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The Mapping News Blog reports about OpenStreetMap new ability. It already supports a couple of different formats, including PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG and Postscript. For more info and the screenshots, please visit the Mapping News Blog. Update: 04/22 14:47 GMT by S : Here's the official announcement on the new export capabilities. In addition to lxnyce's story, I recently found out (via Kurt) about eWorld, an open source framework to import mapping data, including OSM data. From the eWorld page: "eWorld is a framework to import mapping data from providers, such as OpenStreetMap.org (OSM), visualize it, edit and enrich it with events or annotational attributes and pass it to traffic simulators, such as SUMO or VanetMobiSim."

The Mapperz blog is reporting about this. From their blog : "This is top news for GIS users who support OpenStreetMap, there is no longer any need to convert the osm.bz2 to shapefiles as it is supplied in shape format now."

When I show OpenStreetMap to friends and colleagues, I systematically talk about its coverage in Baghdad. Ogle Earth just did a comparison of the major webmapping sites specifically for Baghdad with screenshots. As much as OpenStreetMap is surprisingly great in some areas, a user comment reminds us it varies a great deal on the location, such as in this Turkish region: Live, Google, Yahoo, OpenStreetMap. See also related stories below.

In September we mentioned the conversion of OpenStreetMap data in shapefiles, but now that's much better: worldwide OpenStreetMap data available in shapefile, XML and Garmin formats. From the FGT entry: "Broken down by country/state, you can download: * OSM XML extracts * Garmin Map Files (OSM.err edition) * Osmosis country bounding polygon * Shapefile extracts * Navit maps * GPX POI * TomTom POI [...] CloudMade is developing APIs to deliver the OSM map data in web and mobile format, but these are currently in alpha and limited to developers." The FGT has a followup entry on OSM Garmin Maps. While we're on the OMS subject, you can now collect data for OpenStreetMap with the iPhone's OSMTrack: "OSMTrack is an application that allows you to use the iPhone 3G’s GPS to capture tracks and waypoints and upload them directly from the iPhone to the OpenStreetMap servers." See also related previous below.

Off The Map offers an interesting entry on worldwide comparison of OpenStreetMap vs TeleAtlas street coverage­. From the entry: "Alex’s original assessment was that OSM is slightly ahead of Google/TeleAtlas worldwide and in in Africa and Asia. In Europe, OSM is well ahead. Google is slightly ahead in Oceania, and well ahead in North and especially South America." See also previous related stories below or use a search.

An anonymous voxel writes "An animation showing edits to the OpenStreetMap.org project during 2008. All edits are shown as white flashes on the globe and you can clearly see the extent and intensity of work during the year, as well as the bulk imports of data." A search will reveal the numerous previous stories about OpenStreetMap.

The EiS offers links regarding Google's Android getting free turn-by-turn satnav via AndNav2 and OpenStreetMap and OpenRouteService. From the Earth is Square summary: "An article on PocketPicks and GAB about an navigation application for the Android enabled mobile phones called AndNav2. The application uses street data from the OpenStreetMap project and can give turn-by-turn directions in Germany, France, Denmark, United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Austria & Ireland." See also related stories below.

APB discusses a story named The Guardian (UK) Opens its Platform with Partner OpenStreetMap. The tidbit about OpenStreetMap: "Other partners for the launch of the service include web design firm Stamen and OpenStreetMap, a free, open alternative to commercial map data services. Stamen and OpenStreetMap developed a service that they hope will encourage Guardian readers to "geo-tag" the newspaper's content, positioning every article, video and picture on a map so users can find news, commentary, video and other content related to their area."

A few interesting new entries about OpenStreetMap. First there's the great news that OpenStreetMap now surpasses 100,000 registered users. In the provided graph, the curves are going up exponentially, which is obviously good. Via the same blog, we learn OpenStreetMap won two Linux New Media awards: "The free Internet geographic mapping service OpenStreetMap won recognition in the Most Innovative Open Source Project category." The EPSG4253 blog runs an entry on the license difference and media coverage in the Philippine between Google Map Maker and OpenStreetMap: "Another important thing is OSM allows you to use it for commercial purposes and build services around the data. You can get the “source” for free, build applications and sell them in any scheme you like." It seems OpenScales now also supports OpenStreetMap. We mention very frequently news about OpenStreetMap, see related stories below.

We regularly mention OSM, but this might still be of interest to many: Between the Poles links to an 'Introduction to OpenStreetMap' 45-minutes webcast. The intro: "This presentation will introduce you to the breadth and depth of OpenStreetMap and related projects. You will learn why you should care about maps, how OpenStreetMap is beating every other map, and see some of the amazing things that are being done with OpenStreetMap data and software. The presentation will bring those with little or no OSM experience up to speed quickly and show how to use OpenStreetMap to make the maps you need." See also previous stories below.