International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012 69
OpenStreetMap
Kevin Curran, University of Ulster, UK
John Crumlish, University of Ulster, UK
Gavin Fisher, University of Ulster, UK
ABSTRACT
OpenStreetMap is a collaborative web-mapping project that collects geospatial data to create and distribute
online maps, freely available to anyone with an Internet connection. Once accessed, OpenStreetMap allows
Internet users to contribute and edit geospatial data, effectively making it the mapping equivalent of Wikipedia.
OpenStreetMap is maintained by volunteer cartographers from around the world who use GPS devices, portable cameras, and laptops for field mapping. Collected data are complemented with digitised open source
aerial photography and free maps from the governmental and commercial sources. This report provides a
summary of OpenStreetMap as a remarkable example of participatory geographic information systems (GIS).
Keywords:
Citizen Cartography, Collaborative Maps, Crowdsourcing, Neogeography, Open Source
Mapping, Participatory Geographic Information Systems (GIS), StreetMap
INTRODUCTION
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative web
mapping project—an example of participatory
GIS—which makes free crowd-sourced geospatial data available to anyone with access to the
Internet. OpenStreetMap was started in 2004
by Steve Coast, a programmer from the United
Kingdom residing in London. Using his laptop
and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver,
Steve Coast began mapping his neighborhood,
paying attention to the locations of particular
interest to him, and including much more detail than any available online map service was
providing at that time. He correctly envisioned
that making such data augmentable, editable
and freely available online, where anyone could
DOI: 10.4018/ijicst.2012010105
access or contribute information, might create a
snowball effect, which would eventually lead to
the development of, in his own words, a “jigsaw
map of the world” (Musgrove, 2010).
Since its inception, OpenStreetMap has
attracted countless Internet users throughout
the world who have contributed to the project
in different ways. At the time of the first State
of the Map (SoTM) conference, set up by
OpenStreetMap Foundation in July 2007 in
Manchester, there were only 9,000 registered
users. Starting from 2007, Yahoo! allowed
OSM to tap into its vertical aerial photography
database, which greatly facilitated the progress
of the OSM project (in 2010 Microsoft’s Bing
Maps also released its aerial imagery for the
OSM). By August 2008, the number of registered users rose to 50,000; by March 2009,
the number rose to 100,000 members; and by
the beginning of 2010 the project had 200,000
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70 International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012
members. In November 2011 the total number
of volunteers reached 500,000.
Among other milestones, one should mention: (a) valuable functionality was added in
January 2008 making OSM available for cyclists
who started downloading map data to use it on
trips; (b) funding of 2.4 million euro became
available from CloudMade, a company founded
by Steve Coast, that uses OpenStreetMap data
for providing commercial geospacial services;
(c) in September 2009 Flickr announced that
it began supporting OpenStreetMap, which
allowed geotagged photos of landmarks to
be uploaded to the OpenStreetMap server
(Lardinois, 2009). Currently, netizens around
the world utilize and update data available
at the project’s website OpenStreetMap.org.
Citizen cartographers range from volunteers
providing humanitarian relief work in disaster
regions—where up-to-date maps are essential
and could be a matter of life and death for the
victims—to residents of cities, small towns
and villages; who simply want to map their
neighborhoods or highlight certain landmarks
that might be of interest to others. At the time
of this writing, OpenStreetMap community
continues to grow with contributors across the
globe submitting novel data or editing existing
information.
Probably the most significant use of
OpenStreetMap has come in the aftermath of
the massive earthquake that struck Haiti on
January 12, 2010 with the epicenter located 25
km to the west of the country’s capital Port-auPrince. Pre-earthquake maps of Haiti contained
little more than a few highways and roads, with
Port-au-Prince being signified by a shaded
outline. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in
the Western Hemisphere, and as very few of
the population could afford GPS, there was no
point for the commercial mapping services in
creating accurate digital maps. The lack of an
accessible online cartographic reference had
serious impeding implications for the relief
efforts once the catastrophic earthquake killed
hundreds of thousands of people, and made
close to one million homeless. International
rescue and aid workers who were trying to
provide much needed relief encountered many
problems identifying what roads and routes
were available for the rescue and delivery of
the necessary supplies.
