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Updated the number of contractors from 2 to 3. Changed "system engineer" to "Senior Site Reliability Engineer". Added info about software maintenance and development and about the membership fee being waived with the Active contributor membership. Changed "corporations" to "organisations". Replaced one link to point to supporting.osm.org and changed format of links pointing to the OSM wiki. Added link to the contractors and employees' page and to the tiles' page on the wiki.

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Revision as of 19:43, 17 December 2024

Revision as of 16:09, 20 January 2023 (view source) Craig Allan (talk \| contribs) m (→‎How many employees does the OpenStreetMap Foundation have?: Fixed count from almost none to one.) ← Older edit		Latest revision as of 19:43, 17 December 2024 (view source) Dorothea (talk \| contribs) (Updated the number of contractors from 2 to 3. Changed "system engineer" to "Senior Site Reliability Engineer". Added info about software maintenance and development and about the membership fee being waived with the Active contributor membership. Changed "corporations" to "organisations". Replaced one link to point to supporting.osm.org and changed format of links pointing to the OSM wiki. Added link to the contractors and employees' page and to the tiles' page on the wiki.)
== What is OpenStreetMap? And what is the OpenStreetMap Foundation? == OpenStreetMap is an open initiative to create and provide free geographic data. The OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) is an nonprofit organisation, a legal body incorporated by the registrar of companies for England and Wales. == What is the purpose of the OpenStreetMap Foundation? == == Who may become a member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation? == Any individual or ~~corporation~~organisation may [~~[Join\|~~https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/#Membership-Categories become a member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation]] by paying the annual membership fee. If you are someone who actively contributes to OpenStreetMap as a volunteer, you can join for free - learn about [https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/active-contributor-membership/ our Active Contributor Membership]. == How many employees does the OpenStreetMap Foundation have? == The OpenStreetMap Foundation [[Contractors_and_employees\|has]] one employee, a ~~system~~Senior ~~engineer~~Site Reliability Engineer. ~~Two~~Three contracted staff provide administrative, accounting and ~~accounting~~software maintenance and development services. All other OSMF activities are performed by volunteers. This means we're a lean, efficient organisation when it comes to spending the donated funds, but it has some disadvantages. We may consider taking on more paid staff in the future. == Where do I get OpenStreetMap data? == 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 [~~https~~[osm:~~//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. == Is OpenStreetMap data free? == OSM data is free to use for any purpose, including commercial use, and use is governed by our distribution licence, the ODbL. See [[Licence]] for more information. ~~is governed by our distribution licence, the ODbL. See [[Licence]] for more information.~~ === Can I enter into an agreement with you for use of your map data? === == What is a map tile? == [[osm:Tiles\|Map tiles]] are made by dividing the map into squares and making an image file, such as .png or .jpg, for each square. Sets of map tiles can be made for different zoom levels. There is one map tile showing the whole world. There are four map tiles making up the whole world at the next zoom level, 16 at the next and so on right down to hundreds of thousands for showing the whole world at a local neighbourhood level of detail. == Can I use your map tiles? == == Do you offer consulting or commercial services? == No. [~~https~~[osm:~~//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.