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OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free and open database of Earth’s features created by contributions from volunteer mappers. Every day, thousands of new features are added and existing features are enriched. Accurate, high-resolution and up-to-date satellite imagery is an essential component for improving this continuously evolving map of our planet – whether it is to trace new features or to use as a reference layer for validation. DigitalGlobe has supported the OSM community for years through partnerships, and today, we are pleased to announce that we will also support OpenStreetMap directly. Over the past few months, we have been working with several of our partners that share the common goal of improving OpenStreetMap. To that end, they have generously funded the launch of a global imagery service powered by DigitalGlobe Maps API. This will open more data and imagery to aid OSM editing. OSM contributors will see a new DigitalGlobe imagery source, in addition to imagery provided by our partners, Bing and Mapbox. We anticipate questions and feedback about this release. We are addressing them through an active forum with FAQs here. This post is replicated on OSM Forum. I’m available on OSM help or you can hit me up directly with any additional questions. [caption id="attachment_5440" align="aligncenter" width="929"]Mexico City, Mexico. Imagery (c) DigitalGlobe. Map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors Mexico City, Mexico. Imagery (c) DigitalGlobe. Map (c) OpenStreetMap contributors[/caption] We appreciate the OSM community’s awareness and diligence for licensing. In order to be clear on the intended uses for our imagery, we have a short, readable EULA to summarize terms for editing OpenStreetMap. If you need imagery for other applications or are interested in participating and supporting OpenStreetMap through this partnership, please contact us. We’ll be at State of the Map US in Boulder, Colorado this fall. Let’s meet up there. We would love to hear your stories, feedback and questions! If you do something cool and want to share, we’re collecting ideas for the conference as well. Happy mapping!
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