Mile-high city to host leading international mapping event 

Choice recognizes growing U.S. participation in open-source map of the world

Denver,CO--Jan. 5, 2011--The U.S. Chapter of OpenStreetMap.org (OSM) is proud to announce that Denver, Colo., has been chosen as the location of the 2011 State of the Map conference, the pre-eminent international event for open-source mapping of the world.
    The event will take place Sept. 9 to 11, 2011 and is expected to attract participants from across the United States and across the globe. OpenStreetMap.org includes more than 200,000 members worldwide who are contributing to the development of the first truly open-source street map of the world.
    The open-source mapping data created in OpenStreetMap.org is used worldwide in a range of mapping projects and tools. Past sponsors of the State of the Map conference, such as CloudMade, MapQuest (AOL) and Bing (Microsoft), now are using OSM data in their web and mobile location-based applications.

About the State of the Map (SotM) Conference
    The annual State of the Map conference brings together members of OpenStreetMap.org, with representatives of government, the geodata industry and user groups. Together they grow the huge database of worldwide geographical information assembled in OpenStreetMap.org and create new applications for that data.
    The first State of the Map was held in July 2007 in Manchester, England. Past SOTMs have featured sessions about new mapping technology and capabilities, mapping projects around the world and developments within OpenStreetMap.org. The State of the Map conference is also the most important event of the year for the OSM community, an opportunity for members and others to meet and share their work with participants from around the world.

About the U.S. Chapter of OSM
    The United States Chapter of Open Street Map was incorporated in April 2010. Its goal is to promote and develop OpenStreetMap.org in the United States and to conduct projects with a focus on the United States. A number of countries have launched or are in the process of launching national chapters of OSM.

About OpenStreetMap.org
    OpenStreetMap.org (OSM) creates and provides free geographic data, such as street maps, to anyone who wants them. because most maps considered "free" actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, which hold back their use in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.
    OpenStreet Map launched in the fall of 2004 in London. Since then the organization has grown to more than 200,000 volunteer members worldwide. Almost daily there are meetings and new projects initiated my OSM members. In January of 2010, OSM started a special project to provide critical mapping data to support the emergency efforts following the earthquake in Haiti, a project that continues today.
   

For more information, please email sponsors@stateofthemap.org or    team@stateofthemap.org