OpenStreetMap data license is ODbL

As of 9am (UK time), today, 12 September 2012, OpenStreetMap is now licensed under the Open Database Licence.

Thank you Open Data Commons for making legal tools available for the Open Data community.

[Update: Friday, 14 September 2012 approximately 18:30 UTC]
The XML-format Planet file took longer to generate than expected. It is now available in the new directory structure at http://planet.osm.org/planet/. You may experience slow downloads due to demand at this time.

Additional PBF-format files will follow as soon as they are completely generated.

Change to ODbL imminent

Hello OpenStreetMap-pers,

The change to ODbL is imminent. No, Really. We mean it.

At long last we are at the end of the license change process. After four years of consultation, debate, revision, improvement, revision, debate, improvement, implementation, coding and mapping, mapping, mapping, it comes down to this final step. And this final step is an easy one, because we have all pitched in to do the hard work in advance. The last step is so easy, it will be a picnic.

On Wednesday, 12 September 2012[1], generation of the next Planet file will begin. At that point, the API will switch over to ODbL and OpenStreetMap will be an ODbL-licensed Open Data project. API transactions and diffs consumed after that point will consist of ODbL-licensed OpenStreetMap data.

About thirty hours later, that newly-generated planet file will be available from planet.openstreetmap.org for you to consume with your renderers, routers, QA systems, convertors and re-imaginers.

You won’t want to mix ODbL diffs with old license planets or diffs. Purge and reload your systems with the ODbL planet. Then consume the ODbL diffs. Planet will have a new directory structure. We’re taking this opportunity to rationalize the layout of planet directories a bit. You should find it easier to understand afterwards. This also means that you won’t accidentally mix data of different licenses.

Mappers

Mappers shouldn’t see a difference and won’t have to change their mapping. Continue to improve OpenStreetMap by mapping from your own survey observations and using OSM-approved external sources. Never copy from other maps.

Data consumers

If you consume OpenStreetMap data and publish it, we have some guidance for you on the wiki. You’ll want to consider your obligations under the new license and then proceed to purge your old data and switch to the new. Many consumers, such as custom renderers, will only need to update their attribution of OpenStreetMap to the new simplified attribution.

Data consumers may time their upgrades to the new planet and diffs at their convenience.

Best regards and happy mapping,
The Communication Working Group

[1] in case of rain, we won’t cancel this picnic, just reschedule it for the subsequent Wednesday, 19 September 2012.

Image credit

Photo of cat in picnic basket is © Jacob Davies, licensed CC-By-SA.

New board members

As part of today’s activities in Tokyo, foundation members met for an Annual General Meeting where the final votes were cast for the board elections. Congratulations to our new board members:

Frederik Ramm, and Simon Poole.

Congratulations also to Henk Hoff who has been re-elected to his seat on the board. And thanks to Alex Barth, and Kate Chapman for running in the election. Excellent candidates all round, and we enjoyed some stimulating discussion and debate on the members mailing list. Let’s translate these ideas into action. Not only the elected board, but the whole foundation organisation (including you!) has a part to play in making 2012-2013 a great year for OpenStreetMap.

More details on the election

Your First ODbL Planet

The first day of State of the Map, each year is filled with anticipation. Anticipation of seeing old friends and making new ones, anticipation of inspirational presentations and discussions and anticipation of big announcements.

The opening session at State of the Map, 2012, was no different. In Tokyo, on Thursday morning, 06 September 2012, Steve Coast called Michael Collinson, chair of the License Working Group to the stage to make an announcement. And it was an announcement that we have been anticipating for quite some time.

The next OpenStreetMap planet published will be an ODbL planet.

Mr. Collinson also thanked the countless hundreds (or thousands) who aided immeasurably in the OpenStreetMap license upgrade to ODbL. He named a representative few including OSMF legal counsel Wilson Sonsini, OpenStreetMap community members Richard Fairhurst, Frederik Ramm and Francis Davey, author of the ODbL, Jordan Hatcher and posthumously, License Working Group member Ulf Möller.

There will be more details posted in the next days, but for now we’re excited to share this announcement with you.

Remapping and data resolutions in progress

Since completing the worldwide automated redaction process, we’re seeing some great progress with remapping. Thanks to the efforts of the community we’re recovering a useable map in areas where large gaps had appeared. There is some scope for basic aerial imagery tracing in these areas. To join in with these remote mapping efforts you might like to check out rebuild.poole.ch, a tool to coordinate these efforts. Further details and other remapping tools / links are provided on the ‘Remapping’ wiki page

You are reminded that areas of data must not be copied from the pre-redaction CC-BY-SA licensed OpenStreetMap sources. Where users declined permission to carry their contributions forwards with the new license, we must respect these wishes. In cases where this has been ignored or remapping users have misunderstood, we must now resolve these issues. The Data Working Group and License Working Group are busy tackling this task at the moment. This has involved re-engineering some of the redaction code, and we are currently re-running some areas of data through a redaction process. Remapping work can be frustrating, but undoing remapping work is even more so, so please remember to treat pre-redaction data as a copyrighted source which cannot be input into OpenStreetMap.

Aside from this caution, it’s mapping as usual! Join in with the remote mapping efforts, and also remember that it’s as important as ever to welcome new members to our mapping community, to get more people all over the world mapping their own neighbourhoods. The license didn’t change yet, but all the work on filling in these gaps will soon be ODbL licensed, putting us on a secure footing for the future.

Weekly OSM Summary #50

August 13th, 2012 – August 27th, 2012

A summary of all the things happening in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) world.

  • The 8th anniversary of the OSM project has been celebrated with several parties around the world. See some of the birthday cakes here.
  • The OSM Data Working Group is beginning to revert some copy & paste remapping that has not been covered by the previously applied bot. You can find some more information here.
  • Alex Barth, Kate Chapman, Simon Poole, Frederik Ramm and Henk Hoff are five candidates for the upcoming OSM Foundation (OSMF) board election.
  • The Red Cross and the Humanitarian OSM Team (HOT) are tracing Gulu and Lira in North Uganda. You can also find some blog posts about their mapping events here and here. Further, the HOT is working on a tutorship program.
  • A nice article about OSM workshops with the Ônibus Hacker in Rio de Janeiro.
  • The new Mapmote Chrome-extension allows for starting a JOSM session from a variety of websites. Read more about it here.
  • The bikeplaner.org webpage has been created with Open Source software and Open data. You can give it a try here.
  • A new article by the London Cyclist about “Google Maps vs CycleStreets: Battle for the best route planner“.

Did we miss something? You can contact us via weekly.osm@googlemail.com

Authors: Pascal & Dennis – (thx @ “Wochennotiz”)

Vote for a new Foundation Board

 Today voting has been declared open for the changing seats on the OpenStreetMap Foundation board. Matt Amos, Richard Fairhurst, Dermot McNally, and Oliver Kühn will remain on the board, and are not required to re-run for election this time around, however we have three seats to vote on since Henk Hoff is re-running for election, Mikel Maron is stepping down, and Steve Coast will serve in a new position as “Chairman Emeritus”.

We have five candidates to choose from listed here and candidate nominations are now closed.

If you are a foundation member you can vote for three of these. You can vote by email, and voting is now open through until Wednesday September 5th. Please follow the instructions in the above link. Alternatively if you are going to be in Tokyo for State Of The Map, you may prefer to vote in person at the Annual General Meeting. If you are not a member there is still time to join the foundation before voting, but please do this as soon as possible to allow time for processing.

To help you decide who to vote for, each candidate has written a manifesto, linked from the above list. There is also some interesting debate on the osmf-talk mailing list, and if you wish, you can put questions to the candidates here.