Ro:FAQ
Frequently asked questions ățș
De ce OpenStreetMap?
De ce faceți OpenStreetMap?
În multe părți ale lumii, ca de exemplu în Marea Britanie, informațiile geografice nu sunt disponibile gratuit. De obicei, aici însărcinarea de cartografiere le revine diferitor agenții guvernamentale care fac bani din vânzarea acestor informații oamenilor ca tine si ca mine. Dacă locuiești în una din aceste țări, atunci impozitele pe care le plătești sunt utilizate și pentru cartografie, iar apoi mai plătești o dată pentru a obține o copie a acesteia. În SUA informația brută ce vine de la guvern (cum ar fi TIGER) este făcută publică; informația rafinată însă, la fel ca și hărțile finisate, sunt sub protecția drepturilor de autor.
Informațiile de la agențiile comerciale de cartografie conțin si date greșite sau Copyright Easter Eggs, pentru a-i detecta pe cei care o copiază. Aceste "ouă de paște" reprezintă niște strazi false sau care lipsesc, sau biserici si scoli care nu exista de fapt. Daca vei face o harta folosind datele lor, pot sa-ti zica "Aha!Te-am prins!" doar uitându-se daca ai copiat si acele portiuni false din harta. Harta mai poate fi incorecta pur si simplu pentru ca ai cumparat-o acum un an si intre timp s-a mai construit o alee in parcul de langa casa ta, sau pentru ca cineva a facut o greseala.
Chiar daca accepti toate aceste nuante, nu poti folosi informatia in alt mod decat sa o fotocopiezi. În multe parti chiar si aceasta e ilegal daca depasesti limita drepturilor de utilizator. Nu poti corecta numele unei strazi, sau adauga barul/pubul de vis-à-vis, sau folosi date intr-un alt soft, fara a fi nevoit sa platesti sume mari de bani. Mai mari decat ai, probabil. Ce zici sa o trimiti unui prieten, inclusa într-o inivitatie, sau sa o postezi pe o tabla de anunturi? Multe din cele enumerate sunt mai putin legale decât ai crede.
Avansarile tehnologice, cum ar fi unitatile ieftene de GPS, iti permit acum sa creezi porpriile tale harti, in colaborare cu ceilalti, fara a avea careva din restrictiile enumerate mai sus. Posibilitatea de a face asta te ajuta sa recastigi o portiune din comunitatea in care traiesti - daca nu o poti indica pe harta, nu o poti descrie.
De ce nu folositi Google Maps/ce o mai fi pentru datele voastre?
Raspunsul succint:
Pentru ca acele date sunt protejate prin drepturi de autor si apartin unor oameni ca Ordnance Survey. Google/ce o mai fi au doar dreptul de a o folosi. Daca am folosi-o si noi, ar trebui sa platim pentru ea.
Raspunsul deplin:
Majoritatea hackerilor din lume cunosc diferenta dintre notiunea de "free as in beer"(gratis ca si berea) si cea de "free as in speech"(liber ca si vorbirea). Google Maps e gratis ca si berea, nu liber ca si vorbirea.
Daca necesitatile de cartografiere ale proiectului tau pot fi satisfacute utilizand doar API-ul de Google Maps, atunci totul e bine. Dar aceasta nu e valabil pentru orice proiect. Avem nevoie de un set de date disponibil fara plata pentru a le permite programatorilor, activistilor sociali, cartografilor si altor persoane din domenii apropiate sa-si realizeze planurile fara a fi limitati de catre APIul de Google sau de Conditii de utilizare.
La acest punct obiectia traditionala e "De ce nu e posibil ca oamenii sa faca doar un click pe un punct din harta Google, apoi sa inregistrati latitudinea di longitudinea in baza de date Openstreetmap? Doar e gratis, nu?"
Din pacate, nu. Datele utilizate in Google Maps sunt luate din NAVTEQ si Tele Atlas,doua firme mari de cartografie. La randul lor, acestea au obtinut careva din datele pe care le detin de la agentii nationale de cartografie (cum ar fi Ordnance Survey). Luand in consideratie investitiile de mai multe milioane de lire pentru a aduna aceste informatii, e de inteles importanta pe care aceste organizatii o acorda protectiei drepturilor lor de autor.
