"Maps are expensive and proprietary," said Coast, sipping on his coffee and explaining the core tenets of the project, called OpenStreetMap. "They should be free."
Coast had the idea for OpenStreetMap in 2004, when he was a student living in London. Coast had a GPS and a laptop, you see, and he figured that with a little programming magic he could build a map of his local haunts that contained more useful information than any service he could find online.
What's more, he said, "I figured that if I did that, and he did that, and you did that, then, together, we could put together a jigsaw map of the world."
I've been trying but OpenMaps and OffMaps on my phone. I prefer OffMaps, but they're both great, and they both rival Google & Apple's "Maps" in terms of user experience.
OffMaps lets you download maps onto your phone for local storage, which is especially useful when you are roaming or travelling.
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