Maps have always been a source of power. Armies have used them to give themselves a military advantage, traders have used them to find the shortest route between places of supply and markets, and fictional pirates have used them to find buried treasure. Those possessing a map have an advantage over those that don't.
It's no wonder then that maps and the information used to create them have been fiercely protected by companies and governments that own them. Many government and commercial mapping agencies charge high fees to use their data, impose strict restrictions on what you can do with the information, and may even make you pay to use maps you've drawn yourself. The OpenStreetMap project aims to change this by giving everyone their own map, for free, and to use for whatever they like.
In this book, you will learn:
What the OpenStreetMap project is
Why it's different from other sources of free maps
Why you should contribute to the project
How to add and edit geographic data
How to turn that data into maps you can use for anything you like
This chapter explains how and why the project was started, how freely redistributable geographic data is different from maps that are merely free of charge to use, and some of the things the project has already achieved.