Folosind datele de la Google Maps in acest fel, creezi un "lucru derivat". Orice informatii de acest gen pastreaza conditiile de copyright ale originalului. In practica aceasta ar insemna ca datele pe care le folosesti se supun taxelor de licenta si restrictiilor contractuale ale acestor furnizori de harti. Este exact lucrul pe care Openstreetmap incearca sa-l evite.
Te rog sa nu fii indus in eroare de notiuni ca copyright de software sau Conditii de Utilizare. Desigur, APIul de Google Maps poate fi inclus in proiecte open source. Dar aceasta doar determina cum vei utiliza softul si nu are careva consecinte asupra datelor afisate de acest API, care continua sa ramana sub copyright.
(Inca nu e clar daca e in regula sa creezi lucru derivat din fotografie aeriana; unele interpretari ale legilor UK sugereaza ca poti face aceasta fara a 'mosteni' dreptul de autor pentru fotografie. O decizie definitiva in acest sens ar putea deschide noi drumuri pentru Openstreetmap si alte proiecte similare; in absenta acesteia insa continuam sa folosim doar date proprii, 100% independente.)
Lecturi recomandate:
- Google Maps' Conditii de Utilizare. Atrageti atentie speciala la sectiunea 'Map Information', si anume:
- "Geocoding data for map content in Google Local is provided under license by Navteq... and/or Tele Atlas... and subject to copyright protection and other intellectual property rights owned by or licensed to NAVTEQ, TANA and/or such other third parties." (Datele geografice pentru continutul hartii in Google Local sunt furnizate sub licenta de Navteg... si/sau Tele Atlas... si se supun protectiei drepturilor de autor si a altor drepturi de protectie a proprietatii intelectuale detinute de NAVTEQ, TANA si/sau parti terte similare, sau acordate sub licenta acestora.)
- "Also, you may not use Google Local in a manner which gives you or any other person access to mass downloads or bulk feeds of numerical latitude and longitude coordinates." (De asemenea, nu puteti utiliza Google Local intr-un mod care sa va dea Dvs sau altor persoane acces la downloaduri in masa )
- Arhivele listei de mailing Openstreetmap - pentru a cauta de exemplu expresii ca "lucru derivat"("derived works"), sau un subiect de discutie din octombrie 2005, cu numele de "London locations".
- Pentru utilizatorii UK, iata un set util de linkuri catre legislatia referitoare la copyright.
E posibil ca asa un proiect sa creeze harti exacte?
Prin insasi natura procesului de tip wiki nu exista nici o garantie a exactitatii informatiei. De asemenea, putine harti patentatea garanteaza exactitatea. De fapt unele chiar au inclus artificial careva erori.
Esenta unui proces de tip wiki consta in ceea ca toti participantii isi aduc contributia la exactitatea informatiei. Daca cineva posteaza o informatie gresita, intentionat sau accidental, ceilalti 99.9% din oameni o pot verifica, corecta, eventual inlatura. Marea majoritate a participantilor bine intentionati pot corecta automat cele cateva erori.
In acest fel, contributia unei persoane poate varia. Proiectul Wikipedia a aratat ca multa informatie de buna calitate poate fi adunata, insa e dificil sa o cureti de erorile inevitabile.
In prezent nu exista procese sau mecanisme, cum ar fi lista de modificari recente sau lista de evidenta (watchlist), care ar fi folosite pentru a monitoriza informatia editata intr-un mod cat mai simplu in cadrul Openstreetmap. Oricum insa, noi pastram o istorie completa a editarilor, astfel aceste procese de mediere vor fi dezvoltate imediat ce vor deveni necesare.
La moment cel mai bun raspuns la intrebarea de mai sus e sa faci singu concluzii. O idee ar fi sa alegi o zona pe care o cunosti bine si sa foloseste viewerul din Openstreetmap pentru a vedea cat de bine corespund datele de pe harta cu ceea ce cunosti. Poate vei vedea ceva gresit sau inexact. Cel mai probabil e ca nu vei gasi inca nimic pentru suprafata in cauza. La etapa actuala scopul nostru de baza e sa extindem suprafata de acoperire, fara a copia din hartile existente. Ca si Wikipedia, e usor de editat, asa ca ne poti ajuta!
