| Description |
 OpenStreetMap (OSM) is aimed at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive or unexpected ways.
### Raw Vector Data
Fundamentally OpenStreetMap offers maps as raw vector data released under an open license. The planet.osm downloads contain all of this data as a massive file for the entire planet, formatted in OSM's own XML format. It is a snapshot of the latest revision of the node, ways, relations and tags in the database. A new version is released weekly. You can also sync your copy of the planet on an daily, hourly or even minutely basis, bringing in map updates from the OpenStreetMap community
Documentation of OSM file formats can be found on their wiki at:
Links for mirrors and at . Here you will also find details of downloads for smaller regional extracts of the data e.g. for countries or cities.
### Embedding a map
Web developers might typically be seeking to use OpenStreetMap in a manner similar to google maps. Note that the "OpenStreetMap API" is not what you are looking for. Instead look-up "Leaflet", "OpenLayers", or [other javascript libraries for embedding a map](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Deploying_your_own_Slippy_Map)
is a website designed to help developers switch to using OpenStreetMap.
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