Animated Map Shows One Year of Edits to OpenStreetMap

Jan 8, 2009 / Mapping / 6 comments

Animated Map Shows One Year of Edits to OpenStreetMap

I admit it. I'm a sucker for animated maps - especially when there's music playing in the back. I'm not exactly sure what it is about them. It's data visualization over time and virtual (or physical?) space fast forwarded and rewound. It's like I'm a supreme being looking at changes over time, peering down from above. It's intuitive. It's very visually linked with the real world, and that's probably why I chose Britain From Above as the best visualization of 2008.

ANYWAYS, check out this animation by ITO that shows the edits to OpenStreetMap, a wiki-style map of the world, over the last year.

Find high resolution pics at the Flickr photo pool.

[via visual complexity]

Subscribe to the FlowingData RSS feed to stay updated on what's new in data visualization. All the cool people are doing it.

Comments (Add Yours)

  • Justin - January 8, 2009 at 9:26 pm

    Very cool video, and I agree that Britain from Above is the best visualization series from 2008. The most amazing part to me is seeing the taxi traffic throughout a day in London, knowing that the individual drivers, acting in an uncoordinated, unplanned way, still move in a remarkably efficient way, covering all the major arteries of the city.

    If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfr.....hour.shtml

  • Nathan - January 9, 2009 at 1:40 am

    Thanks, Justin. I hadn’t seen the taxi one yet. It was a treat

  • raj - January 29, 2009 at 5:15 am

    god, how much do I love this, watched it so many times. Especially with my own fascination with maps.

    Thanks for sharing this, have shared on with many.