Pare sa aveti multa informatie cartografica. De unde a aparut?
Avem foarte multi colaboratori entuziasti!
De asemenea, introducem in TIGER informatie pentru SUA (în curs), si avem informatii AND pentru Olanda (oferite cu bunavointa), si suntem mereu in cautare de alte surse de date potentiale. In orice caz, toata informatia noastra trebuie sa provina din domeniul public sau din surse cu licenta libera, compatibile cu Licenta OpenStreetMap pe care o avem. Chiar si in regiunile unde exista date liber accesibile, se pot aduce multe îmbunatatiri prin intermediul procesului de editare cartografica din cadrul comunitatii noastre wiki.
In regiunile unde nu exista astfel de surse de date (majoritatea regiunilor) trebuie sa incepem cu o pagina curata si sa ajungem sa gasim singuri strazile. In ciuda faptului ca o luam de la zero, am ajuns la un nivel bun de acoperire pentru multe suprafete.
Why is the data sometimes inconsistent?
"OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people like you." Which means the database will always be subject to the whims, experimentation, and mistakes of the community; this is precisely OSM's strength since, among other things, it allows our data to quickly accommodate changes in the physical world.
Who owns OpenStreetMap?
You do. The data and software is owned by you, the contributors. The OpenStreetMap Foundation protects the interests of the project, and its members are democratically elected by OpenStreetMap users.
What does your licence allow me to do?
We have a Legal FAQ which will give you some pointers, but it's not definitive and is the subject of some debate.
Since late 2007, the OpenStreetMap Foundation has been considering licence issues: here is the latest update.
How do I help?
How can I get involved?
There are lots of ways to contribute to the Openstreetmap project. If you have a GPS unit you can use it to collect data and use our online tools to add the data to our collection. If you don't have a GPS unit you can still help. Ways to help are listed on the Getting Involved page.
How do you communicate?
The OpenStreetMap community is large, and spread across many locations, speaking different languages, and focussing on different interest areas. So the answer is we don't always communicate very well! But we do our best.
We have various Contact channels.
- We have many mailing lists. The talk list is very high traffic. This is where most discussions take place and decisions are made. There is also lists for dev and newbies and over twenty other lists. See mailing lists.
- The forum at forum.openstreetmap.org is a good place to get help.
- For live chat, our main IRC channel is irc://irc.oftc.net#osm . There's a couple of others. SeeContact#IRC
- Some announcements and interesting developments are made on the blog at http://www.opengeodata.org/ .
- And there's this wiki. It's used more for reference than for discussions, but the tags we use for the map (Map Features) are organised through the wiki.
See Contact for more information
Can I show my support by purchasing cool stuff?
Yes! See the Merchandise page for mouth-watering goodies.
Editing
I have GPS data, how can I use it to help OpenStreetMap?
You can upload your GPS tracklogs to OpenStreetMap, so that you and others can trace over them to draw maps. You'll need to be a registered OSM user before you do this. See tracks that others have uploaded.
Once you've done that, you can use the GPS as a guide to drawing roads and paths for OpenStreetMap. You can do this by:
- edit your data online, using Potlatch, an easy-to-use Flash program that runs within your browser; or
- edit at home using JOSM, which provides a powerful way to edit GPS data locally on your computer into sensible tracks before uploading them to the server (there are other editors, too);
- and if you don't have a GPS you can still help, see Getting Involved.
I have public domain non-GPS data, how can I upload it?
If you have public domain data obtained from non-GPS sources (for example, a municipality's public information website), you can add it to our database. Be sure to confirm that the data is in public domain. If you are unsure about the licensing issues, or if it is a very large quantity of data, please discuss it first (Contact). We will be very interested to hear from you! You could also add an entry to the Potential Datasources list, and describe it on there.
