I’m new here, and I’d like to clarify something. Can I use OSM to make my own map, or is everyone just editing one public map–a WikiMapia, as it were? I wouldn’t mind contributing to the public map, but I am looking for alternatives to google maps for making my own shareable map of a particular area–a map that would not be editable by others, unless I give them permission.
There is only one OSM map and the OSM infrastructure exists to allow the creation and maintenance of that map, and proof of concept use of that map. Its voluntary subscription funding model won’t support the use of the infrastructure for personal mapping.
However, there are third party mapping sites, like uMap, that allow you to augment the OSM data, for personal mapping, and render slippy maps from that. Also the tooling to manage and render OSM is open source and you can use it to create your own servers.
Please note that access to the OSM map database is licensed on the condition that any mapping database that you create, that is a derivative of the OSM map (e.g. where the position of points on that map are calculated from ones on OSM), must, if published, be published under a licence that allows your additions to be included in the main OSM map, if people feel that they are useful.