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sotm07I spend this weekend in Manchester, attending The State of the Map, a conference organised by OpenStreetMap. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this, not really understanding before hand that is was an OSM based event (yes, I should have read the details); that didn't really matter because I learnt a ton about OSM and mapping, made some useful contacts, got some great ideas and had a great time. There were some really interesting and entertaining talks, including one by Phil on vehicle tracking. The whole event has really energised me into learning more about this and doing something to help OSM - their content around my area isn't bad, but it could be better; I've just ordered a Bluetooth adapter for the GPS unit I got with Streets and Trips, so will make an effort to log some data. OSM's plan is to have the entire UK mapped by mid 2008, an ambitious aim, but achievable if more people contribute.
I'm really impressed by OSM; I remember checking it out some time ago, but the tools just weren't great at the time, unsurprising since it's all a community effort and the developers have jobs. But now they've an impressive site that's getting better all of the time; we're all used to using Google/Live Maps/Multimap, but they've got just the same - searching, dragging, zoom, etc. What they don't have is completeness; unlike the commercial providers whose data is copyright and has been collected over a long time (often at the taxpayers expense), the OSM started from scratch with user submitted data that is free. Free as in speech. Unlike the data from Ordinance Survey, which is very expensive. The OSM data is released under a Creative Commons Share Alike license, meaning you can use it any way you want, as long as you attribute it.