For bulk uploading purposes, it may be best to use the API directly. A worked out example: Using curl to upload data. On the other hand, it may be better to review the data alongside existing OSM data using the layers feature of JOSM (convert your data to a .osm file to load in)
What images and maps may I use to make maps from?
Most maps have copyright restrictions. This includes images from "free beer" sites as Google Maps, and printed paper maps, even if you scanned them yourself. Commercial aerial/satellite photography is also copyrighted.
You should not use copyrighted maps in any way while editing OpenStreetMap (unless it is compatible with our license). "Using" includes tracing over the map, copying a name from the map, or pinpointing a coordinate on the map. To be on the safe side, we tend to regard all of these as a form of copying, or "creating a derived work". Generally speaking, it's best not to even look at copyrighted maps while you are editing OpenStreetMap.
So what can you use? Not very much, which is why we are doing all this re-surveying from scratch. However there are some Potential Datasources, in particular we have imported TIGER data for the US, AND Data for the Netherlands. We also make use of out-of-copyright maps although they are very old, and Yahoo! Aerial Imagery (which we have special permission to trace over).
I uploaded my GPS track. Now it says "PENDING" and the queue's eight hours long. What gives?
At busy times, especially weekends, there can indeed be a wait before your track is added to the database. But you don't need to wait for this to start mapping.
If you're using Potlatch, find the 'edit' link to the right of your track (in the GPS traces listing), and click this - not the usual Edit tab at the top.
If you're using JOSM or another offline editor, just load the track from your hard drive.
I have just made some changes to the map. How do I get to see my changes?
Because OSM users make so many changes to the map, it's updated on a periodic basis, rather than immediately after you edit it.
The "tiles" that make up the default map (the Mapnik layer) are updated every Wednesday. In order to make sure the update process notices your changes, after editing an area, try to view the map for that area. This will flag the area to the rendering software. Please keep in mind that "tiles" at particular zoom levels are not updated all at once. Therefore during update pedriod you may see your changes at some zoom level, while at another they will be visible after a while.
Alternatively, using the + icon at the top right of the slippy map, you can choose the Osmarender layer. The Osmarender tiles are updated by many OSMers using their own computers (Tiles@home), which enables a faster response speed - usually less than one hour.
If, for some reason, it doesn't notice your changes, you can go to informationfreeway.org; zoom into the area you want, at zoom level 12 (you'll see a 12 at the bottom right); hover over the relevant tile, when a dashed border will appear; and press 'R' (for "render"). It will then be added to the list for tiles@home computers to render.
If your data is still not appearing and you are pretty sure that the one or the other renderer has done its job, then you might have a tagging problem. Check that:
- all your ways are tagged with something appropriate that will be rendered (eg highway=unclassified)
- your tags are in lower case: HIGHWAY and Highway will not work.
What shall I do for roads that have multiple values for a tag?
Separate the values with semi-colons - e.g. nat_ref="B500;B550" for a road that is both the B500 and the B550 at the same time. You may see other characters being used as delimeters e.g. '/', ' ', '-' or "#", but these are incorrect. Semi-colon is the recommendation ';'
What makes a road belong to a city?
This is often asked by beginners. There should be a closed way marking the extent of the city with a "place"- and a "name"- tag as well as a single node with a name and place to mark where to draw the city-name. In the actual map such a shape does not exist for many cities, thus only the distance to the node that marks the city can be used in these cases. For exceptional cases an is_in can be used.
Another user has changed something I drew. I think they're wrong. How do I contact them?
To find the name of the user who last edited an object,
- In Potlatch (the Edit tab on the web site), select the way and press H (then click 'Cancel'),
- In JOSM, click the way look in the Author's panel (use the button in the bar down the left side or CTRL-A to make this visible if not already)
- In the OsmRender map rendering (use the + button on the map on the OSM home page to see this), at the highest zoom level streets are labelled with the user name of the person who last changed that way.
You can then go to their user page, which for a user called Fred28 would be at http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Fred28 . Click "Send message" to send them a message. (This will not work if the user has chosen to be anonymous, though Potlatch does not allow users to make anonymous edits).
