OpenStreetMap
Digital maps are the fundamental basis of your online route planning. To provide you with material that covers the whole world, we work with information from OpenStreetMap (OSM), which is an international community project that collects and assembles geodata into a freely usable world map.
Where does the data come from?
The data is recorded by community members (OSM mappers) and fed into the OSM database in three steps.
- Raw data is recorded and saved by GPS-enabled devices.
- This raw data is edited in the database using the OSM editor and saved there as either "Ways" or "Nodes".
- Elements are then classified by being tagged. This is how a line can change into a street, a river or a border.
Anyone can participate in the OSM project- even if they are not actually capturing geodata themselves. Data that has been recorded already can be easily broadened and corrected. Local knowledge can be used to help make small adjustments, which is especially beneficial in areas where the network of paths intersects with natural spaces.
Who can use the data?
All OpenStreetMap data is covered by an "Open Database License (ODbL)" and may only be passed on under this license (ShareAlike license). This guarantees that everyone can use the data without restrictions to create free and commercial products.