I would like to be able to use openstreetmap data for a specific region as a source and "draw" from that the map of infrastructure improvements – mostly roads.
I want it to be self-hosted (not spoiling any data on the real OSM servers), want to have quite big flexibility and detail level in the editing process and it would be nice to render it in a pretty way.
I'm not familiar with lots of GIS software. Actually it's not that important to have OSM data as the source, it could be a satellite image as well. The important things – flexible drawing bound to real coordinates and visualization of the map.
Where could I start?
Hope this question makes sense here 🙂
Best Answer
The OpenStreetMap .osm XML data type can be parsed and rendered in a number of software packages. For a somewhat turnkey custom map tile drawer, I suggest: http://tiledrawer.com --- a product that uses Amazon's EC2 and by Michal Migurski -- who provides other pointers in this thread :)
You might also check out "Build your own OpenStreetMap Server" http://weait.com/content/build-your-own-openstreetmap-server It uses an Ubuntu 10.04 / PostGIS / Mapnik stack.
Of course, please do look at the OpenStreetMap license before building. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap_License.