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Dorothea

Bureaucrats, Administrators

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Revision as of 16:13, 29 April 2018 (view source) Nebulon42 (talk \| contribs) (change wording with regard to membership (corporate members) and employees (there is an administrative assistant now)) ← Older edit		Revision as of 08:37, 20 January 2019 (view source) Dorothea (talk \| contribs) m (Link to tile usage policy changed from OSM wiki to operations.osmfoundation.org. Also changed some links from http to https) Newer edit →
== What is OpenStreetMap? And what is the OpenStreetMap Foundation? == OpenStreetMap is an open initiative to create and provide free geographic data. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is an nonprofit organisation, a legal body incorporated by the registrar of companies for England and Wales. This is the raw data describing the positions of roads, rivers, towns, points interests etc. It can be used to make a map, but is not a map. If you want that, wrong question, see ''Where do I get OpenStreetMap maps?''! The best starting point is [~~http~~https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Planet.osm a snapshot of the OpenStreetMap database]. It is in XML format. Data is available for the whole world and is updated regularly. Smaller extracts for certain countries and parts of the world are also available. You can write programs and scripts quite easily to extract what you need or you can use some of the tools and procedures developed by the OpenStreetMap community. == Where do I get OpenStreetMap maps? == If you are not making your own maps, the list of resources for OpenStreetMap maps made by OpenStreetMap community members, clubs and companies grows day by day. [~~http~~https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/List_of_OSM_based_Services#General OpenStreetMap examples]. If you just want to see what our maps can look like go to [~~http~~https://www.openstreetmap.org/ openstreetmap.org]. The ''+'' button in the top right corner gives you the option to choose different styles. If you want an electronic map of a specific area quickly, the Export tab of ~~http~~https://www.openstreetmap.org/ will allow you download a map of your selected area as JPEG image, PDF file or in other formats. Or you might want map tiles. We are in principle happy for our map tiles to be used by external users for creative and unexpected uses - in contrast to most web mapping providers. However, the OpenStreetMap servers are run entirely on donated resources. They have strictly limited capacity. Heavy use of OSM tiles adversely affects people's ability to view and edit the map, and is an abuse of the individual donations and sponsorship which provide hardware and bandwidth. As a result, we request that users of the tiles abide by [~~http~~https://~~wiki~~operations.~~openstreetmap~~osmfoundation.org/~~wiki~~policies/tiles/~~Tile_usage_policy~~ the tile usage policy]. OpenStreetMap tile services can also be obtained from other third parties, or you can investigate setting up a tile server of your own. == Do you offer consulting or commercial services? == No. [~~http~~https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Commercial_OSM_Software_and_Services There are companies who specialize in commercial services built upon OpenStreetMap data]. Those companies may be able to help you. As policy, the Foundation makes no endorsements or recommendations.