I was looking for an open source alternative for mapping software and/or sites like maps.google.com or maps.yahoo.com and there I came across a user edited wikipedia like site http://www.openstreetmap.org/
. It currently has users all around the world and it is amazing how there is a lot of software around it to modify these maps online.
I did my share of modifying maps for locations around my apartment and filled in a lot of nodes/tags for locations around my apartment.
I used JOSM to edit the maps.
At this point it lacks the polish and content compared to Google maps/Yahoo maps etc and I would not recommend it for reliable directions etc.Give it a year or 2 and I'm fairly certain it will become as authoritative/popular and rich in content like Wikipedia.
Apart from that I'm still waiting for Roadnav to integrate tightly with OpenStreetMap.Once it is done it would be fun to use it.
Also please feel free to modify the maps and make it better.
There is a new routing service available , which operates on OSM data , it is called http://openrouteservice.org/.Unfortunately it seems at this time they don't have directions for US.

posted at: 15:47 | category: /pleaforaction | permanent link to this entry