Mapbox: The Open Web Mapping Platform
"Mapbox is battling Apple and Google for the future of location-based data with open source" (Patel, 2013)
Technology at a Glance
- "Since 2010, MapBox has rapidly expanded the niche of custom maps, as a response to the limited choice offered by map providers such as Google Maps." (Wikipedia)
-
Mapbox is "An attempt at an all-in-one web map creation, hosting, and publishing platform
built on open-source technology." (Sack, 2012)
It provides server space to host your tiled maps and development tools for adding custom data and custom cartographic design elements. - Mapbox enhances the basic cartography of Open Street Map data, has multiple JavaScript APIs that complement Leaflet, and provides Geocoding and other services in a software as a subscription service model.
- Mapbox also publishes a large amount of code for free use by the open-source mapping community including the csv2geojson utility to convert csv files to geojson files.