Abstract:
OpenStreetMap began as a crowd-sourcing effort in the UK to gather publicly available and user-generated geospatial data using consumer grade GPS receivers. Since it's inception 3-years ago it has grown to be a global project with over 70,000 users and 550 million location track points. In addition, major commercial data providers have donated their data to the project and multinational organizations such as the UN are turning to OpenStreetMap to assist in their data collection and dissemination efforts.
This paper will look at the phenomenon that has enabled OpenStreetMap to be a successful grassroots project that is reshaping the data industry and geospatial community. One main aspect has been the evolution of a global network of local, non-technical community caretakers.
We'll also discuss many of the innovations that are being developed using the OpenStreetMap data - personalized cartography, social routing networks, dynamic visualization and investigation of geographic data. And in addition we will present some case studies of organizations using this data in high-demand, operational scenarios.