According to the website CrisisCommons.org, there were a number of stages in
the development of the inclusive Haiti maps
to allow the aid workers to get help to the victims. Firstly, there was an immediate search for
all available period and contemporary maps.
These included various historic maps and even
maps unclassified by the CIA. Due to critical
circumstances, the New York Public Library,
which has a specialized Map Rectifier facility,
provided volunteer cartographers with NYPL
Map Warper, a software application that allowed
for digitizing of the historic maps of Haiti and
aligning them with contemporary maps. At this
point, OpenStreetMap volunteers began to get
deeply involved with the project. Before the
earthquake of 2010, they had already collected
some mapping data of the disaster areas, which
were used in conjunction with historic maps.
Starting from this point, the OpenStreetMap
community began collecting and editing the
field data and mapping collapsed bridges and
impassable roads, locations of hospitals and
refugee tent camps, as well as accurately marking the position of damaged buildings where
victims could remained trapped. The next
vital step involved the United Nations releasing satellite imagery of the region for public
use, a move that was followed by commercial
satellite overhead imagery providers such as
GeoEye and Digital Globe. All these combined
efforts helped to collect a vast base of cartographic knowledge, which has permitted the
OpenStreetMap community to build what has
become the most comprehensive map of Haiti.
The Haiti mapping effort may be the most
significant example of how OpenStreetMap has
had a major social impact, but there are many
other examples of OSM performing valuable
social service for society. A large part of the
success of OpenStreetMap was due to its diverse
user base around the world. The OpenStreetMap official blog, user diaries and OSM forum
threads contain references to a number of local
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International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012 71
or even global mapping events such, as Night
of the Living Maps, a global OSM map editing
marathon. The OpenStreetMap Wiki also highlights similar and smaller events. These events
could be anything from a casual get-together
for novice users to explore neighborhoods using
on-the-ground GPS surveys or walking papers,
with collected data to be later imported and
processed in the OSM editing environment; to
mapping parties, where cartography enthusiasts
meet with the aim of inclusive mapping of a
particular area; or events such as armchair
mapping—editing cartographic information
collected in the field, working with available
sets of data or digitizing aerial photography.
While armchair mapping provides only a virtual
camaraderie, the mapping parties are made up
of a number of people who then usually split
into groups of two. Using GPS units, volunteers
typically start with plotting the locations of
obscure roads and footpaths, local landmarks,
etc. Coordinates can be recorded in handwritten
form by novice users, or saved on GPS receivers by the more experienced. These coordinates
are then brought to a person experienced with
the OSM editing environment such as JOSM,
who uploads the information into existing
OpenStreetMap dataset. The main objective of
these and similar volunteer efforts is to chart
exhaustively by adding layer after layer of detail
to a map of a designated area, and to keep it
continuously up-to-date.
OPENSTREETMAP
PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES
The data collection for OpenStreetMap is
increasing rapidly. Basically, participatory
digital map production techniques stem from
on-the-ground GPS or paper surveys, intimate
knowledge of a certain geographical community
plus available aerial imagery. Volunteers who
travel by foot, bicycle, car or boat study the
landscape using handheld GPS, a paper log, or
voice recorder, and create the initial OSM data
file. The project can greatly benefit from access
to aerial photography datasets from government
agencies or commercial services, and volunteer
cartographers in different countries work on
securing them. Technical teams are set up to
manage the conversion and import the data
when large datasets are available to use in the
OSM. In some cases, GPS would not be used if
satellite imagery had been previously uploaded
to the OSM server. After the upload of data a
map editor is used to edit the data.
Another important form of contribution
to the OpenStreetMap project is based on an
editor’s own local knowledge, which allows
features such as schools, libraries, various community places and landmarks, roundabouts and
busy roads bypasses to be placed on the map.
A number of enthusiasts who are extremely
committed to the project will methodically map
whole towns or rural districts over a period of
time by systematically organising mapping
parties to intensively map a particular area in
the evenings or over weekends. A score of other
volunteers correct errors and add features by
performing a large number of smaller edits.
