Nowadays, there are more and more publicly available data sources from which insightful information on human activity can be derived. For geodata, OpenStreetMap is a prime example of such a database that provides detailed and reliable information.
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a platform founded in 2004 on which geodata is created and made freely available. As with Wikipedia, for example, any user can enter data, which is then checked by the community. Based on certain guidelines, this has resulted in an enormous amount of global data that has already been used in many scientific studies. A wide range of information can be derived from OSM, e.g. on the topics of transport infrastructure, leisure facilities or settlement structure at a location. The high quality of OSM data has been confirmed time and again, even in comparison to commercial data sets.
We at ISTARI.AI have already used OSM data in several studies. In a microgeographical study on the location selection of software companies in Germany, we used OSM to derive infrastructural variables (Kinne & Resch 2016). We also drew on this source in our study on sustainable blockchain companies in the USA. For example, we were able to evaluate the transportation connectivity of companies based on OSM data.
From now on, this detailed information will be available to all our customers. With the corresponding company lists from our ISTARI.AI Data Market, for example, the transport infrastructure or the range of leisure facilities at each individual company location can be explored down to the meter.