Three years ago I launched the OpenStreetMapData.com [Update: Discontinued June 2019, some data now available from osmdata.openstreetmap.de]. web site to host the OSM coastline data extracts I was generating. Since then I have been updating those extracts at least daily and offering them for download on that site. The coastline extracts are used in many OSM maps including the OSM standard style.

More and more boundaries of administrative areas find their way into OpenStreetMap. In some countries there is already quite a lot of data for several levels of government. Unfortunately it is hard to edit and hard to use because relations must be used to model areas in OSM and relations are notoriously difficult to handle. Relations and with it the areas they represent are often broken as a result. Its therefore hard to get a complete set of administrative areas for a particular country and level of government.