This is done via OpenStreetMaps built-in and
stand-alone map editors.
Several governments, including the United
States, have released official cartographic data
to OpenStreetMap, including Landsat 7 Satellite
Imagery, Prototype Global Shorelines and Tiger
Data. Other countries have also made available
the use of detailed local aerial photography
through the Open Aerial Map initiative. Some
commercial companies have also donated data to
the OpenStreetMap project on suitable licences.
For instance, the Automotive Navigation Data,
a well-known provider of the digital maps
for GPS-based navigation devices, donated a
complete road dataset for the Netherlands and
partial road datasets for China and India. The
use of Yahoo!’s aerial photography and Bing
Maps is an example of a partnership with commercial map providers.
There is a long list of software that can be
used in the creation of online editable maps such
as OSM. The main purposes are map rendering
and representation, map data collection, and
management. Map editing software used in the
production and presentation of OpenStreetMap
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72 International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012
Figure 1. Kosmos OpenStreetMap rendering platform
came from different sources, each with its
own licensing. Map rendering and presentation software comes in the form of interactive
online web-based software, desktop software,
and mobile phone applications. OpenLayers is
an open source JavaScript library for displaying map data in web browsers. It provides an
API for building rich web-based geographic
applications similar to Google Maps and Bing
Maps (Surrey councils open access, 2010).
Slippy map interface is used to display map tiles
rendering by other software such as Map OS
Matic, which can generate city maps by using
OSM data with the map split in squares allowing to easily look for streets and an index of
the streets with references to the squares on the
map. Other examples of such software include
Mapnik, Osmarender and Cartagen.
Kosmos, which is currently being replaced
by Maperitive, is an example of a lightweight
OpenStreetMap rendering platform that provides many tasks, including the ability to render
OpenStreetMaps interactively, print the maps,
set up a local tile map server, create separate
map rendering rules or share rules stored in
OpenStreetMap Wiki pages, view maps on a
Java enabled mobile phone, and to perform
tasks from the command line (Figure 1).
Other map rendering and presentation
software applications created for use on mobile
phones and GPS devices include AndNav2 and
Navit for Android smartphones; OpenTouchMap, which is a is a slippy map optimised for
touch screen devices such as iPhone; and finally, GpsMid which is a Java ME application
that is a free, fully offline, vector-based map
application for mobile phones. It displays one’s
current position on a zoomable map and can be
used to search for and navigate to roads or points
of interest.
A prime example of mapping and data collection software that is most commonly used
for OpenStreetMaps is GPSBabel, which many
contributors use to convert GPS track data from
various proprietary formats to the GPX format
that OpenStreetMap requires. GPSBabel is a
cross platform, free software to transfer routes,
tracks and waypoint data between GPS units
and mapping programs. It can convert over a
hundred different types of GPS data formats.
GPSBabel grants users the ability to freely move
their own waypoint data between the programs
and the hardware they choose to use.
In OSM there is no option of categorising
what is uploaded (e.g., whether it is a road, or
a river) therefore, the data needs to be edited.
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International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012 73
Figure 2. JOSM using Yahoo WMS plug-in
The volunteers perform this task with the use
of map editing software. The most commonly
used editing application for OpenStreetMap
is JOSM, the original Java OpenStreetMap
desktop editing software application (Figure 2).
JOSM is a feature-rich editor with an interface
that can seem complex at first. It also requires
certain installation and configuration efforts
to get some plug-in features when working
particularly with Yahoo! imagery.
The user can utilize JOSM software to edit
place names, build locations, add photo imag-
ery, and much more. It is an essential application for users of OpenStreetMap (as shown in
Figure 3).
Other map editing applications available
to users of OpenStreetMap include Potlatch,
an online flash editor; Merkaartor, a desktop
editor similar to JOSM; OSM2Go, a mobile/
desktop editor; and Quantum GIS, another
desktop editor which includes an OpenStreetMap plug-in. The OpenStreetMap interface is
easy to navigate and it is visually appealing. It
includes a built-in search to find places. Over-
Figure 3. JOSM displaying OpenStreetMap data and GPS track logs
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74 International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012
all, OpenStreetMap offers many functions and
features allowing users to edit maps, review
recent edits, export map data, view and upload
GPS data, and make comments and suggestions.
