In a new technological advancement in the geospatial world, DigitalGlobe launches satellite imagery for OpenStreetMap (OSM). It is a free and open database of Earth’s features created by contributions from volunteer mappers. Every day, thousands of new features are added and existing features are enriched. Accurate, high-resolution and up-to-date satellite imagery is an essential component for improving this continuously evolving map of our planet – whether it is to trace new features or to use as a reference layer for validation. Over the years DigitalGlobe has supported OSM community through partnerships, and now the company will be supporting OSM directly.
Over the past few months, DigitalGlobe has been working with its partners to improve OpenStreetMap further and this new launch has been majorly funded by DigitalGlobe Maps API. This will open more data and imagery to aid OSM editing. OSM contributors will see a new DigitalGlobe imagery source, in addition to imagery provided by its partners, Bing and Mapbox.
DigitalGlobe Business Development Director Kevin Bullock says, “We anticipate questions and feedback about this release. We are addressing them through an active forum with FAQs here. This post is replicated on OSM Forum. I’m available on OSM help or you can hit me up directly with any additional questions.”
Bullock adds, “We appreciate the OSM community’s awareness and diligence for licensing. In order to be clear on the intended uses for our imagery, we have a short, readable EULA to summarize terms for editing OpenStreetMap. If you need imagery for other applications or are interested in participating and supporting OpenStreetMap through this partnership, please contact us.”
“We’ll be at State of the Map US in Boulder, Colorado this fall. Let’s meet up there. We would love to hear your stories, feedback, and questions! If you do something cool and want to share, we’re collecting ideas for the conference as well,” he says further.
