Data-Visualization: OpenStreetMap London Progress

You might have heard about the OpenStreetMap project that creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to everyone. What most users of mapping software and services don’t know - there are often license or technical restrictions how you can use data and maps available commercially or by other providers. That’s what OpenStreetMap is trying to overcome.

Particularly with mapping data from the UK, where the government agency in charge for geo-data keeps a firm grip on all data and sells it for substantial money, there is a huge need to have open source data available.

When you have a look at the OpenStreetMap UK wiki page their projects show great progress. There are of course still some gaps but coverage is already at a level that it can be used in most mapping applications. And they have also illustrated that popular products like for example Google maps are also missing streets and found quite a few errors as well.

The video below shows the work and progress by one of the contributors on London street maps over a period of 2 years. If you want to see the overall status for London have a look here

Click on the image below for the link (multimedia)

For more information how you can contribute and to download maps and other software visit the OpenStreetMap web site