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OpenStreetMap Foundation

British non-profit organisation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The OpenStreetMap Foundation (abbreviated OSMF) is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to support and enable the development of freely-reusable geospatial data. Founded in 2006, it is closely connected with the OpenStreetMap project, although its constitution does not prevent it supporting other projects.

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History

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The OpenStreetMap Foundation was registered in England and Wales on 22 August 2006 as a company limited by guarantee.[2] In 2007, it held the first State of the Map conference in Manchester.

In October 2009, the foundation announced that its members, rather than the OpenStreetMap contributors at large, would vote on changing OpenStreetMap's data license from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike to the Open Database License.[3]

In September 2013, the foundation began accepting corporate memberships in an "associate member" (nonvoting) category. The initial corporate members were Geofabrik, Geotab, Naver, NextGIS, and Mapbox.[4][5] In 2018, GlobalLogic was implicated in a coordinated effort to sign up employees as individual members.

Active contributors membership program was introduced in August 2020. As per this active contributors to OpenStreetMap through editing (at least 42 active days in the latest period of one year) or off-line activities can apply for free of cost membership. They will have voting rights for electing board members.[6]

In June 2021, the foundation stated that the effects of Brexit have prompted them to consider a move back into the European Union due to issues with database rights, difficulties with getting charitable status for the foundation, and the increasing difficulty of using PayPal and banking in the United Kingdom. The foundation has not announced the location of its new headquarters.[7] As of February 2024, the candidates for relocation are Belgium and Luxembourg.[8]

By the end of 2022, the foundation had recognized 18 local chapters worldwide, including OSM Austria, supporting regional growth and community engagement.

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Current board of directors

  • Brazil Singh – is an advocate for open mapping, community engagement, and humanitarian open-source technology. Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, he has contributed extensively to the OpenStreetMap (OSM) ecosystem as a mapper, trainer, and leader.[9]
  • Craig Allan – has used commercial GIS systems since the 80’s, starting on the simple but very effective Atlas GIS by Strategic Mapping Inc.[10]
  • Daniela (Dani) Waltersdorfer Jimenez – works in the Transportation Industry, where she helps many transportation agencies with their transit, logistics, supply-chain, and asset management needs in the form of digital geospatial solutions. [11]
  • Héctor Ochoa Ortiz – is passionate about transportation, particularly regarding transportation networks and urban mobility, and enjoys traveling to discover the history, culture, and food of new places. [12]
  • Laura Mugeha – is a Geospatial engineer working at the intersection of open data, free and open-source software, and sustainable development. [13]
  • Maurizio Napolitano – has contributed to OpenStreetMap through scientific research, organization of conferences, public speaking (including three TEDx talks), and the creation of the Italian OSM Chapter within Wikimedia Italia.[14]
  • Roland Olbricht – maintains and operates the Overpass API independent of this daytime job.[15]
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Governance

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The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a membership organization. Membership in the foundation is separate from a user account on the OpenStreetMap website: a user account is required to contribute to the map, while foundation membership entitles one to vote at a general meeting.[16]

The foundation is run by a board of seven members, including the foundation's officers: chairman, secretary and treasurer.[17] The board is elected by the foundation's dues-paying members. As of September 2025, the board consists of Craig Allan, Daniela Waltersdorfer, Roland Olbricht, Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Laura Mugeha, Maurizio Napolitano, Brazil Singh.[18]

Several working groups, composed mostly of volunteers, carry out day-to-day operations on behalf of the foundation:[19][20]

  • Data Working Group – counter vandalism and dispute resolution[21][22][23]
  • Communication Working Group
  • Engineering Working Group
  • Legal or Licensing Working Group – trademark and licensing issues[3]
  • Local Chapters Working Group
  • Membership Working Group[19]
  • Operations Working Group
  • State of the Map Organizing Committee

Several local chapters are affiliated with the OpenStreetMap Foundation.[24] The local chapter for Italy is Wikimedia Italia, which is also a chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Programs and initiatives

The OpenStreetMap Foundation promotes and supports the OpenStreetMap project, but does not formally own the project or its contents.[25] The foundation's relatively low profile in OpenStreetMap's development has been contrasted with the Wikimedia Foundation's relationship to Wikipedia.[26][27]

In addition to day-to-day operations within the OpenStreetMap project, the foundation and its working groups run several initiatives to promote the project's growth. Its annual State of the Map conference is the flagship conference within the OpenStreetMap community. The GPStogo program lends GPS receivers to mappers in developing countries.[28]

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Notable people

See also

References

External links

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