INTERACTING WITH
OpenStreetMap
There are various methods to augment and edit
the data in OpenStreetMap. Each individual
method is geared toward the individual technical skills of users, and also depends on how
much time and effort the user would like to
contribute. A range of online and standalone
editing software applications support the OSM
project, with the most frequently used including
Potlatch, JOSM and Merkaator.
Potlatch
Potlatch 2 is the OSM default online editor,
which opens when an Internet user goes to the
edit tab on the OSM interface—utilizing any
major browser and requiring only a Flash plugin. It allows the user, for example, to work with
the satellite imagery provided by Yahoo! and
Bing for the purposes of creating a map of a
neighborhood. By double-clicking on the image,
the user creates what is called a node. A node can
be used to highlight any single point of interest
on the map, such as a building, and can be used
in conjunction with other nodes. To complete the
map, the nodes are connected using waypoints.
In the latest version of OpenStreetMap, many
public amenities such as telephone boxes, bus
stops, etc, have their own highlighting icons,
which the user simply needs to drag from the
toolbar and drop onto the required place on the
map to mark the location. If a particular point
of interest does not already have a designated
icon, the user can simply double click the correct location on the image, creating a node. The
user can then manually add the description of
that particular point of interest.
Roads, tracks and pathways can be added to
OpenStreetMap in a very similar way to places.
The user simply has to identify the road, etc,
on the Yahoo! or Bing overhead image. Single
clicking at the beginning of a road will produce
a node. The difference from the “point of interest” entry is that once the user moves the mouse
pointer, the movement is traced with waypoints.
Another single click will produce another node,
and the tracing will continue from this point, allowing the user to negotiate the tracing of bends
in a motorway, road, track etc. Once the end of a
particular road has been reached, a double click
will enter a final node that will signify the end
of that particular entry. The user is then free to
enter the necessary details, such as what type
of road it is, motorway, connecting road, cycle
path, or footpath, and any names that the entry
may have, such as M1, Dunfield Terrace, etc.
Once all the information that the user wants
to include has been added, they are provided with
the option to save the changes that they have
made for editing later, or to save the changes
and upload them to the OpenStreetMap server.
After the changes have been uploaded to the
OpenStreetMap server, other members of the
OpenStreetMap community can then review
and edit them if necessary.
Java OpenStreetMap
Java OpenStreetMap (JOSM) is an individual
stand-alone software application that allows
OpenStreetMap users to render GPS data. This
information can then be uploaded onto the OpenStreetMap server. The user can either download
existing data associated with the area on the map
that they would like to edit or augment, or they
can edit and upload their own raw GPS data to
JOSM. This would most likely be decided when
establishing exactly how much data already is
available for a particular area. For example, the
accessible data, such as satellite imagery and
existing OpenStreetMap entries, for major cities and their surrounding areas is usually quite
detailed. With this in mind, it may be helpful
for the user to reference the existing data when
making their own entries, as it will enable them
to establish how accurate their GPS readings
are—if need be—as well as establish whether
the data they have compiled about particular
items (streets, landmarks, points of interest, etc.)
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International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012 75
already exists within the server. The user may
find that the current data contained within the
server may need to be updated. On the flip side,
as some urban areas in the United Kingdom are
having quite detailed cartographic information
available, some others, for example, Derry City
in the Northern Ireland, has very little. The
satellite imagery available for the Derry City
is poor and the information exhibited on the
OpenStreetMap is quite minimal for anywhere
other than the city center. With this in mind,
users wanting to update data associated with
an undermapped urban area such as Derry City
may need to collect and upload the raw data
from their GPS to JOSM.
