OpenStreetMap is unique. It is the only global and free source of cartographic data. My circular hiking route generator (walks.io) would not exist without it.
Although I believe it has the same problem Ubuntu has - it is geek driven and utterly unsexy for others. It has been acknowledged by OSM-ers themselves and a substantial amount of work is being done currently in direction of democratisation of OSM (although I don't know how successful it is going to be)
Mapbox is putting a lot of effort into it currently and I hope the situation will change within the next year.
I personally think the best thing you can do in popularisation of OSM is creating projects based on it.
Although I believe it has the same problem Ubuntu has - it is geek driven and utterly unsexy for others. It has been acknowledged by OSM-ers themselves and a substantial amount of work is being done currently in direction of democratisation of OSM (although I don't know how successful it is going to be)
Mapbox is putting a lot of effort into it currently and I hope the situation will change within the next year.
I personally think the best thing you can do in popularisation of OSM is creating projects based on it.