Tag Archives: Open Data

OpenStreetMap Foundation and European projects: an invitation to collaborate

OpenStreetMap did not come out of a European research programme. It was not created as a policy instrument, nor was it designed from the top down to support institutional priorities.
Yet many of the ideas behind OpenStreetMap are now central to European strategies on data, digital transformation, innovation and technological sovereignty.
Openness, reuse, collaboration, trusted digital infrastructure, digital commons and technological autonomy are all important elements of current EU policy. They are also principles that have shaped OpenStreetMap for more than twenty years.
The OpenStreetMap Foundation is interested in opportunities to collaborate in EU-funded projects.
OpenStreetMap can make a practical contribution in areas such as digital commons and digital sovereignty.
This post is aimed mainly at people who are developing, or considering developing, EU project proposals involving OpenStreetMap Foundation.
OSMF is a small foundation supporting a very large global community.
It’s main role is to help ensure the sustainability of the OpenStreetMap project over time.
OSMF doesn’t create data on behalf of the community. OpenStreetMap is maintained and improved every day by thousands of people around the world.
To involve OSMF as a valuable partner in a European project, it is important to consider how the Foundation can contribute its experience in the governance of digital commons, open infrastructure, community-based models and long-term sustainability.
It can also help projects design activities that strengthen the OpenStreetMap ecosystem, rather than treating OpenStreetMap simply as a dataset to be used.
Licensing is another important aspect to consider from the beginning.
OpenStreetMap data is published under the ODbL, which reflects the project’s commitment to openness and share-alike principles. EU open data, however, is often published under licences such as CC BY.
This doesn’t necessarily prevent collaboration, but licence compatibility should be considered during the design of the project, not after the work has already started.
This is an important issue to interact with the OpenStreetMap ecosystem.

A practical invitation to project teams
OSMF encourages organisations developing EU project proposals to contact the Foundation at an early stage, ideally before the proposal is finalised.
A first approach should include:
– a short description of the project, why OpenStreetMap is relevant and what role is being proposed for OSMF
– an explanation of how the project would contribute back to the OpenStreetMap ecosystem, for example by strengthening infrastructure, supporting governance or contributing to the long-term sustainability
– a realistic collaboration model that reflects the size and capacity of a small non-profit organisation, including simpler funding arrangements, such as lump-sum contributions, where appropriate.
OSMF is open to collaboration with European projects that understand OpenStreetMap is not only as a map or a source of data, but as a community, a shared infrastructure and a living digital commons.
The invitation is simple: contact us, design the collaboration and work with us in a way that helps OpenStreetMap and its community remain strong over time.

Bulk GPX track data

Last year, at about this time, the OpenStreetMap Foundation made a big splash when it released the first Bulk GPS Point dataset. That may have been the largest publication of GPS point data ever. Many users were thrilled to have that raw data and to put it to good use. But they also wanted more. They wanted the track file details.

In fact, requests for bulk OpenStreetMap GPX track files go back to 2007 or earlier. Now, the combined talents of the OpenStreetMap community and the resources of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, make that dream a reality.

Announcing the GPX Planet

The scale of this dataset is fairly large.

  • 848,000 GPX files
  • 2.6 Trillion GPX points
  • 260GB of GPS data (uncompressed)

Not everybody will be able to manage all of this data at once. It is likely, as with planet files and planet extracts, that somebody will offer GPX extracts.

What is this data good for?

Well, it’s interesting and there is a large quantity of it. Many OpenStreetMap contributors have been asking for it for years. Previous uses for this type of data have included

  • artistic organic trip data as maps
  • confirm turn restrictions
  • confirm one-way restrictions
  • confirm speed limits
  • and many more of your ideas in the comments

The future

There are hopes and plans to improve this service over time, including

  • quarterly updates
  • addition of vdop / hdop precision data, where available

You can help

You can help to improve this service by contributing your GPX track data. Upload your GPX files through your OpenStreetMap account. Collect new track files as you survey.

You can also help by using the data for something interesting and / or by publishing some code. OpenStreetMap user Zverik has started the ball rolling by creating gpx2pgsql to put the gpx data into your rendering tool chain.

Thanks

Thanks as always to the million-plus OpenStreetMap contributors over the eight years of the project so far. Especially, thanks to the thousands of contributors who collected and uploaded their GPX track files, and to Lars Franke, who wrote the first Java GPX dump code in 2010, and to Ian Dees who rewrote that into the current Python code, and to the many others who were involved in ways large and small.

So, where is it?

Find the GPX planet on the planet site and mirrors.

The image in this article is a visualization of some of the GPS point data in Europe. The image is licensed CC-By-SA and was created by Dave Stubbs.