This talk was transcribed.

OpenStreetMap is awesome as a Wikipedia for maps. That is both what makes it great and what makes it difficult to use as a tool for more GIS-y work. There is a ton of useful (but complicated and messy) geospatial data that just does not belong in OpenStreetMap.

We recently released the beta of Maphubs. Maphubs is a home for the world’s open map layers and an easy tool for making and sharing maps. We see Maphubs as a place for data that doesn’t belong in OpenStreetMap. Maphubs is using OpenStreetMap’s data model and API, and offers the iD editor as a way of modifying data. Maphubs also includes OpenStreetMap data layers that can be added to any map.

Maphubs has government datasets, scientific data, parcel/ownership data, old data, messy data, data that you create, data that possibly no one else cares about. Unlike OpenStreetMap, Maphubs keeps all of the data in separate layers with permissions managed by groups. It is a Github-like approach to open GIS data management while still keeping some of the OpenStreetMap feel for tagging and editing data.

Maphubs is the next generation of Moabi’s OpenStreetMap-as-infrastructure mapping system. We are excited to be able to open it as a platform for everyone. Maphubs is free for public data, and the code is open source.