When using JOSM, the user will initially
gather as much GPS data as possible using a
GPS unit. This information is then imported
into JOSM as a GPX file. The coordinates of the
GPX file can then be read by JOSM, and this in
turn allows the user to retrieve any existing data
on that particular area from the OpenStreetMap
server. The information that is added is actually
a series of coordinates. These coordinates can
then be traced over by the user, creating nodes.
These nodes can then be used to signify an
individual object, such as a street postbox, or
as part of a series of nodes, or waypoints making up a road or a track, etc. Photos or images
such as a statue, street sign, building, etc., can
also be uploaded, giving the user additional
information on a particular location. Various
types of information may be included about
each of the nodes and waypoints. For example,
if a node signifies a street postbox, information
should be entered to detail that it represents
an amenity, and that it is indeed a postbox. If
a series of nodes and waypoints signifies the
location of a road, then the user should enter
details of the type of road it is, e.g., motorway,
residential, cycle path, footpath etc., the name
if applicable, and whether it is one way or not.
JOSM uses a uniform tagging system, which
encourages users to tag all features on a map
in a consistent way.
Merkaator
Merkaator, like JOSM, is a stand-alone map
editing software application that allows users
to access, add and edit the datasets stored on
the OpenStreetMap server. Once the data has
been retrieved, Merkaators’ mapping functions
are very similar to that of JOSM, in that it
deals with nodes which are used individually
to signify points of interest, or as a series to
create waypoints signifying roads and paths
etc., which can in turn be linked to Yahoo!
or Bing satellite imagery. It has an intuitive
user interface, providing a transparent display
of map features. However, Merkaator places
more emphasis on the aesthetics of mapping,
since it allows mapping more precisely curved
roads. On the other side, the OpenStreetMap
Wiki warns that this application, still being in
the phase of development, is “very memory
hungry and can freeze the machine while pageswapping” (“Comparison of editors,” 2012).
DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSION
Given that a lot of mapping information with a
high level of detail is now available online via
MapQuest, Google, Yahoo! or Bing maps, it is
worth asking the question, what benefit does
access to free, editable maps provide to regular
Internet users? It is important to recognize that
the OpenStreetMap project has had major influence on both the attitudes of citizens and governments towards the issue of cartographic data
availability and accessibility. For example, over
the past years, The Guardian has spearheaded a
campaign in the UK to make cartographic data
collected by government-funded organizations
freely available to the public. The argument is
that, if taxpayers’ money paid for the data to be
collected, why should taxpayers have to pay any
more to access the data? This in turn has resulted
in Ordnance Survey, the UK national mapping
agency, making maps in several formats avail-
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76 International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012
able online for free downloads from April 2010
(Sung, 2010). The Independent newspaper (OS
Maps, 2010) wrote that Sir Tim Berners-Lee,
the founder of the World Wide Web, advised
Prime Minister Gordon Brown on allowing
publicly funded map data to be freely available
in an effort to boost entrepreneurship and kickstart cutting-edge technology enterprises in the
United Kingdom. According to Dr. Christopher
Board, chairman of the Charles Close Society
for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps, having free Ordnance Survey maps at the user’s
disposal is very important. Board claims that
if it was left up to the providers to map what
they felt was important, then the “most popular
tourist areas would be mapped regularly and
kept up to date, but there would be huge areas
of agricultural land, moor or croft that would
be left untouched” (OS Maps, 2010). Ordnance
Survey maps can only be implemented as a
point of reference for the user, however if any
drastic changes may occur within the landscape
of the area mapped, this effectively renders the
map out of date and it is up to the Ordnance
Survey cartographers to provide updates. A
major advantage that OpenStreetMap would
have over any Ordnance Survey maps would
be that it has the potential to be updated in
real time. On the other side, under the direct
influence of the OSM, Ordnance Survey has
started to provide more free services, such as
OS OpenSpace, which allows embedding maps
of Great Britain into web pages.