You can use Potlatch's revert and undelete functions to restore the previous version of a way.
Incidentally just moving the position of a way means the node positions are changed: the way itself is unchanged.
Editing with Potlatch
See the separate Potlatch/FAQs page.
(Potlatch is the map editor that you get when you click the "Edit" tab on the main site. If you don't know which editor you're using, it's probably Potlatch!)
Editing with JOSM
I tried to download my town/city/region - why doesn't it work?
Chances are the area you tried to download is too large, and the server probably timed out before getting the data to you. Try on a very small area first to make sure its working OK. If thats ok, then you are best to download the town in smaller segments. Presently, you cannot download an area larger than 0.3 degrees in either dimension.
If you really want large areas of data, the best approach would be to download the planet.osm file, which is generated weekly. This file is basically a snapshot of the OSM database and contains all valid data.
I want to create a very long way - how do I download OSM data for such a big area?
In order to be able to easily handle long roads, you should not make ONE long road out of it. You should rather split the road into several ways. As a rule of thumb, no way should be longer than 10-15 km. Typically, they will actually be much shorter.
Applications like route planners for example will be able to easily join the ways to one road again. This type of applications will need to postprocess the OSM data anyway.
For motorways for example, it makes sense to make a way from one exit to the next. Also, intersections of motorways should be the point where you split a road into ways.
Why doesn't my login work?
There are two different logins for the OSM project: one is for this wiki only, and the other is for the website, API and forum. You need to register on the www registration page to actually be able to work with OSM data.
Using a GPS
Why didn't my GPX file upload properly?
Your GPX should consist of trackpoints with valid timestamps. The ele(vation) tag is optional and will default to 0. Note if using a Garmin GPS device: Many of these units have the facility to save the track that strips out the timestamps. Saved tracks will fail to be imported to OSM because of this. Instead make sure you upload GPX files created from the active track(s) from the device rather than any tracks you have saved.
The format for the gpx files as below is acceptable:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <gpx version="1.0" creator="GPSBabel - http://www.gpsbabel.org" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0/gpx.xsd"> <time>2005-11-07T14:00:09Z</time> <trk> <name>ACTIVE LOG</name> <trkseg> <trkpt lat="52.564001083" lon="-1.826841831"> <ele>115.976196</ele> <time>2005-11-07T12:03:31Z</time> </trkpt> </trkseg> </trk> </gpx>
There are two things the importer won't do. First, it won't take in GPS points without timestamps as they're to be used to work out speed and so on. The other is that it doesn't import waypoints and your file consists only of waypoints.
The reason for this is that if you reset many GPS units or download map data to them, then you often get copyrighted data put in the GPX. The most famous example is that if you reset a Garmin GPS unit then it will put the locations of the Garmin offices around the world as waypoints on the unit.
Why are the points on my tracks spaced out?
This is due to the GPS device (usually a Garmin) being set to record on 'Auto', which saves space by recording fewer points on straights. It's not usually a problem in rural areas, but isn't much use for city mapping. To make the gps record more points, go to the track settings menu on your GPS, and change the recording method to either 'Time', or 'Distance'.
Time: Time will record points every 'x' seconds/minutes/hours. This can be changed on some gps devices. Having this setting will use up the memory fast, but will increase the points considerably. The disadvantage of this method of saving is that when moving slowly with the GPS device the points will become densely packed. For example, many Garmin GPS's have a maximum tracklog capacity of 10,000 points. (Note that some devices also allow a log to be stored on a memory card in addition to the regular tracklog.) Setting a time interval of 1 second normally gives close to 3 hours of mapping (always a few points are not written due to errors and satellite availability). For fast road driving a 1 second interval gives very good trace information. The 1 second interval also works well for cycling in urban areas. For walking the rate can be decreased without loss of track definition to 2 or 3 seconds. The interval can also be increased when the mapping time needs to be extended but try to avoid unnecessary time intervals. You can change the time interval on the fly, useful if you decide to stay out longer than planned.
Some advantages of the time setting are that relative speed can be judged by the spacing, There are more points when you slow down for curves or turns and less on straightaways where you need fewer points.
