2013 - The Growth of OSM Science

In 2008, Muki Haklay and Patrick Weber published the first research paper about OSM, titled “OpenStreetMap: User-Generated StreetMaps,” helping to ignite a lively and wide-ranging culture of research based on OSM data.

By 2013 and continuing to today, many State of the Maps were offering a science track within the regular conference programming, or adding an additional OSM Science day. Academic researchers, involved from the beginning, are now numerous, and companies who use OSM fund studies, as well. Research is conducted in dozens of countries and languages and informs fields such as GIS, cartography, climate change, and the sociology of open source communities.