OSM Consultant | OSM tips from the pros. All I Want for OpenStreetMap is Simple. | Kate Chapman - Maploser? When I heard DevelopmentSeed put in a proposal for the Knight News Challenge to make simple contribution tools for OpenStreetMap I was elated. I’ve long admired DevSeed for their beautiful maps and innovative uses of new technology. Â They are already well involved in OpenStreetMap through support of Mapnik, attendance at development sprints and use of OpenStreetMap information in MapBox. I think there is a real opportunity here to improve the ability of average people to contribute to and utilize OpenStreetMap.
 What is the key? The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team probably spends more time than any other group in OpenStreetMap teaching the technology to non-technical users. Gathering Data I would say collecting data in the field is probably the easiest part of OpenStreetMap. Walking Papers by far is the biggest improvement in field data collection in years. Entering Data I mean no slight to the developers of OpenStreetMap editing tools with my critique here. Using Data Simple Language. Switch2osm | Open alternatives to Google Maps. Lately there was a not much surprising news about Google products and services. Among other things Google has changed the Google Maps API use policy and will charge to those users that exceed some download limits. It is well known that Google Maps is one of the most (or the most) famous mapping service used around the net and it starts the web GIS revolution some years ago but hopefully it is not the only API we can use.
Bing and the discontinued Yahoo Maps, are great competitors but this post is related to open source alternatives you can find to create your web mapping applications. Please, don’t confuse the API with the imagery you are using. Google will charge you by the imagery usage so if you use an alternative API but continues consuming Google tiles you are in a similar situacion. OpenLayers OpenLayers is probably the most famous open source web mapping project. OpenLayers is close to OGC standards, it separates between geometries, features and styles. Polymaps Leaflet Related Posts:
Google Maps Free Alternatives « Fubra. We love Google products much like why we love Apple here at Fubra (apart from those who don’t believe in the great Steve Jobs), they work and work well. But recently they made a change to their Maps API that caused us to rethink our mapping strategy drastically. Since October, Google introduce a clause in their usage terms that states that if you do go over 25000 user sessions a day then they can start charging you a fee for use. Not such a big deal some may say and Google did note in their developer blog… Based on current usage, only the top 0.35% of sites will be affected by these limits, meaning that the Google Maps API will remain free for the vast majority of sites.— Google Developer Blog On the usage statics from a post last year on their blog that means 1225 sites will be affected (probably more).
One of our sites, World Airport Codes, is one of those sites. So our search for a replacement started! Javascript Map API Map Tile Service Putting it Together To something like this: MapQuest. Open Alternatives to Google Maps. OpenStreetMap: 'It's the Wikipedia of maps' | From the Observer | The Observer. Steve Coast of OpenStreetMap. Photograph: Kaela Domenico for the Observer When Steve Coast created OpenStreetMap in 2004, he had to build the world from scratch. "We started with absolutely nothing, a completely blank canvas. The first data came from me cycling around Regent's Park with a GPS puck the size of a pack of cards and then plugging it into my laptop. " His eventual aim? To map the entire planet and make the data freely available, without copyright restrictions, for everyone with an internet connection to use in a multitude of ways. Now, eight years on from Regent's Park, most of the world has been mapped, in varying degrees of detail, and can be viewed on openstreetmap.org and on numerous other services that use the site's data.
Adopting the same "open source" philosophy that made Wikipedia the biggest reference site on the web, OpenStreetMap allows users "to tinker with the underlying data or the underlying software that produces it". Alternatives to Google Maps | Spatial Analysis. Why companies are moving away from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap – switch2osm.org « thinkwhere. Microsoft backing OpenStreetMap, creating Google Maps competitor. Welcome, Apple! | OpenStreetMap Foundation. Yesterday Apple launched iPhoto, its photo management app, for the iPad and iPhone… and we’re rather pleased to find they’re the latest to switch to OpenStreetMap. The desktop version of iPhoto, and indeed all of Apple’s iOS apps until now, use Google Maps. The new iPhoto for iOS, however, uses Apple’s own map tiles – made from OpenStreetMap data (outside the US). If you don’t have iPhoto, you can view the maps using this unofficial viewer from Dair Grant or a transparent comparison from Iván Sánchez.
