iD is a
free software
Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...
online editor for
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap (abbreviated OSM) is a free, Open Database License, open geographic database, map database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveying, surveys, trace from Ae ...
(OSM)
geodata created in
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior.
Web browsers have ...
and released in 2013. It is the most popular and the default editor on the main OSM page.
iD's features include choosing custom aerial imagery and native support for
Mapillary
Mapillary is a service for open-source sharing of crowdsourced geotagged photos, developed by remote company Mapillary AB, based in Malmö, Sweden. Mapillary was launched in 2013 and acquired by Meta Platforms, Inc. in 2020. It offers street lev ...
photos.
History
Prior to iD, the primary web editor for OpenStreetMap data was the Flash-based
Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States,Harkin, Michael E., 2001, Potlatch in Anthropology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Scienc ...
2 editor. The iD editor project was founded by the author of Potlatch 1 and 2, Richard Fairhurst, online on July 13, 2012 and at the State of the Map conference on October 14, 2012.
In September 2012, the
Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts.
The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...
announced the winners of the Knight News Challenge: Data competition. The team from Development Seed/Mapbox was selected as a winner for their proposal to develop new contribution tools for OpenStreetMap and was awarded a grant of $575,000.
This editor was meant to be a
Potlatch 2 architecture reimplementation in JavaScript with redesigned user interface. The only big internal change was a departure from
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...
tagging preset architecture to a
JSON
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation, pronounced or ) is an open standard file format and electronic data interchange, data interchange format that uses Human-readable medium and data, human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consi ...
-based one.
In 2013, iD became the default editor on OSM.org, making it the most used OSM editor by changeset count.
Forks
iD has spawned several forks for specialized use cases. In 2018, Facebook created RapiD, with provided access to machine learning–generated roads and buildings under the name MapWithAI, which users could verify before uploading to OSM.
In 2023, RapiD was renamed Rapid and MapWithAI renamed Rapid Assist.
References
External links
*
iD version archive
{{OpenStreetMap
Free GIS software
OpenStreetMap