Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Purpose
The purpose of this handbook is to highlight the potential and immense mutual benefits that have been demonstrated to arise from geographic data sharing partnerships and to offer detailed resources for how data sharing can be facilitated. Focusing on illustrative case studies and best practices we demonstrate the public value gleaned from government use of and contributions to OpenStreetMap (AKA the Wikipedia of maps).
Benefits of OpenStreetMap at a glance
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is the most prominent example of global volunteer crowdsourced geographic data thanks to the work of 3M users registered worldwide.
Map data is open (under ODbL license), streets, buildings, transit networks, trees, etc. are added, updated, and validated daily.
Importing government data into this existing dataset allows the (local) community of mappers to evaluate the quality of the data and add missing data - improving geospatial government data and making it accessible to all.
Working in partnership with OSM to create a more accurate, up-to-date and complete city map through open data and citizen participation has endless potential for improved infrastructure planning, provision of services, transparency, and natural resource protection.
Up-to-date transport network data in OSM including bus routes, tram, prepare the local network for a connected future, all the way to autonomous vehicles and more (How West Midlands in the UK are working with the local OSM community to achieve this).
Take your open data portal to the next level
Open up accessible data + see it used: Making data available via open data portals is not the final solution. In many cases, open data formats are too complicated to be utilized by untrained individuals, all while the argument for open data is to make it accessible for all taxpayers.The ideal situation would be that data is visually accessible, and can be downloaded in a format that can interface with many different tools & solutions. OpenStreetMap as a platform represents a standardized and visual way to present geospatial data, and, as a bonus, comes with an active community, interested in keeping the data up-to-date. The common public sector pain point of keeping data updated can in some cases be delegated to the community (read how Milan's transit agency did this)
Justify dollars spent on open data efforts: Efforts spent on opening up datasets via OSM can simultaneously help communicate data available and applications needed to a global audience of developers, all while improving data quality through the active contributor community.
Community engagement: Engaging with the local community of mappers provides a canvas and a model for including civic innovators and different community groups to exchange feedback and ideas with local government. OSM is the ideal online platform to facilitate community projects and data collection such as pothole to safety reporting.
What does Mapbox have to do with this?
Mapbox is an open source company which builds geospatial products with open source parts, and releases as much code as possible. Right now we have more than 350 public repositories on GitHub. We do this because we believe that it's the right thing for people, technology, and business. Mapbox Cities is a mentorship program for cities to adopt data-driven analysis to address local challenges. One important element here is to bridge the gap between public sector open data offerings and OpenStreetMap, a global volunteer driven geospatial data platform.
Reporting from the governments that work with OpenStreetMap
In this handbook, we present four case studies for how local government + OSM partnerships have led to impressive improvements in:
Coordinated transit planning (West Midlands + Milan)
Managing and using fast changing infrastructure data (Curbs in Seattle)
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