Distance: Distance will record points every 'x' Meters/yards. This can be changed on some gps devices. Having this setting will use up the memory fast, although relative to your speed. The disadvantage of this method of saving is that when travelling on straight roads fast, (motorways/highways), unnecessary points will be recorded. Also if you are to be tracking a small area, if the 'x' value is too high, your route will be unclear. If set too high, distance recording can miss the subtleties of curves and direction changes, especially in urban areas.
Wrapping: If the option is available to turn on, or off the wrapping function, then having it off is also advised. Having wrapping on means that when full, the gps device will make room to record the latest section of your route, by deleting the beginning of your route. It will delete the beginning, point by point, at the same rate as new points are created. The exception would be when you are logging track data to a data card in some Garmin models. The beginning data will be deleted from the device's built in memory, but not from the data card.
Why do I get bad signal / traces in city centers / near big metal buildings?
For a GPS to work and achieve some accuracy it needs to receive at least three satellite signals. Often when in city centers there are many tall buildings that can block these signals and stop the GPS from being able to work out where it is. There may also be multi-path effects from the material making up the buildings around you, whereby signals bounce off them so the receiver actually thinks it is somewhere in the buildings around. Another factor that can affect this is the number and position of satellites that can be seen at the time of logging; trying the route on another day or a different time of day may give better results.
See GPS reviews. Some in-car units will generate the tracklogs that OSM use, but you must make sure you turn off the "Snap to Road" option - otherwise your tracklog will be linked to the copyrighted map in your satnav.
How can I download this data and put it in my GPS ?
If you have a Garmin unit, see OSM Map On Garmin. Several users provide ready-made Garmin format maps for you to download and copy to your GPS.
Using OSM maps and data
How do I link to a particular postcode on OSM from my own website?
You can link to the search page for a particular postcode:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/geocoder/search?next_controller=site&next_action=index&query[postcode]=AA1%201AA
How do I link to a particular latitude and longitude on OSM from my own website?
You can link to the slippy map with a specific latitude and longitude and zoom level:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/index.html?mlat=[latitude in degrees with decimals]&mlon=[longitude in degrees with decimals]&zoom=[zoom level 1-17]
Or link to a static image
How can I display maps on my website?
The easiest way is to use static data, i.e. to export data (using the 'Export' tab) and put it onto your website.
For dynamic display there is a Google Maps-like Javascript API; see the Export page on this wiki.
Can I download a vector map?
Use the 'Export' tab to download in SVG or PDF format. If you need other formats, see the Export page on this wiki.
Developer questions
Why should I not begin development on a new editor, one better/different/prettier than current editors?
There are already several very useful OSM editors in development, and confusing the space with "yet another" platform will only duplicate effort. Please consider contributing to one of the editor development efforts already in progress, such as JOSM, Merkaartor, or Potlatch.
Why don't we spread the load on the OpenStreetMap database across a number of servers?
Sharing the OSM server load via MySQL replication, or BitTorrent, or carrier pigeon is often recommended, but the idea has so far gained little momentum -- in terms of real development effort. If you have the system administration or coding expertise to implement such a distributed system, please do not hesitate to volunteer on the mailing list.
As a starting point, you may want to familiarise yourself with the existing software infrastructure, as described in the Development pages.
I think I found a bug, what should I do?
If you find a problem with the map editing applet or the website, add it to the OpenStreetMap bug tracking database. We use trac, which uses your OSM username and password.
If you notice something incorrect/missing/wrong/unintelligible with the documentation you're reading right now, edit it! It's a wiki! For wiki advice and extensive documentation, see the mediawiki project, who created the software this wiki is running on.
Questions from GIS people
What geographic datums are used in OpenStreetMap?
OpenStreetMap uses the WGS-84 lat/lon datum exclusively. All uploaded tracks and edits should always be in WGS-84, the default datum for GPS receivers.
What is the map scale for a particular zoom level of the map?
The following table shows the nominal scales for each zoom level. Data from http://labs.metacarta.com/osm/
So, for example the nearest equivalent to an OS Landranger map at 1:50,000 is zoom level 13 (nominally 1:54,000).
