Today we announced that Mapillary has joined Facebook with our missions to map the world converging. This is a significant step forward in the Mapillary journey which many of you have been an instrumental part of. Our decision to join Facebook allows us to build upon our efforts to map the world. We’ll have the resources and scale to help support the collection of street-level imagery while applying computer vision that will greatly increase the quantity and quality of map data available for OpenStreetMap.

The OpenStreetMap community has been an integral part of Mapillary since we began, so I’d like to share our perspective on what this change means for OpenStreetMap and why we’re so excited for the next step in Mapillary’s journey.

A collaborative model

Since Mapillary began in 2013, we have sought to build a collaborative platform where images and computer vision are used to map the world. The OpenStreetMap community was quick to embrace Mapillary and see the potential street-level images have to build better maps. Here are just a few examples of the community has been using street-level imagery:

• Ballerup, Denmark: neogeografen has uploaded millions of images in Ballerup and surrounds which he uses to map cycle paths, street-lighting, and points of interest.
• Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and the Ramania Huria project made use of Trimble’s advanced 360º camera to collect imagery and map flood resilience characteristics.
• Xayaboury, Laos: The World Bank has been working with Laos’ Department of Transportation to build and monitor roads in Xayaboury province. Imagery helps ensure the roads are mapped in OpenStreetMap during and after the construction phase.
• Padova, Italy: The state of urban accessibility was mapped using 10,000 images and meetings with citizens and associations. This project proved the viability of data collection, analysis, and policy advocacy with OpenStreetMap and Mapillary as primary tools.

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