From internet protocols and operating systems to databases and cloud services, some technologies are so ubiquitous that most people don't even know they exist. The same can be said about OpenStreetMap, a community-driven platform that provides geographic data and maps to businesses and software developers, allowing them to be a little less reliant on monopolistic incumbents in the field (yes, mostly Google).
OpenStreetMap is the creation of Steve Coast (pictured above), a University College London “dropout” (Coast's own words) who has since worked in a variety of mapping and location roles at Microsoft, TomTom, Telenav and, as of today, the Singaporean ride-hailing company Grab.
Coast is no longer directly involved in OpenStreetMap's day-to-day operations, but in a blog post Friday marking the 20th anniversary of OpenStreetMap, the site he founded, he acknowledged two previous success stories in the open source space that convinced him that something like OpenStreetMap has a promising future.
“Twenty years ago I knew that a WikiMap of the world would work,” Coast writes. “It seemed obvious, given the success of Wikipedia and Linux. But it wasn't until much later that I learned that OpenStreetMap would work.”
OpenStreetMap is like a Wikipedia for maps, although comparisons to the encyclopedia version are somewhat superficial: yes, they're both huge collaborative projects, but there's a world of difference between sharing nerdy knowledge about micronations and mapping geographic features on a global scale.
Today, OpenStreetMap has over 10 million contributors mapping and fine-tuning everything from roads and buildings to rivers, valleys, and everything else that makes up our built and natural environment. It all starts with data from a variety of sources, including public or donated aerial imagery and maps provided by governments and private organizations like Microsoft. Contributors can add and edit data manually using OpenStreetMap's editing tools, or they can go out into the field with a GPS and map entirely new areas themselves, which is useful, for example, as new roads appear.
OpenSteetMap Editors Image credit: OpenSteetMap
As sole author, Coast was the driving force behind early software development and outreach, eventually founding the OpenStreetMap Foundation, a UK-based non-profit organization to oversee the project in 2006. Today, the Foundation is supported primarily by donations and membership, with a volunteer board of fewer than a dozen trustees (elected by the membership) that leads key decisions and manages finances. The Foundation employs one systems engineer and a small number of contractors who provide administrative and accounting support.
OpenStreetMap's Open Database License (ODbL) allows any third party to use the data with proper attribution (which is not always given), including well-known companies like Apple, VC-backed unicorns like MapBox, and leading tech companies like Uber and Strava, which use OpenStreetMap data for roads, trails, parks, points of interest, and more.
More recently, the Overture Maps Foundation, an initiative backed by Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and TomTom, has relied heavily on OpenStreetMap data as part of its own efforts to build a workable alternative to Google's walled mapping garden.
There's no question that OpenStreetMap has been successful over the past 20 years – this success would not have been possible without the Internet and people's desire to create something valuable that everyone can own.
“OpenStreetMap has managed to map the world for almost no money and give away its data for free,” Coast points out. “By expressing facts, not opinions, it has avoided almost all of Wikipedia's problems. If OpenStreetMap is a medium, what is its message? For me it is that you can get from nothing to something, or from zero to one.”
Beyond affordability and accessibility, there is at least one other reason why open map datasets should exist. It comes down to the concept of who “owns” location. Should a giant corporation like Google really control everything? By any reasonable estimate, location monopolies are not good for society. As OpenStreetMap contributor and free software advocate Serge Wroclawski points out:
“Place is a shared resource, and when you give all of that power to a single organization, you're giving that organization not only the power to tell you about your place, but the power to shape it.”