OpenStreetMap is a diverse project with hundreds of thousands of people contributing data and making use of it in different ways. As a result, many of the resources that mappers have created and use are scattered around the Internet, but the project data and much of the documentation is hosted at openstreetmap.org, on servers operated by the OpenStreetMap Foundation.
As a crowdsourced project, OpenStreetMap is heavily reliant on having an active community participate in the project, and there are probably as many tools and websites aimed at allowing mappers to communicate and collaborate as there are for mapping and using the data. Mappers have created many different ways of sharing information, based on personal preference and the kind of information involved.
In this chapter, we'll cover:
- The main features of openstreetmap.org—the main website for the project
- Creating and personalizing an account on openstreetmap.org
- Using the map viewer and the tools associated with it
- Using the documentation in the OpenStreetMap wiki
- Communicating with the OpenStreetMap community using mailing lists, forums, IRC, and other channels
Not all the tools and features on the site are obvious from the front page, so we'll go on a tour of the site, and cover some other tools hosted by the project. By the end of the chapter, you should have a good idea about where to find answers to the questions you have about OpenStreetMap.
The project's main "shop front" is www.openstreetmap.org. It's the first impression most people get of what OpenStreetMap does, and is designed to be easy to use, rather than show as much information as possible. In the following diagram, you can see the layout of the front page. We'll be referring to many of the features on the front page throughout the book, so let's have a look at what's there:
Most of the page is taken up by the map viewer, which is nicknamed the slippy map by mappers. This has its own controls, which we'll cover later in the chapter. Along the top of the map are the navigation tabs, showing most of the data management tools on openstreetmap.org. To the right of these are the user account links.
Down the left-hand side of the page is the sidebar, containing links to the wiki, news blog, merchandise page, and map key. The wiki is covered later in this and other chapters. The news blog is www.opengeodata.org, and it's an aggregation of many OSM-related blogs.
The Shop page is a page on the wiki listing various pieces of OpenStreetMap-related merchandise from several sources. Most merchandise generates income for the OpenStreetMap Foundation or a local group.
Clicking on the map key will show the key on the left-hand side of the map. As you'd expect, the key shows what the symbols and shading on the map mean. The key is dynamic, and will change with zoom level and which base layer you're looking at. Not all base layers are supported by the dynamic map key at present.
Below this is the search box. The site search uses two separate engines:
- Nominatim: This is an OpenStreetMap search engine or geocoder. This uses the OpenStreetMap database to find features by name, including settlements, streets, and points of interest. Nominatim is usually fast and accurate, but can only find places that have been mapped in OpenStreetMap.
- Geonames: This is an external location service that has greater coverage than OpenStreetMap at present, but can sometimes be inaccurate. Geonames contains settlement names and postcodes, but few other features.
Clicking on a result from either search engine will center the map on that result and mark it with an arrow.