I may occasionally publish links to ‘how-to’ posts from elsewhere. I recently came across the information linked below.

OpenStreetMap is a free, editable world map (spatial database). Data from the project may be used in GIS software or uploaded to a map-capable GPS unit.

The R Project for Statistical Computing is the home of R (aka Gnu S) — a free, open source statistics package that has gained a substantial following in recent years. R is multiplatform and has a large, active developer base. There are many example scripts and a copious amount of tutorial information available online to help you learn R.

The blog post found here is entitled Visualizing GIS data with R and Open Street Map. The tutorial uses free software and data for mapping. Enjoy.