OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. Two major driving forces behind the establishment and growth of OSM have been restrictions on use or availability of map information across much of the world and the advent of inexpensive portable satellite navigation devices.
The maps are created using data from portable GPS devices, aerial photography, other free sources or simply from local knowledge. Both rendered images and the vector dataset are available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence.
The OpenStreetMap approach to mapping was inspired by sites such as Wikipedia; the map display features a prominent "Edit" link and a full revision history is maintained. Registered users can upload GPS track logs and edit the vector data using free GIS editing tools like JOSM. Various mobile applications also allow contribution of GPX tracks to the OSM project.
OpenStreetMap (OSM) was founded in July 2004 by Steve Coast. In April 2006, the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) was established to encourage the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and provide geospatial data for anybody to use and share. In December 2006, Yahoo confirmed that OpenStreetMap could use its aerial photography as a backdrop for map production.
Joseph Reeves (28 January 1888—8 March 1969) was a British Labour Party politician. He served as member of Parliament for Greenwich between 1945 and 1959.
Reeves was founder and chairman of Camberwell Labour Party and vice-chairman of the Society for Improving Relations between Great Britain and the USSR. He served as secretary of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society's education committee. He was an Alderman of the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford. He fought Woolwich West in 1931 and Greenwich in 1935 without success before winning the Greenwich seat in the 1945 general election.
Whilst in Parliament, Reeves was a member of the Party's National Executive Committee 1946-53 and of the committee of inquiry into the BBC. He retired as MP in 1959.
Steve Coast (born 20 December 1980) founded OpenStreetMap (OSM) in July 2004. In 2007 he founded CloudMade.
Steve interned at Wolfram Research before studying computing science at University College London (UCL). With Nick Black, he setup ZXV Ltd, a technology consultancy in 2006. In 2008 this became CloudMade after investment by Nikolaj Nyholm and Sunstone Capital. Steve resigned from CloudMade in October 2010, although he is still a shareholder. On 23 November 2010 Steve announced that he had accepted a position as Principal Architect at Microsoft's Bing Mobile.
Steve grew up in Walderslade and London England. In 2008 he moved to San Francisco and in late 2009 moved to Colorado. Steve and his wife Hurricane Coast (Née: McEwen) live in Denver. On 23 November 2010 Steve wrote that he will be moving to Seattle, Washington.