OpenStreetMap Report Maps New Lands Of Growth

The crowd is teeming with cartographers. At least according to a (very pretty) new data report from MapBox. The report details the explosive growth of OpenStreetMap, a free global, crowdsourced map, started in 2004, which (not coincidentally) is holding its US conference this weekend in San Francisco.

“We are well on track to do to geo data providers what Wikipedia did to Encyclopedia Britannica,” says Alex Barth, datalead at MapBox, and secretary of OpenStreetMap US.

Since its start in the UK in 2004, OpenStreetMap’s volunteer Vespuccis have now mapped 21 million miles of road data and 78 million buildings. The map can contain fine-grain details covering specific trees, alleys, and the interior of some buildings.