Updated attribution recommendations for Mapbox maps: http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/lxbarth/diary/21847

Showing how OpenStreetMap is a living map, and making it easy to start mapping is the first step to turn someone from passively looking at a map into improving the map. It’s part of spreading the word and building our community. At Mapbox we power OpenStreetMap based maps to hundreds of millions of people, and this gives us a unique opportunity to connect them to OpenStreetMap and turn people from being passive map consumers into active map contributors. Driving contributors to OpenStreetMap is a key goal we pursue not only with attribution but also in our aggressive launch communications around prominent new customers.

Our goal is to feature OpenStreetMap to help grow the community - attribution plays a key role in this.

Attributing OpenStreetMap based Mapbox maps

For the web, at Mapbox we recommend the following two variations for attributing OpenStreetMap:

Attribution in collapsible info control

Same attribution as above but expanded

In both cases (c) Mapbox (c) OpenStreetMap links to https://www.mapbox.com/about/maps with a full listing of all sources. Improve this map links to a map feedback page that explains how the map viewed is based on OpenStreetMap and how OpenStreetMap can be improved by anybody. The map feedback page is smart and shows a) the exact map you came from and b) places you into OpenStreetMap exactly where you left the map so you know where to start mapping. It has an option to skip the map-feedback page the next time you click Improve this map and take you directly to OpenStreetMap.

Map feedback page

Maps made of many sources

Mapbox maps are made up from a multitude of sources, here are some of our main sources:

• OpenStreetMap
• Digital Globe
• NASA MODIS, Landsat, SRTM
• USDA NAIP
• l’Institut national de l’information géographique et forestière
• Canadian government
• The National Land Survey of Finland Topographic Database
• Norwegian Mapping Authority
• Ordnance Survey data
• INEGI
• Geodatastyrelsen
• DHM / Terrain
• The National Dynamic Land Cover Dataset
• Custom data added to map

This list is only growing as the source composition of our maps gets more complex. So the string (c) Mapbox (c) OpenStreetMap is crediting the map engine and design (Mapbox) and one of the most prominent data provider (OpenStreetMap) but it is also functioning as a placeholder that basically says “Attribution”. This is why we link this string to https://www.mapbox.com/about/maps that contains the full list of all data. For related reasons, I also typically recommend using the collapsible info control over the expanded string on the map as it allows us in the future to add additional attributions into the map as needed without turning people’s maps into NASCARs. This is a good compromise between visibility, legal requirements and the need for screen space to grow.

Mapbox can be used with any kind of map library. So, ultimately we do not have control over a given maps attribution, but if you use Mapbox with our recommended libraries, attribution will show up as explained above, otherwise it is up to the developer to ensure appropriate attribution.

Improvements

We’re working to make this even better, and are planning to improve:

• More granular attribution based on data actually in use on data (right now it’s one size fits all and we show this attribution as soon as you use any of streets/satellite/terrain data). A lot of Mapbox maps do not use OpenStreetMap but still want to associate proper attribution.
• Allow third party users to sign into OpenStreetMap with the account they’re using on the map (think of signing into OpenStreetMap with your Foursquare account). We need to make it easier to let communities that start using OpenStreetMap become part of our community. This will have huge network effects. This will also take some work on the OSM.org side.
• Map feedback also has an option to submit feedback as email, and have our team run point on edits, fully respecting privacy.
• Share map feedback where it makes sense.

Examples

Here are two typical Mapbox powered maps with attribution (click to explore).

Mapbox Outdoors: OpenStreetMap, Ordnance Survey data, l’Institut national de l’information géographique et forestière, NASA SRTM, The National Dynamic Land Cover Dataset plus more.

InfoAmazonia maps: OpenStreetMap, NASA Modis, Landsat, Digital Globe, IBGE, InfoAmazonia.