“OpenStreetMap managed to map the world and give the data away for free for almost no money at all.”
In 2004 governments, universities and mapping companies had lists of reasons volunteers couldn’t build a map and no actual solution. Coast’s project went the other way with tags, nodes and ways instead of ontologies and web feature services. When he zoomed into Cuba, where computers were effectively illegal, he found roads, parks and hospitals already mapped. The priesthood said it couldn’t be done while volunteers did it.