The practices of commercial online map
and image providers have also been influenced
by the OpenStreetMap project. As mentioned,
first Yahoo! and then Bing Maps permitted
volunteer mappers to use their proprietary aerial
photography as a backdrop. Yahoo! Flickr also
allows tagging photo images with OSM tags
to be easily searched and transferred on OSM
maps if needed. At the 4th annual international
State of the Map 2010 conference, MapQuest,
owned by AOL, announced that it decided to
become “the first major mapping site to embrace and encourage open source mapping at
scale” (MapQuest Opens Up, 2010). As part
of this initiative, MapQuest founded an open
source project – open.mapquest.co.uk mapping site – based on the OpenStreetMap data.
Additionally, in 2008, Google started its own
OSM-type collaborative project called Google
Map Maker. According to the Times newspaper
(Blakely, 2008), this service is aimed mainly at
amateur cartographers based in “hyper-growth
countries” like India, where the infrastructure
has a tendency to change at an alarming rate
in comparison to more developed countries.
Google Map Maker creator Lalitesh Katragadda
felt that Google’s “enormous online reach”
would be the deciding factor on its popularity
in comparison to similar non-commercial applications such as OpenStreetMap. Four years
later, Google Map Maker is available in 188
countries and its community has reached 25,000
members. Google Map Maker invites Internet
users to correct and update Google Maps and
provides step-by-step instructions and technical
support. However, as appealing and functional
as Google’s mapping applications may look, one
should remember that they serve as a means
of generating corporate revenue—not for the
altruistic purposes of mapping the world. On the
other hand, the OpenStreetMap project allows
for uninterrupted programming access to its
datasets and provides a foundation for similar
crowdsourced initiatives such as Information
Freeway, OpenCycleMap, OpenBusMap,
OpenRouteService, OpenOrienteeringMap,
and other projects.
The OpenStreetMap initiative is growing
and expanding with new volunteers joining
the effort to build and maintain a free-to-use,
comprehensive map of the world. With continuing advances in GIS technology and new
approaches to gathering and editing digital
cartographic data, the seemingly utopian project
steadily moves towards fruition as time passes.
New features for OpenStreetMap are being
added, more areas in developed countries are
getting covered, and more and more developing countries are getting involved with the
OpenStreetMap project. Citizen cartographers
are enthusiastically exploring unorthodox ways
of using OSM, from highlighting the location
of a communal event, to keeping a crisis map
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International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012 77
up-to-date during a humanitarian or relief mission. Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake in 2010 has
shown how powerful participatory and activist
cartography can be when properly channeled
and implemented. A major contribution to the
success of OpenStreetMap work during the Haiti
crisis is that OSM gave remote volunteer cartographers and onsite relief workers the ability
to work together and update geographical data
on the OSM in real time. Despite the fact that
much of the work is still needed to complete
the project, OpenStreetMap already serves as
a remarkable example of public participation
GIS, and one of the largest collective mapping
endeavours in the history of human civilisation.
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Kevin Curran, PhD, is a Reader in Computer Science at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.
He is an IEEE Technical Expert and member of the Information Security Specialist Group of the
British Computer Society and other professional bodies. Among his achievements are winning
and managing projects in information and communication technologies of the UK & European
Framework and Technology Transfer Schemes. Dr. Curran is perhaps most well-known for his
work on location positioning within indoor environments, pervasive computing, and Internet
security. His expertise has been acknowledged by numerous publications, invitations to present his work at international conferences, overseas universities, and research laboratories. He
was the recipient of an Engineering and Technology Board Visiting Lectureship for Exceptional
Engineers, served as an advisor to the British Computer Society, and is a regular contributor
to BBC radio & TV broadcasts in the UK about technology. Dr. Curran is the Editor-in-Chief
of the International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence.
Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
78 International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies, 2(1), 69-78, January-June 2012
John Crumlish has worked in the IT industry in Northern Ireland as a programmer and is currently
pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree with Honours in the School of Computing and Intelligent
Systems, Faculty of Computing and Engineering, at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland.
His research interests include HTML5, OpenStreetMap, geolocation, and Internet security.
Gavin Fisher has worked in the IT industry in Northern Ireland as a web designer and is currently
pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree with Honours in the School of Computing and Intelligent
Systems, Faculty of Computing and Engineering, at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland.
His research interests include Internet technologies and GPS.
Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.