OpenStreetMap data is used in many of our projects, and many of us have experience with contributing as volunteer mappers too. But how does this work behind the scenes? How is the data stored, how do the APIs work, and who writes the core software that powers OpenStreetMap?

We'll look at the database used to store the data, the software that runs the website and powers the editing API, and how the data is distributed. We'll learn why OpenStreetMap doesn't use PostGIS, how you can receive all the OpenStreetMap edits every minute, and who the volunteers maintaining all of this actually are.

Andy is a volunteer maintainer of the openstreetmap-website codebase, and he was previously a member of the OSMF Operations Working Group. Andy is also the founder of Thunderforest, which provides detailed basemaps built on OpenStreetMap data for web and app developers.