If you are a Trainer of OSM or YouthMappers Platform you may have to face some common but very important questions. I want to try to find out this kinds of questions and give its suitable answer.

01. What is Map?

—–> Answer: A map is a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, and themes.

02. What is OpenStreetMap?

—–> Answer: OpenStreetMap is a free, editable map of the whole world that is being built by volunteers largely from scratch and released with an open-content license. OpenStreetMap is, as the name suggests, an open source map of the world (www.openstreetmap.org). It has been built up in a concept similar to Wikipedia. It is called the free wiki world map, a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. A digital map is always handy for various purposes. It can be used in navigation, in research, in development of location based applications. When the map is free, its usability is guaranteed for everyone. And as OpenStreetMap is open source, its development is rapid and dynamic.

03. Why OpenStreetMap?

—-> Answer: OpenStreetMap is a free, editable map of the whole world that is being built by volunteers largely from scratch and released with an open-content license.

04. Why don’t you just use Google Maps/whoever for your data?

—-> Answer: Because that data is copyrighted and owned by multiple organisations like the Ordnance Survey. Google/whoever just licenses it. If we were to use it, we’d have to pay for it.

05. Who owns OpenStreetMap?

—-> Answer: You do. The data and software is owned by you, the contributors. There is an organisation called the OpenStreetMap Foundation which exists to protect, promote, and support the project, but does not own the data.

06. Why would you use OpenStreetMap if there is Google Maps?

—-> Answer: There is no ultimate answer as to which one is better. These two have as many similarities as differences. They are based on different fundamentals, but they solve the same basic human need to know “WHERE”. The key difference between these two mapping environments is a philosophic “Open” vs. “Closed” approach with how the data is collected and distributed. The main difference between these two services is that every edit you make to OSM is owned by you and the community, while every change you make to Google Maps… will be owned by Google. The OSM community is what makes the project so special. Thousands of volunteers from all around the globe are updating the map as their world changes around them. Every update is immediately visible to all other users and is version controlled. There are no corporate map cycle releases, approvals and KPIs that are typical to large organizations. This community is also what ensures the high quality and granularity of OSM maps. Although Google spends quite a lot of time and resources on keeping maps up-to-date, its data quality is not necessarily better than OSM. In many, especially less developed areas, the OSM community has managed to gain even higher data granularity than any other map source. Commercial map data suppliers usually focus on updating map features which are most profitable to sell. Since the OSM community does not have to worry about selling maps, it allows the community to be creative and make maps focused on hikers, cyclists, physically challenged, sailors and practically any interest group. You can map crops, the number of windows on Empire State Building or even the age of a particular tree. Even when it comes to routing and navigation, OSM doesn’t stay behind. Telenav has started using OpenStreetMap data in their Skobbler navigation app.

07. Advantages of OpenStreetMap

—-> Answer: Free:- UOpenStreetMap® is open data, licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) by the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF). You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt our data, as long as you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors. If you alter or build upon our data, you may distribute the result only under the same licence. The full legal code explains your rights and responsibilities. The cartography in our map tiles, and our documentation, are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license (CC BY-SA). Full:- Actually no mapping service has 100% of the planet’s geographic information. However, OSM is constantly updated through collaboration of companies, government institutions and the wider community that often send information of new locations or corrections of the existing ones. This allows the service to have more precise information of places that are poorly known. Unlike Google Maps that focuses on detailing the information of the major cities. Without restrictions:- In services like Google Maps you must pay to use the service when the access traffic is high, while in OSM access is provided free and without any restrictions. Standard: OSM uses the standard EPSG: 4326, one of the most currently used in cartography. Customizable:- OSM is a service, and as such, it may be used by third party applications for customization. Currently there are APIs like Openlayers (Implemented in JavaScript) that allows you to create web applications using the OSM service, providing a rich set of functionality (set markers on the map, labels, overlapping layers, widgets, popups, among many other elements that can be seen on the website of examples). Fast:- Even sometimes it gives the impression that its loading is faster than Google Maps. Stable: Backed by the University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London (ILC) where the main servers stay. They also have distributed servers around the world to meet demand of users in a reliable and robust way. Effective:- The group of developers are constantly working on adding new features to the service.

08. Disadvantages of OpenStreetMap

—-> Answer: Documentation:- The official documentation is not complete and not very clear. Many times we must search in forums and blogs to understand some functionality. Incompatibility:- Some users have reported OSM erroneous behavior when it is used in conjunction with other tools. For example: Maps are displayed distorted when OSM is used with Twitter Bootstrap. However, this bug is easy to fix (we will share the solution in another article later).

I’m not saying that OpenStreetMap is perfect. No map is. But when you consider all pros and cons, maybe Google Maps is not the best solution for all use cases. There are many applications where the map should be treated as an important public good, rather than a commodity controlled by large organizations. At the end, why would you rely on a global corporation to tell you what is the name of a street in your own neighborhood? So don’t be afraid and try it out here http://learnosm.org/en