OpenStreetMap is a crowdsourcing project that creates and distributes free geographic data for the world. Our data is collected by volunteers around the globe largely from scratch and released with an open-content license. We allow free access not only to our map images, but all the underlying map data, which powers websites and apps used by billions of people worldwide.

OSM data can be freely used in both open and closed source software, and has attracted many commercial users. Still, the success of OSM wouldn't be possible without open source software and volunteer developers. The database, website and api running on our own servers, the editing tools used by contributors to improve the map, and many of the most popular libraries and end-user applications within the OSM software ecosystem are all open source software, and developed through a community-driven process.

As our Google Summer of Code participation spans this diverse set of software projects, most of which are maintained as independent efforts under the OSM umbrella, students will encounter a diverse range of programming languages, paradigms and use cases. We hope that we have interesting challenges to offer for any developer, no matter their background!