GeoHackr • com

The BBC is running an article on Atlanta Georgia and their attempt to be “the world’s most digitally mapped city.” This article is interesting on two different accounts. On one hand you have a city that is taking a concerned effort in making themselves more accessible. This is a great step forward and I feel many more cities need to follow suit.

On the other hand, you have great publicity for one of the greatest open-source projects that is around today; OpenStreetMap. For those of you who do not know what OpenStreetMap (OSM) is, wikipedia has the following explanation:

OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world.

The maps are created using data from portable GPS devices, aerial photography, other free sources or simply from local knowledge. Both rendered images and the vector graphics are available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence.

OpenStreetMap was inspired by sites such as Wikipedia – the map display features a prominent ‘Edit’ tab and a full revision history is maintained. Registered users can upload GPS track logs and edit the vector data using the given editing tools.

If there is one thing that I think the world needs is more open-source applications like OSM. OSM is based out of the United Kingdom, but their maps spread throughout the world. Let’s make it a point to help OSM with their goals. If you are into mapping, go and contribute to their map. If you are not interested in mapping but still want to help, you can always donate some money! So help OSM on this upcoming GIS Day, I plan on it!!