to help you to join in the fun thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. This year we welcome back Bing, Facebook, Mapbox as Gold sponsors, Telenav as Silver sponsor, and say hello to Italian company, Immobiliare.it who joins at Silver level.
Each year we receive more scholarship applications than we are able to support. To help us best allocate the funds, we have different levels of scholarship – you can now pick from Grants for speakers, or Full or Enhanced scholarships.
Here are some tips to help you complete your application. You can also check out Gregory’s post on how we selected scholars from previous year’s applicants.
Whilst you are here don’t forget that you can also read the experiences that our scholars gained from being able to attend State of the Map 2017.
This post was updated in late June 2018 to include the sponsors from our top two tiers.
