OpenStreetMap: User-Generated Street Maps

The OpenStreetMap project is a knowledge collective that provides user-generated street maps. OSM follows the peer production model that created Wikipedia; its aim is to create a set of map data that´s free to use, editable, and licensed under new copyright schemes. A considerable number of contributors edit the world map collaboratively using the OSM technical infrastructure, and a core group, estimated at approximately 40 volunteers, dedicate their time to creating and improving OSM´s infrastructure, including maintaining the server, writing the core software that handles the transactions with the server, and creating cartographical outputs. There´s also a growing community of software developers who develop software tools to make OSM data available for further use across different application domains, software platforms, and hardware devices. The OSM project´s hub is the main OSM Web site.