Simon Poole
OpenStreetMap Foundation Chairman

It’s customary at the end of the year and at the start of a new to reflect on what has been achieved and highlight noteworthy events in the past year. For OpenStreetMap 2013 would seem to me to be the year in which using our data is no longer extraordinary, but normal.

Over the course of the year we have seen devices from Bosch, Garmin and others being announced or delivered ex factory with OSM based maps, and we’ve seen a number of media houses switch to using OSM for their online publications. None of these seemed to be perceived as earth shattering, just matter of fact. The downside is that we have to actively remind ourselves that we, a small free and open project, are achieving astounding inroads in to an area of activity otherwise open only to governments and multi-billion dollar corporations.

For old hands 2013 is more likely to be noteworthy for two quite visible changes. One was the introduction of the new default editor iD. I would like to take the opportunity and specially thank the authors of previous default Potlatch 1 and 2  that are so closely coupled to the success of OpenStreetMap and which have served us, and continue to do so, well over many years.

The other change  naturally was the deployment of the web site redesign replacing the sidebar and tab layout with the current design. If archive.org is to be believed the previous layout had been with us since December 2005  and it was not a surprise that there was some turmoil and emotions accompanying the change.

At the end of the year our special thanks should also go to the volunteers that keep our infrastructure running and further to all contributors big and small that make OpenStreetMap what it is.

From the perspective of the OpenStreetMap Foundation among our goals for 2014 are  formalizing the relationship with our national and thematic organisations and to stabilizing our funding model going forward.

The project as a whole continues to show healthy growth both in coverage, participants, quality and usage. If I was personally asked what we need to consciously add more of, instead of just doing what we always do, I would point to address collection. While we added up to an incredible 1 million addresses per month in 2013 we really need to increase this a bit and while, naturally, some of this will come from imports, just walking around a block and jotting down the house numbers every time we are somewhere new could greatly increase the rate at which we approach the goal of including a free address dataset in the OSM data.

On this note, I wish everybody a happy new year and have a fun 2014 mapping.

Seasons greetings to all OpenStreetMap contributors!

…and I hope you all had an OpenStreetMappy Christmas.

I know I did. On Christmas day I managed to use OpenStreetMap for our family Christmas walk, and contributed a bit more data (More on that here)

What other Christmassy map happenings have happened?

• It looks like User:ubahnverleih has turned his family Christmas walk into more of an extensive mapping expedition than I did!
• The german OpenStreetMap community lead the way with mapping Christmas Markets!
• Derick Rethans has been writing a “contributing advent” series of blogs posts in the run up to Christmas, including some posts on contributing to OpenStreetMap.
• MapBox have celebrated the holidays and visualised the holiday traffic!
• User:RudiXXL thinks they spotted santa in OpenStreetMap landuse shapes.

How was your OpenStreetMappy Christmas?

Today is International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

We’re gathering map data related to disabilities within OpenStreetMap, and because the map is openly editable, you can help!

Edit the map of your neighbourhood to add details on wheelchair accessibility, and the presence of things like tactile paving for blind people. Details of the world which we may not imagine to be important, can be very useful things when presented on a map to help people with a variety of disabilities. We have OpenStreetMap “tags” for them all, from gluten-free food outlets, to more simple things like steps and toilets. It’s a lot of detail, but with thousands of people all mapping their own neighbourhoods we can map the world for disabled people.

A number of projects are delivering very interesting custom map applications, of a kind which would only be possible with free open access to raw geo-data:

WheelMap.org provides a great interface into wheelchair accessibility data, presenting a traffic-light colour coding of accessibility, and inviting you to help categorise more map features in this way.

Researchers at the University of Heidelberg have produced a prototype wheelchair routing service. This German language only service is available at rollstuhlrouting.de. The routing for wheelchairs takes into consideration maximum slope angle, the type of surface (e.g. cobbles vs asphalt) and the height of kerbs; all this information can be mapped and added to OpenStreetMap.

In France mappers conducted an extensive detailed mapping of accessibility features for railway stations, with funding from the french national railway company SNCF as part of their initiative to support open data. A talk by Christian Quest at our annual State of the Map (SOTM) conference, gives more details.

Also at the SOTM conference we had a talk about Haptomai, one of several experiments looking at supplying maps to blind people. Check out our OSM for the blind wiki page for links to other projects, and details of the kind of map contributions which can help.

Many of these projects are in the early stages of development, and welcoming new contributions to develop the ideas further. OpenStreetMap can offer a wealth of detailed data feeding into these innovations, but only in the neighbourhoods where this data has been added. So on International Day of Persons with Disabilities, there’s lots of interesting ways to help with OpenStreetMap!

Have you received an e-mail like this?

“We cannot guarantee that your maps will continue to function. We highly recommend that you migrate to Google Maps v3 before November 19.”

Yes, Google Maps are shutting down their old JavaScript Map API (v2). They recommend that you spend a lot of time rewriting your code to switch to the newer v3 API.

But why not spend that time switching to something better?

OpenStreetMap is the map made by experts – the locals who know their area intimately. It has footpaths and bike paths, alleyways and waterways, green spaces and public places, along with the roads and railways you expect. It’s updated every minute of every day, not just next time Google sends out a StreetView car. No wonder big names like Foursquare, Github and Mapquest have already made the switch to OSM.

Switching from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap is easier than you think. If you’ve struggled with the old Google Maps APIs, you’ll find our equivalent, Leaflet, a breath of fresh air. Its smooth presentation will give a real lift to your site’s appearance, and on mobile it’s as fluid as a native app.

And if you want to go further, OpenStreetMap lets you build your own, beautiful custom maps from our data. You’re not limited to the same Google styling that everyone else uses. Because it’s all open source, you don’t even have to pay us anything for ‘premium’ services.

So how do you do it? The OpenStreetMap community runs the switch2osm.org website which offers several recommendations for switching to using OpenStreetMap. Check out the ‘Basics’ and ‘Using Tiles’ sections to find how to switch your JavaScript to OSM. If you want to build your own custom maps, you’ll find full details there too.

Because ultimately, OpenStreetMap is much more than a Google Maps API replacement. We offer something rather different: free and open access to raw map data. This empowers developers to unleash a wave of innovation and creativity which goes beyond embedding maps on a website. Best of all, when people use OpenStreetMap on their websites, more people see the map; more people join in with mapping efforts; and the community-created map gets even more detailed. By using OpenStreetMap you are supporting it, and helping us with our not-for-profit mission to create the best free and open map of the world.

switch2osm.org