OpenStreetMap

Collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world

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2024 Ola introduced a mapping platform partly based on OSM data.
2024 Niantic migrated its titles to Overture Maps data, which incorporates some OSM data.
2024 Corporate contributions to OpenStreetMap decline to approximately 2-3% of total edits
2024 Meta's Daylight Map Distribution project concludes, having provided enhanced OpenStreetMap data for production use.
2024 A study using PyPSA confirmed that OSM provides the most detailed and up-to-date publicly available coverage of the European high-voltage electrical grid, comparable to official data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity.
2023 The Digital Public Goods Alliance, a United Nations–endorsed initiative, recognized OpenStreetMap as a digital public good for its contribution toward the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
2023 The Taj Mahal was incorrectly identified as 'Shiva Kshetra (Shiv Mandir)', a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, for 13 days until contributors from Kerala discovered and corrected the error.
2023 Conclusion of the five-year period tracking the most used OpenStreetMap editing tools.
2023 DigitalGlobe concludes its provision of satellite imagery for OpenStreetMap map production.
2023 A study examined the changes to the relation data structure in API v0.6, finding that it reduced the total number of relations while lowering barriers to creating new relations and expanding their use cases.
2022 Grab completed a migration from Google Maps and Here Maps to an in-house, OSM-based navigation solution.
2022 GitHub concluded its use of OSM-based Mapbox basemap for visualizing GeoJSON data.
2021 Stamen Design's OSM-based tile layer Watercolor (originally created in 2010) became the first live website to enter the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, marking a significant cultural recognition.
2021 Corporate contributions continue to represent about 10% of OpenStreetMap edits
2021 Balad, an Iranian OSM-based mobile navigation app developer, was caught with an employee vandalizing streets in Iran, leading to a public apology from the company.
2021 A research study in German regions Baden-Württemberg and Saxony found the mean completeness of shop data to be 88% and 82% respectively, tracking the development of shop data over time.
2021 A comparative study of the OpenStreetMap Carto style's symbology with Soviet Union military mapping found similar coverage of road infrastructure, but less prominence given to the natural environment.
June 2021 Foundation stated that Brexit effects may prompt relocation to Belgium or Luxembourg due to challenges with database rights, charitable status, and banking.
2020 Accenture research report estimated the total replacement value of the OpenStreetMap database, highlighting its significant economic impact in collaborative mapping.
2020 Microsoft Flight Simulator introduced software-generated building models partially based on OSM data.
2020 FlightGear Flight Simulator officially integrated OSM buildings and roads into its official scenery.
2020 Corporate edits on OpenStreetMap peak at about 10% of total contributions
2020 Microsoft Flight Simulator players discovered an impossibly thin 212-storey building in a Melbourne suburb, which was revealed to be the result of an unnoticed typographical error in OpenStreetMap that had persisted for a year.
2020 Meta began publishing the Daylight Map Distribution, which enhanced OpenStreetMap data with quality assurance processes and additional external datasets to make it more production-ready.
August 2020 Introduced an active contributors membership program, allowing contributors with at least 42 active editing days in a year to apply for free membership with voting rights.
August 1 2020 OpenStreetMap map tiles transitioned from being licensed under CC-BY-SA-2.0 to ODbL license, changing the attribution requirements for maps produced using their data.
March 2020 A study reveals that approximately 17% of road kilometers were last edited by corporate teams in March
2019 The Free Software Foundation awarded OpenStreetMap the 2018 Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit, recognizing its significant societal impact.
2019 Tesla car owners discovered that the Smart Summon automatic valet parking feature in Tesla Autopilot relied on OSM's parking lot details.
2018 GlobalLogic was implicated in a coordinated effort to sign up employees as individual members.
2018 The Swiss Society of Cartography awarded the OSM-based OpenMapTiles project its Prix Carto award for digital cartography, demonstrating the project's cartographic excellence.
2018 A vandal renamed New York City and nearby map features with antisemitic names, which was quickly removed but temporarily resurfaced on third-party platforms due to replication lag.
2018 Start of tracking the top five editing tools for OpenStreetMap, which included JOSM, iD, StreetComplete, Rapid, and Potlatch.
2017 Niantic migrated its augmented reality titles Ingress and Pokémon Go from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap.
2017 DigitalGlobe starts providing satellite imagery for OpenStreetMap map production.
2016 HOT participated in mapping efforts for the Kumamoto earthquakes in Japan, providing critical geographic information for emergency response.
2016 HOT contributed to mapping efforts after the Ecuador earthquake, supporting humanitarian mapping and disaster relief coordination.
April 2015 Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) contributed to mapping efforts following the Nepal earthquake, supporting disaster response and relief operations.
February 2015 OpenStreetMap's official website began featuring route planning libraries including GraphHopper, Open Source Routing Machine, and Valhalla for routing services based on OSM data.
2014 Free Software Foundation Europe awarded the OpenStreetMap Foundation its Document Freedom Day UK Award, recognizing the project's contributions to open technology.
2014 The Japan Institute of Design Promotion awarded OpenStreetMap its Good Design Award, highlighting the project's innovative design approach.
2014 During the Ebola outbreak, OpenStreetMap volunteers mapped 100,000 buildings and hundreds of miles of roads in Guinea within just five days, demonstrating rapid humanitarian mapping capabilities.
2014 Corporate contributions to OpenStreetMap begin to be tracked, with top contributors including Apple, Kaart, Amazon, Facebook, Mapbox, Digital Egypt, Grab, Microsoft, Telenav, Developmentseed, Uber, Lightcyphers, and Lyft
March 2014 OpenStreetMap community mapped regions affected by the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa.
2013 GitHub began visualizing uploaded GeoJSON data on an OSM-based Mapbox basemap.
November 2013 OpenStreetMap community mapped areas impacted by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles OpenStreetMap & OpenStreetMap Foundation, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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