Note: figures are rounded to millions from levels 8 to 2.
| Table of Levels/Scales | ||
|---|---|---|
| Zoom level | Scale as representative fraction | Meters per pixel |
| 18 | 1 : 1,693 | 0.597164 |
| 17 | 1 : 3,385 | 1.194329 |
| 16 | 1 : 6,771 | 2.388657 |
| 15 | 1 : 14,000 | 4.777314 |
| 14 | 1 : 27,000 | 9.554629 |
| 13 | 1 : 54,000 | 19.109257 |
| 12 | 1 : 108,000 | 38.218514 |
| 11 | 1 : 217,000 | 76.437028 |
| 10 | 1 : 433,000 | 152.874057 |
| 9 | 1 : 867,000 | 305.748113 |
| 8 | 1 : 2 million | 611.496226 |
| 7 | 1 : 3 million | 1222.992453 |
| 6 | 1 : 7 million | 2445.984905 |
| 5 | 1 : 14 million | 4891.969810 |
| 4 | 1 : 28 million | 9783.939621 |
| 3 | 1 : 55 million | 19567.879241 |
| 2 | 1 : 111 million | 39135.758482 |
See also http://almien.co.uk/OSM/Tools/Scale/
Note that actual scale varies with cos(latitude)
Why aren't you using Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) schemas and software for OpenStreetMap?
There are many existing tools which people often recommend for OpenStreetMap to use. The problem is, most of them are hard to use and maintain for a variety of reasons, and people are very reluctant to volunteer to help set them up and run them. We used to use MapServer for serving static versions of our maps, but unfortunately we found it to be unthreaded, slow and hard to extend - we replaced it with mapnik.
It's not that OpenStreetMap as a community is against OGC standards, but OpenStreetMap has been built iteratively using the simplest approach that could possibly generate useful maps. The focus is on street data and maintaining a 'wiki' approach to editing where all changes are logged and can be rolled back. Off the shelf tools don't support that in the way we'd like.
Help is needed on choosing which OGC tools and standards to use, and integrating them effectively into our existing systems. Please get in touch if you can spare the time and expertise to do this.
Also, see Why not GPX for a similar discussion about why GPX was rejected as a transport format.
Why don't you add OSM support to existing products, rather than writing your own route-planning program?
RoadMap is a promising PDA and desktop navigation software, which is open source and uses TIGER for US data, and (as of 2006) vmap0 data for the rest of the world. The RoadMap trunk does not yet support autorouting, but has speech synthesis (for street names, etc). Ehud Shabtai's RoadMap Editor[1] fork used in Freemap[2] which is in active development, has support for autorouting and has been ported to PocketPC and J2ME mobile phones in addition to the systems supported by RoadMap. It also has an interface which is more adapted to the small displays on mobile phones and PDAs. RoadMap Editor doesn't support OSM data currently.
Roadnav is another valid alternative, although contrary to RoadMap it offers no PocketPC support as of yet, and only supports TIGER data, although Digital Chart of the World (DCW) support is planned. It does support autorouting, however, and 3D views and aerial photos (wow!). The newest release of Roadnav has preliminary OSM support.
traveling-salesman is a rather new one. Mostly interesting for java-developers at this point.
I have geo-referenced photography/shapefiles/waypoints for my area, how can I upload them?
We'd love your high resolution geo-referenced aerial photography/satellite images if they are free of copyright restrictions for derived works, or you are the copyright holder and can grant us the relevant rights - get in touch via the mailing list. You can also contribute your imagery to OpenAerialMap, which is available as a background layer in Potlatch, Merkaartor and JOSM.
For shapefiles and other data formats, again, get in touch via the mailing list.
Admin
How can I close my account?
Contact a sysadmin, the sysadmin will disable your account and remove your details from the OpenStreetMap database. Your email address will usually be retained in the event that an OpenStreetMap sysadmin needs to contact you in the future.
If you have made any modifications or additions to OpenStreetMap, the sysadmin will ask you to license these under any future OpenStreetMap Licenses or to release as public domain.
