Bing Embraces OpenStreetMap, Hires Founder

Microsoft announced that it has hired CloudeMade and OpenStreetMap (OSM) founder Steve Coast as “Principal Architect for Bing Mobile,” as well as a kind of liason to the “open map community.” According to data in the Bing post announcing Coast’s hiring, there are “more than 320,000 people” who have participated or are participating in the OpenStreetMap project.

As part of this new effort, Microsoft is providing Bing Aerial Imagery to OpenStreetMap.

Microsoft says that Steve Coast “will help develop better mapping experiences for our customers and partners, and lead efforts to engage with OpenStreetMap and other open source and open data projects.”

I also assume at some point that Microsoft will incorporate data from OSM into Bing maps.

Mapquest has also embraced OpenStreetMap in big way, donating money and developing a parallel set of sites on top of OSM data in the US and Europe.