The OSM data that Apple is using is rather old (start of April 2010) so don’t expect to see your latest and greatest updates on there. It’s also missing the necessary credit to OpenStreetMap’s contributors; we look forward to working with Apple to get that on there. 03 May 2012 Update: Apple appear to have added OpenStreetMap attribution in their iPhoto v 1.0.1 But we’re delighted to see another prominent map user make the switch to OpenStreetMap, and look forward to many more. iPhoto for iOS Uses OpenStreetMap Data & Apple's Custom Tiles. After questioning the source of the map data in Apple’s new iPhoto for iOS app, OpenStreetMap has moved to end speculation and has revealed that the Cupertino-based technology giant has begun using its open-sourced mapping data instead of relying on its partnership with Google. Writing on its official blog, OpenStreetMap said that it was “rather pleased to find they’re the latest to switch to OpenStreetMap,” adding that that Apple uses it own map tiles “made from OpenStreetMap data (outside the US).”
Interestingly, the team says that Apple has utilised an older version of OSM’s maps — which date back to April 2010 — so it warns users not to expect the “latest and greatest updates” to show on maps shown in the iPhoto for iOS app. It is also apparently lacking credit to OpenStreetMap’s contributors, which the company says it will work with Apple to ensure it is placed on the maps. We did contact Apple on the matter but have not received a response. Why Apple Doesn't Need Google Maps Anymore. Apple switches from Google to OpenStreetMaps in new iPhoto…but forgets to give credit. Apple Quietly Rejects Google Maps in iPhoto for iPad. When Apple unveiled iPhoto for iPad, it demonstrated the many departures from the desktop version, including the multi-touch editing, visual brush palette and AirPlay slideshow streaming.
What Apple didn’t mention was that it wasn’t using Google Maps anymore. When you check a photo’s location data in the OS X version of iPhoto, a map clearly labeled with a Google logo is visible. But when you fire up a map in the new iPhoto for iPad, that logo is gone, and the map’s labeling looks quite different (you can see the difference in the side-by-side comparison below).
Detailed examinations from multiple sites determined there’s detail on the maps of some areas that isn’t visible on Google. Where is iPhoto getting its map data? OpenStreetMap, it appears. While the Apple map clearly has a different design, the maps appear to have near-identical road and landmark information. OpenStreetMap is an open service — anyone is free to use its data and maps at no charge. BONUS: iPhoto for iPad: Hands On. Foursquare Dumps Google & Goes Open-Source for Maps. Foursquare just made what it called "a little announcement", but it's really not little at all. It's switching away from the Google Maps API to OpenStreetMap. For the map images, it hired MapBox, a start-up that makes pretty maps out of OpenStreetMap data. Starting with foursquare.com, foursquare's maps now use MapBox Streets. Foursquare cites Google's decision to start charging for access to the Google Maps API in October as the reason it started looking for alternatives.
But it sounds like it just made more sense to the team philosophically, too. Lots of businesses built on top of Google Maps have been switching providers lately. Google's decision to charge for API access could not have been made lightly, especially considering the importance of Foursquare. It's also hard to ignore Google's efforts to compete with foursquare directly. So now Foursquare and Google are direct competitors. Foursquare Says Farewell to Google Maps, Joins OpenStreetMaps Movement. Foursquare is parting ways with Google Maps in favor of crowdsourced maps created by the OpenStreetMap project. Foursquare announced the change in a blog post Wednesday, explaining its decision to make the big API switch. To power the new maps, Foursquare is partnering with MapBox, a startup which calls itself "a beautiful alternative to Google Maps" and uses data from OpenStreetMap. "As a startup, we also often think about how we can make life easier for other startups," the Foursquare blog explains.
Foursquare says it chose MapBox for three reasons: its use of OpenStreetMap, which will continue to get better; it allows for design flexibility, so Foursquare can pick fonts and colors to match the rest of the app; and it's powered by the open-source Leaflet java script library. During the company's January hackathon, one engineer proposed the question "What would the world look like if we made our own maps? " OpenStreetMap is one of the largest online group projects on the web. Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish.