Slashgeo

Here's a wrap-up of last month's geonews regarding OpenStreetMap. First is a long discussion on the licence attributed to data contributed to the OpenStreetMap project, an exert: "Many of the problems arise because Creative Commons (the “CC” of our licence), as the name suggests, is largely concerned with “creative works” - music, literature, art, and so on. OpenStreetMap, on the other hand, produces data: a factual, uncontroversial recording of the world around us. [...] In the [Science Commons initiative] protocol, Creative Commons restates the problem that copyright simply does not apply universally to factual information." Then there's an update on Nestoria, the first commercial application now using exclusively OSM data. We also have Google's Ed Parsons discussing the differences between data in Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. Other OSM entries include a short discussion on the community surrounding OSM vs "old timers", a mention of OSM during the KDE 4 keynote, a visual comparison of Google data vs OSM + OpenAerialMap data over China, a short account of using JOSM, the advanced OpenStreetMap editor, and finally, the announcement of this year's State of the Map 2008 conference will be held in Ireland. See also the numerous related stories below (more if you search the Slashgeo archives). On a personal note, I used to say about OSM that data is particularly useful in Europe, but not in North America yet... after a quick peak today at the status of OSM completion in NA, I admit I'm impressed, data has been added very rapidly and this is obviously great news for public domain data.

The Mapping News Blog gives us an update on the TIGER data import into OpenStreetMap. From their blog : "OpenStreetMap (OSM) has completed the bulk import of comprehensive street and highway data for the United States, months ahead of the project's original estimates. The massive data set originated with the US Census Bureau's public domain map database, and importing it required a dedicated upload process running around the clock since August 2007. The imported data will still require human editing and error-correction, but the completed task is a major milestone for the OSM project."

For a very detailed summary as well as example links to the imported dataset, please visit the Mapperz blog link above.

Nick Black writes "The call for papers The 2nd OpenStreetMap Conference, The StateoftheMap 2008 is now open. We’re inviting papers and demonstrations from anyone who contributes to OpenStreetMap or uses OpenStreetMap or other open geodata. Would you like to demonstrate uses of OSM data or run a Tricks and Tips session? Maybe you’ve got the best routing engine around and your itching to show it off? Is tagging driving you crazy? There are a few different ways you can participate in the State of the Map 2008 — giving a talk, holding a workshop or giving a lightning talk.

For more information, check out the SOTM site or email registration@stateofthemap.org." Related stories copied below.

Jani Patokallio writes "Another step down the road of merging together open content: OpenStreetMap maps and Wikitravel travel guides have now been combined together into Wikitravel Paris , a 185-page guidebook to the City of Light. Like all Wikitravel Press books, the entire tome is updated monthly and printed on demand when you order. Expect to see many more OSM/WT books like this in the future!" I copied below some related stories, but a search will reveal how often we cover OpenStreetMap, including it's other commercial applications.

The Earth Is Square and the official OpenLayers blog brings us news about the just released OpenLayers 2.6. A huge release in itself. It closes over 294 outstanding tickets and has a lot of new features. Please visit any of the following links above to get the full list of features.

In case you've been under a rock, here is a little background info on OpenLayers. "OpenLayers makes it easy to put a dynamic map in any web page. It can display map tiles and markers loaded from any source. MetaCarta developed the initial version of OpenLayers and gave it to the public to further the use of geographic information of all kinds. OpenLayers is completely free, Open Source JavaScript, released under the BSD License."