Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/January 13

Today in 2010 OpenStreetMap volunteers started the first disaster relief mapping project in response to a devastating earthquake having struck Haiti the day before. First recent aerial imagery of the situation had just become available; – within a week they had accomplished the unprecedented feat of providing ground teams with up-to-date, street-level maps of the disaster zone. This began a tradition of humanitarian usage of OpenStreetMap, carried on by groups such as the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, Missing Maps, and other groups.

OpenStreetMap coverage of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on January 14th, 2010.
OpenStreetMap coverage of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on January 14th, 2010.

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